an sjs christmas story

as the holidays approach, i often think of how, in my youth, my mother always made them so "special." yeah, forget norman rockwell, i'm talking about a turkey falling on the floor and an extra special movie experience.

the year was 1983, which puts me at about the age of 5. i don't remember going to the movies with my parents very often, but i do remember this fateful movie-going day.

my mom took me to what she thought was going to be the Disney movie Mickey's Christmas Carol. My mom has an unmatched love of the story (the original, not Disney's per se) and has DVDs of  most every version from the original until now. That day, we went to the theater near Great Clips and Children's Palace. She got the two tickets and apparently didn't actually know the title of the movie -- and was never questioned about it.

We got popcorn, sat down, watched the previews and the movie started. I didn't actually know what was happening on the screen and I don't remember necessarily being bummed about it, but Mickey and his friends never showed up.

What did show up is now a Christmas classic: The fantasic tale of A Christmas Story.

Remember the part when Ralphie's mom covers his eyes at the leg lamp? Yep, pretty sure she covered my eyes while Ralphie's mother covered his. How post-modern.

Of course, at 5, I had no idea of what was going on; the only other movies I remembered going to at around that age were E.T. and The Fox and the Hound. But the experience made her laugh and cringe at the same time and the legend about the time her Christmas-movie-bonding experience went slightly awry --  in a way only SJS could create -- has lived on.