Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Not a finga!

I would love to have A Christmas Story that is as entertaining as the movie of the same name. (Have you seen it? It's terrific.)

Sure, my parents once fooled me by putting my "most wanted" gift behind the curtains and then, after we opened presents and I was a tad disappointed, asked me to open the curtains.

It was a Beatles album.

I guess it must be a thing that parents do.

But my dad never swore at the furnace, nor did he receive a plastic leg lamp, complete with fishnet hose, as a "major award."

He did, however, 'appropriate' a sign from a Santa's village that read "Santa's Out to Lunch" because he thought it was so funny. It was forever after displayed as part of the Christmas regalia.

"Forever" means until it did not appear anymore. To be honest, I have not laid eyes on it for years. But I still recall it fondly, even though it was an ill gotten gain.

As far as I remember, we never had an Oldsmobile. And we always had - and still do have - roast beast with Yorkshire pudding and roasted potatoes for Christmas dinner. But we did have a lot of meatloaf throughout the year.

Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf. I hate meatloaf.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The movie, of course, is based on the book of the same name by Jean Shepherd. I recommend everything he ever wrote, all of which will put you in a great mood for the holidays.

He was on one of the Boston stations (WNAC?) on Saturday afternoons for a while in the 50s. I don't know if it was syndicated, or a recording of one of his NYC all-night shows, or ???

He was supposed to be a DJ, but he talked so much, he never had time for any music. The talk was free-form and often hilarious. Think of a not-quite-so-manic Robin Williams.

Gillian Swart said...

Thanks, Dick. I have never read the book, nor any other of Mr. Shepherd's writings. That kind of surprises me, actually.