Emergency workers, shoppers spend Thanksgiving away from home

WAUKESHA -- Most people took Thursday to relax, eat, give thanks, and of course watch football.  But while people did that, others like the firefighters in Waukesha were on the job, making sure you stay safe.



\"Just another day, yeah, just feels like another day,\" Waukesha Battalion Chief Steve Ore said.



Ore's crew at the St. Paul Avenue station was one of  hundreds across southeastern Wisconsin on the job Thursday.



\"I've been doing it a long time, so I guess I'm just used to it and the families just get used to that you're gone on some holidays,\" Ore said.



Ore's crew cooked an 18-pound turkey and all the classics.  But they're still  mindful of what they're at work for.



\"We're just more relaxed as far as day to day operations,\" Ore said.  \"But once the alarm goes off, we just flip right into action as always.\"



Of course, some people choose to spend the day away from home on Thanksgiving.



\"You've been out here all week, you're tired, you're cold, you just want to be done now,\" shopper Michael Franke said.



CBS-58 first met Franke last weekend.  He's been camping outside the Best Buy in Delafield since last Thursday.  The former corrections officer says spending holidays elsewhere is nothing new.



\"We've always done our Thanksgiving the day after when most of us can get the day off, so our Thanksgiving's tomorrow,\" Franke said.  \"I've seen my family, they've come out  and visited, it hasn't been too bad.\"



Franke says last year there were several hundred people with him by this point.   This year, only a few die-hard deal-finders were waiting early in the afternoon.



\"it's definitely worth it,\" fellow shopper Aaron Gehrt said.  \"You know, it's $600 you don't have to spend.  You can  spend it on Christmas presents for the rest of my family.\"



Whether shopping or working, what matters most is finding a way to be with the ones they care about.



\"This is our second family,\" Ore said.  \"Where we make a meal, it just feels like we're still having Thanksgiving.\"

Share this article: