A Christmas Story

Humorist Jean
Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old
Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for
Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa
Claus himself, at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent response: "You'll
shoot your eye out." All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here,
including the family's temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school
bully; the boys' experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little
Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's father winning a lamp shaped like a woman's
leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's fantasy scenarios and more.