CHRISTMAS STORY reruns

Each year on TV we watch bits and pieces of THE CHRISTMAS STORY that is a segment of Jean Shepards’s life as an adolescent.

Every year one station or another runs the movie over and over. This year it on one of the Turner channels. We watch part of it in HD (High Definition). I think some movies should be shown in their original format. Watching an old movie in HD is like watching the Fatty Arbuckle and the Keystone Cops in HD, or STEAMBOAT WILLIE… such clear clarity takes something out of the movie; it takes the is’s out of "It Is What It is."

THE CHRISTMAS STORY movie is an excellent study of human traits and their interaction of other humans. Last year I remember focusing in on Ralphie’s mother and of wit which she kept mostly to herself, but the beheading of the Christmas goose caught her by surprise and it gave her away. I think she also had a bit of rebel in her, in an introverted way.

This year I noticed a kid in the Santa Claus line at the department store, with a big dumb smile on his face, turn around to Ralphie and his little brother and say, “I like Santa.”

That was it. He liked Santa. He turned back around.

Then the WIZARD OF OZ foursome walked by with the witch cackling. And the smiling boy, again turned around and contributed, “I like WIZARD OF OZ”. And that was it.

A few minutes later the smiling boy looked horrified as the department store Stanta was giving him a hateful glare.

I haven’t noticed him before. Who wil l see next year I haven’t noticed before?