Posted on 12/26/2010 3:08:06 PM PST by marktwain
CHICAGO — In the opening minutes of the popular holiday film, "A Christmas Story," little Ralphie Parker is mesmerized by a BB gun in a store window. Not just any BB gun, but "the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts," the Red Ryder 200-shot range model air rifle.
That same hypnotic stare made Sarah and Tim Baldwin snicker on a Wednesday afternoon while Christmas shopping at Bass Pro Shops’ Bolingbrook, Ill., store. Their son, Mitchell, 9, was holding the latest Red Ryder, turning it over in his hands, stroking it, trying to free it from its plastic case.
"You like that gun?" his mom asked, grinning. Wide-eyed Mitchell gave her a slow, somber nod.
"Well," she said, "maybe Santa will bring it to you if you’re good."
Mitchell’s silent expression conveyed he was planning to be very good. His mother turned and beamed.
"We already bought one for him," she whispered.
The Daisy Red Ryder air rifle is 70 years old this year. Considered the most popular BB gun in history, more than 9 million of them have been sold since the co-creator of a western comic strip hero signed a licensing agreement with a company that had been known for making windmills.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
Thats alot of eyes shot out.
Hah! IB4that!
Damn crowded connection.
My Brother had one when we were kids, I had to settle for a single shot Daisy. It served me well however. The air rifle I own now is made by Winchester and looks like a .22 but is a .177 pellet rifle, with scope and has taken down a lot of black birds, rats on wings actually.
I got one for my son when he was smaller. I now have a small hole in a double paned window to remind me - lol. Also, don’t try and “off” skunks with a BB gun at close range.
Now, the gelding of the American Male continues unabated...
In the article they mention a wooden stock. I’m sure the Red Ryder I got in 1954 or ‘55 had a plastic stock.
Some channels run this movie all day long.
It’s an okay movie but really, do we have to have it run all day long.
Must be a bunch of cheap unimaginative bastards.
What they should do is run a steady variety of Christmas movies all day long and there are a lot to choose from.
Such as
WHITE CHRISTMAS
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
THE MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS
HOME ALONE
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT
THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER
A CHRISTMAS STORY
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
MR. MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
SCROOGE ALISTAIR SIM
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER
BEN=HUR
Don't use a shotgun either....
We have a movie night at home each Christmas season. We have popcorn, cokes, theater candy and watch The Christmas Story. It is one of our most cherished traditions. We love it.
I had a Daisy when I was a kid and now have moved up to a Gamo Varmint gitter with telescope, laser pointer and flashlight. Boy have times changed. LOL!!
Ruger 22 tens good traditional gifts also
Umarex Steel Storm Full Auto CO2 BB Gun
Our 7y/o got her Red Ryder this year, her first rifle. All of our girls got new rifles this year.
I had a Daisy bought for me in the late sixties when I was six, but it wasn’t a Red Ryder. It was a pump and it had this spring follower mag you screwed out of the front of the barrel and loaded the BB’s one at a time. I think it’d hold like 50.
My older son has a Daisy, a sort of semi=auto looking BB gun and a pistol.
From various relatives he received about 4,000 BBs this Christmas.
Now THAT’s a lot of eyes put out ;-)
Younger son is more cautious but will start 4-H shooting sports this spring.
The boys are teaching me to shoot left-eyed, like I always wanted.
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