Hank Williams Jr. jump-starts every Monday Night Football game, and he might have unintentionally provided a sound theme for Black Friday shopping in southern West Virginia.

“It’s a family tradition,” mused Tara Dowdy, a nurse at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Fairlea as she pushed grandmother Theda Campbell in a wheelchair early Friday, joining hundreds of Christmas shoppers at Crossroads Mall.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years,” the grandmother pointed out.

The two Greenbrier County residents got an early start on the day, too, getting up well before sunrise, about an hour after Dowdy finished her hospital shift.

“I found some bargains,” she said.

Campbell finds the simpler aspects of the season more enjoyable than gift-buying.

“I like the trees and the lights, and snow, if it stays off the roads, and I love the music,” she said.

Bargain hunters, many of them carrying well read newspaper inserts for guidance, scoured the stores for the best buys. And every store offered them.

“It was worth coming for,” said Mary Rice of Oak Hill, who arrived shortly after 6 a.m. with her granddaughters.

“If you can get a bargain in this day and time, you better take it. J.C. Penney had a lot of good bargains. I got my great-grandchildren some clothes. I got the daughters some clothes. They had some good things.”

The Rev. Jimmy Fitzpatrick of Jumping Branch and wife Penny didn’t reach the mall until a couple of hours after the doors swung open.

“We didn’t have anything we wanted to get that was an early-bird special, so we just came to more or less be part of the crowd,” he said.

“Besides, I like to watch the people. I get an enjoyment out of doing that.”

Leshia Wagner arrived from Atlanta, although she came primarily for the family Thanksgiving dinner in the Beckley area.

“I found some bargains in Beckley,” she said.

Her uncle, Carlton Cunningham of Beckley, who served with the Army’s combat engineers in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1969-70, was merely serving as chauffeur for the family — a laid-back task he seemed to relish.

“I’m the designated driver,” he laughed. “I get my exercise walking up and down the mall.”

Rodney Sammons of Pineville occupied a wooden bench outside one store while his wife Tina busied herself shopping.

Sammons didn’t think the drive was worth the trip, “but I am having a good time.”

A changed attitude among early-rising shoppers was clearly evident to Steve Hash of North Wilkesboro, N.C., who grew up in Kopperston, Wyoming County, and arrived early for the traditional Thanksgiving repast with family members.

“This year, it’s a lot quieter,” he said of Black Friday buying. “Not as wild as it was last year.

“I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not as bad. I’m glad I don’t see people grabbing stuff and saying, ‘It’s mine, I got it first.’ My wife got some bargains. She’s still looking. She’ll be looking until Dec. 24, and then she’ll quit.”

Another Pineville resident, Gene Harris, let his wife Glenna and their daughter do the buying while he waited patiently on a bench.

“I’m not a shopper,” he said. “I don’t care for it. She’s done spent a pile. She’s been in two or three stores already.”

Crystal Dugger of Knoxville, Tenn., and eight locals donned cloth antlers for a reindeer effect as their way of having a little Christmas fun, but there was a serious message printed on their colorful shirts.

“Lordy, lordy, get your mammogram at 40. It’s not nifty to wait until 50.”

That was Dugger’s way of protesting the newest suggestion by the U.S Preventative Services Task Force to delay cancer screenings until age 50.

“We want all women to know the American Cancer Society doesn’t agree with that,” said Dugger, a registered nurse who directs the breast cancer center for Mercy Health Partners in Knoxville.

“We want to make sure women get their mammograms because 25 percent of my partners would not have survived if they didn’t.”

Aside from the serious content of their seasonal shirts, the nine “reindeer” were simply having fun at the mall.

“Every year, we make the shirts and come out here to spend our time together as a family,” she said.

“It’s about shopping, but it’s more about just being together with our family.”

Little Maddy Branham woke up her entire household at 4 a.m.

But what do you expect when a child is about to enter the magical world of Black Friday for the first time?

So it was off to the mall with sister Brooke and their mother, along with grandmother Jean Dunkle.

“I’m having a ball,” said Dunkle, who had both daughters and granddaughters to keep her company.

Brooke did a little personal shopping, pulling back part of her hair to expose a set of flashy new earrings.

“I’ve done it every year with these two,” Dunkle said of her daughters, then pointed to the younger editions to the clan and remarked, “Now, I’m breaking these little ones in.”

Daniels resident Susan Ward got an early start to Black Friday shopping with neighbor Amy Lyon.

Even before arriving at Crossroads Mall, the two hit Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Sam’s Club.

“This is my first time,” Lyon said. “It hasn’t been too bad.”

Along with other bargain hunters, Ward said she found some solid buys on MP3 players and the like.

“It’s always fun,” the Black Friday veteran observed. “It’s what we do every year. It’s a tradition.”