Posted on 12/25/2009 3:22:56 PM PST by NYer
Set in the 1940s, "A Christmas Story" depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.
This was boyhood before "bang-bang you're dead" was banned. Family life prior to "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads," and Christmas without the ACLU.
If children could choose their families, most would opt for the kind depicted in this film, where mother is a homemaker, father is a regular working stiff, and between them they have zero repertoire of psychobabble to rub together.
Although clearly adored, Ralphie is not encouraged to express his feelings. Instead, he is urged to show restraint and is disciplined when naughty. And horrors: The little boy even has his mouth washed out with soap and water for uttering the "F" expletive. ("My personal preference was for Lux," reveals Ralphie. "But I found Palmolive had a nice piquant after-dinner flavor – heady but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.") When he refuses his food, Ralphie is also guilt-tripped about starving Biafrans.
Such parenting would fail every progressive commandment. By today's standards, the delightful, unprecocious protagonist of "A Christmas Story" would be doomed to an emotional abyss – and certainly to heavy doses of Ritalin for day-dreaming in class and for being all boy in general.
Despite his therapeutically incorrect upbringing, Ralphie is a happy little boy. For "progressives" – for whom it has long been axiomatic that a traditional family like the Parker family is the source of oppression for women and children – this is inexplicable.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Amen.
Lucky is the little boy who has such a family. Luckier still is the lad who has both such a family and … a BB gun.
Lucky, as well, are those of us who grew up in that America and retain these memories of schoolyards where the guys duked it out and children mastered the art of friendship through life experiences without views imposed by government.
Thank you TBS for 24 hours of A Christmas Story!
Postscript: Bob Clark, director of this magical movie, and his son, were killed by an illegal alien. This says as much about modern-day America as does the dissolution of the prototypical family unit depicted so magnificently in "A Christmas Story."
Classic...they don't make them like that anymore.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Speaking of scouts being out, how is the Boy Scouts of America doing lately?
Using that criteria, I guess my 7yr old is about as lucky as a boy can get. I work, Mom stays home and home-schools said 7yr old, and 7yr old just got a Rossi 22LR/410GA combo for Christmas. He has been shooting my old 22 bolt for a couple of years now, but I thought it time he had his own, and it was only 90 bucks out the door.
Died with his son, Ariel Clark, in a head-on crash with a vehicle that steered into the wrong lane (April 4, 2007); the driver of the other car was later charged with driving without a driver’s license and while intoxicated.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163706/bio
Wasn't his little brother, Randy?
I did and I thank God on a daily basis for that. Probably the most important time in my life.
Gave my boy an AR-15 .223 instead of a Red Rider
NOTAFINGA!!!!
“must be eye-talian”
he had YELLOW EYES!
Freegards
My favorite scene was the visit to the department store Santa.
I especially liked the Leg of Lamp.
The owner of the house has restored it and turned it into a museum, leg lamp and all.
Yes we are. But I'm almost hopelessly "out of synch" with modern America. I think it's more than just growing old. The fundamental glue that held all Americans together in a unified nation was dissolved starting in the 1960s. Since then I feel I've been a spectator at a hateful Marxist Deconstruction Derby of the wonderful country I grew up in.
LOL...not the Scouts he’s thinking of!
Actually, it's fairly irrelevant. The rest of the essay was spot on, though. I think the author zeroed in on why this movie is so well-loved: Nostalgia, not just for the intact family it remembers, but also for an era that had not yet been screwed up by liberals.
“Lucky,as well, for those of us who grew up in that America”
I almost feel cursed having the memories of that America while living the nightmare of THIS America.
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