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.
Be careful, you may be going down the same road that liberals use to denigrate homeschoolers.
You are a great dad.
Merry Christmas!
If Ralphie today told his teacher he wanted a rifle for Christmas he would have been institutionalized.
My grandson is four. I bought him a Daisey Buck BB gun (red ryder with a six inch shorter barrel) for Christmas. I can't wait to get him his own 22/410.
“I especially liked the Leg of Lamp.”
The soft glow of electric sex...
It’s a MAJOR AWARD.
Freegards, merry Christmas
I enjoy this movie so much. I e-mailed this article to a number of family & friends.
Hated it. We’ll be watching Part 3 of the documentary on Navy SEALS training when we get the grilz and byos to bed.
Anything involving school gives me nightmares, and often vomiting, which is dreadfully unpleasant, especially when I have a baby.
I bought my husband a piece of the original house when they replaced the siding. I framed it with a b/w picture of the family, a color picture of the house and the Certificate of Authenticity. Turned out really cool.
“Fra-jeel—ay!”
(Fragile,for the in Rio Linda)
Must be Italian.
The deretor of the movie was killed by a Illegal Alein drunk driver,
It is very frustrating. We grew up in an America filled with pride, surrounded by WWII heroes, and imbued with solid values. It is as if all that we cherished and were taught in school, had been turned against us through our children and grandchildren. We must continue to carry the torch and have faith that God will turn this nation around.
Farkus is now a retired Alderman and respected democrat elder statesman and co-author of Chicago style politics...
Thanks. My goal is that he always thinks so.
SCOTT FARKUS might be the best depiction of a bully ever put into a movie.
Freegards
I've often thought this also. It seems the 1960s spurred a general mistrust or denigration of institutions. All in all, the more I look back on it, the more I hate the events of that decade.
Speak of the devil. I don’t think redheads have recovered yet.
Freegards, merry Christmas
It's just about time to start dropping hints about your wish list for next Christmas:
45" Full Size Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story - Sale Price: Only $99.99
In other news the BSA has purchased 10,000 acres in the New River Gorge area of West Virginia as the new permanent site for our National Jamborees (beginning in 2013). Since the BSA has cooperative agreements with the adjoining state and federal park/forest areas we effectively have 110,000 acres at our disposal.
I just saw the news about the new site in the “Scouting” magazine. Looks like it won’t be functional for my two oldest boys, unless they become BSA employees, but there are four more who will have reason to shout.
” it’s a blue ball “! That whole movie rocks!
Glad to hear about that.
As a whole is it growing? How is it per capita compared with the entire eligible male youth population?
WOW! Under A hundred BUCKS!
Made in China now
Not at all. It is part of the narrative of America.
“Made in China now”
I don’t doubt it. (sigh)
This is the world I grew up in, being born in 1948. Everything in this movie reminds me of my childhood.
My father was always tinkering with the furnace and cussed like anything. We had hillbilly neighbors with dogs (AND goats and donkeys). The downtown Christmas was just like my childhood in Indianapolis (elaborate department store Santa Land, Salvation Army band on the street, trees for sale and my dad dickering over the price, those big Christmas lights on the tree with gobs of tinsel icicles).
The school was very similar to mine in both architecture, desks, stern teacher, etc.
Everything in this movie is correct in the detail, down to the clothing, the room decor, the cars....everything.
My grandchildren love it, partly because they know it’s how grandma grew up.
If they continue in Venturing they will be able to use it, as well as if they become leaders. Most leaders are volunteers and not on the BSA payroll, except on the council level and above.
Actually, his first name was “Scut”, not “Scott”.
Cool, mine was a AK47 for the boy, and one for Dad, too!
10 extra magazines just for fun.
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