[wtc911]

I was fortunate to be within the sound of Shep's nightly radio show when I was a kid (WOR 710 in NYC). I heard the radio versions that led to the book that led to the movie.

Sitting in the theater and hearing Shep narrate was like stepping into the past. Warched it with ny grandson this week. It was his first time...still magic.

Excelsior.....you fatheads!

[mrs tiggywinkle]

We watch this movie on Thanksgiving while enjoying pie and coffee. It’s a wonderful tradition for our family. :o)

[redhead]

Bumping to the top

[VOA]

bump

[DemforBush]

Darren McGavin, who was always a favorite of mine, is PERFECT as the dad in A Christmas Story. My old man used to fight the furnace and haggle with the Christmas tree salesman just like that!

BTW, did anyone see the follow-up to A Christmas Story, “It Runs in the Family”? It wasn’t exactly a sequel, but it was about the same family and based on another of Jean Shephard’s stories.

In any case, it was a real stinker. None of the original actors, IIRC, were involved. Darren McGavin’s role was played by Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen played the mom, and Ralphie and his little brother were played by a couple of the Culkin brothers. Pee-YEW!

[Jimmy Valentine]

Any one who has not read any of Jean Shepherd's books, e.g. "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories & Other Disasters" or "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" has missed some of the very best stories of growing up, colored by the era of the late Depression.

I have read and re-read these stories many times and always find them good for a laugh.

[steelyourfaith]

I'm told that this Major Award is on permanent display at Cleveland’s Renaissance Hotel:

[SamAdams76]

Well here we are again in another Christmas season and once more we must be subjected to more ballyhoo about this Christmas movie. It's kind of like that "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" song. It's funny the first couple times you hear it but after hearing it for 73,212 more times, it gets extremely annoying. Well that is the same for this Christmas movie that never, ever, seems to go away.

This movie does bring back memories for me. Memories from the mid 1980s when this movie was still somewhat new and fresh. But now it's old and tired and it's time for it to be put on the shelf like the old Donny & Marie show.

There is also something about this movie that is a little off. Like that scene in the department store where they are lined up to see Santa Claus and the very weird girl waiting behind the main character has that creepy smile. Then when you get to the top of the slide (to see Santa), some equally weird people dressed as elves flash the same kind of creepy smiles as they force the main character down the slide.

Anyway, the Chevy Chase movie "Christmas Vacation" is more up my alley. That still hasn't gotten old. Especially the scene where Chevy is putting up the Christmas lights to the horror of his yuppie neighbors. Being a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, I am absolutely surrounded by Christmas-hating yuppies like the ones portrayed in that movie and I love to get my house all decked out just to annoy the hell out of them.