A CHRISTMAS STORY has been a part of my life since it came out on 18 November 1983, and became a yearly must-watch along with A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORK (featuring BLOOM COUNTY's Opus the Penguin, by Berkeley Breathed), A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS & HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS. The movie is based on a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories - In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash - that Mr. Shepherd wrote for Playboy magazine in the 1960s. Mr. Shepherd narrates the entire movie as a grown-up Ralphie Parker, a nine-year-old child in 1940s Hammond, Indiana. In the 1950s, I lived in a Midwest neighborhood like Ralphie's; in a house like his (a Craftsman bungalow); listened to the not-so-distant wails of trains; walked a mile one way, four times a day in deep snow in a snowsuit like Randy's to an elementary school like his (Ulysses S Grant Elementary); and had parents similar to his in many ways. And we (said parents & I) had read Mr. Shepherd's stories, listened to him on WFMT, Chicago radio, and watched his television show, - JEAN SHEPHERD'S AMERICA - in the 1970s on WTTW, Chicago public television. You can read Mr. Shepherd's biography HERE So, in many ways, this movie had a feeling of 'going home' to me. And it stuck in my head, as nostalgia does. This year for my birthday, Bob A., my librarian boss from 1975-2005 - and still a very dear friend - gave me this A CHRISTMAS STORY Advent Calendar. NOTE: I have changed the sequence of the dates to follow the sequence of the movie as best as I could. 1 DECEMBER RALPHIE PARKER, played by Peter Billingsey . . . Click the pic above to see the movie's introduction Click the pic above to read Peter's biography 4 DECEMBER MOM PARKER, played by Melinda Dillon . . . Click the pic above to read Melinda's biography 17 DECEMBER THE OLD MAN, played by Darren McGavin . . . Click the pic above to see "IT'S A CLINKERRRR!" NOTE: The cardinals were ornnaments gifted to me by Anita Charochak Click the pic above to read Darren's biography

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