Back in December, I saw that the classic film A Christmas Story was playing in one of our many smoke-filled local casino movie theatres, and Vickie was quite up for it. I did not get a chance to see it in 1983, opting for multiple viewings of Return of the Jedi that year.
There is something about catching a movie one has seen a few thousand times on TV in the actual theatre, or seeing a classic you saw in the theatre years before (the original trilogy and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan come to mind. And as it was just a week before our greatly anticipated Christmas break, the timing could not have been better.
There was a short documentary before the film started, with a bit on creator Jean Shepherd and his radio and writing career. And of course, in the opening credits, there was a "based on" notation about a book called In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Of course, I knew I wanted to read the book. I ALWAYS want to read the book!
BRYAN, you son of a sea jackal, you TRICKED us into reading another one of your book reviews!
Yes I did, and nobody forced you, so now that you are here...
The book, published in 1966, tells a LOT of tales, some short, many long and extended. One thing I noticed was that despite the American movie classic taking place in 1943, Jean Shepherd as his semi-autobiographical character Ralphie, grew up in the Great Depression, and would have been 22 in the movie's setting.
The setting itself is in fictional Hohman, Indiana, a substitute for Hammond, even though Shepherd openly writes that Hohman is in real-life Lake County, Hohman is a true industrial town where the air is congested with all sorts of chemical fumes and the local water from regional lakes to the southern tip of Lake Michigan are all quite unworthy of human touch even though the locals have nothing else so they partake in boating and fishing...both activities are excuses to get drunk on beer.
As the book begins, adult Ralph Parker is returning to Hohman from New York after what is assumed to be more than a decade away on a writing assignment for work about "returning home"...a topic I visit many times myself. Ralph's first stop is Flick's Tavern, where his childhood friend Flick is owner, having taken over from his dad. The reader gets no sense of Flick ever being a gullible kid who gets his tongue stuck to a frozen pole. Rather, I got the idea that Flick is from Hohman and will die in Hohman when his time comes.
I think we all know people like that, though. Just about every town in America (and around the world, too) have their characters who never leave the 20 mile radius of home for more than a week unless forced to. I know of a lot of my friends and classmates in Berks County who really never got out...and when you are in a place where all of the creature comforts and close people are near to you, why would one leave?
It is apparent that Ralph has been out east for some time and has lost the slow easy way of the Midwest chatter, and somewhat rudely interrupts Flick on one occasion so he can say what he wants to say.
A few tales from the classic movie are in the book, such as the Red Ryder BB gun pursuit, the Little Orphan Annie decoder ring/Ovaltine story, the infamous leg lamp, the fight with the yellow-eyed neighborhood bully, and a brief bit on the wax teeth that the teacher takes away from the class. Apart from that, there are other stories contained within that tell not only of Ralphie but of life in the Depression. Much of it is funny, but other parts are fairly sad...yet all well written. I learned a bit of narrative style from Shepherd these past few weeks (I generally read at night and often fall asleep mid chapter so it takes me a while).
One sad part was a brief mention of Schwartz's plane going down over Italy during what is assumed to be World War 2 and Schwartz not being found. Another was a bit on the local assessor, who came into homes and took inventory of a home's furnishings and laid an overall tax value to be collected. Ralphie's family was spared, but another family, a close neighbor, had defaulted on his taxes and his complete furnishings from furniture to tools were auctioned off by the sheriff. The family moved away and never returned. I guess the eerie part of this is that during the Depression, the various local and state governments didin't care about the people. I also took from this part that it was during the Hoover era where nobody knew what was what just yet...just conjecture.
I am glad that I requested this book as a Christmas present. As I said, it was a great lesson for me in narrative style and telling honest growing up stories with a twinkle of the eye. Shepherd seems to me a person who felt lucky to get out of the industrial life he would have been prisoner to if he had stayed in Indiana. As for me...I have other tales to tell, so don't be impatient.
You are hereby released!
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