Macy’s Windows Back Where They Belong—
At Home in Hammond
By Mary Dean Cason
At my house, nothing ushers in the Holidays like being beaten up by bullies and shooting your eye out with a BB gun. No siree! Oh, there was a time when we “ooed” and “aahed” at the windows on State Street, then curled up with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed until the kids fell asleep in our laps. But for the past two decades, it just isn’t the season until Ralphie dares Flick to stick his tongue to a frozen flagpole and his father caresses a plastic thigh masquerading as a lamp base. Now that’s Christmas!
Like most Chicagoans, my grudge against Macy’s, for affixing its pretty red star on Marshall Field’s State Street Store, reaches epic proportions at Christmas. With all due respect to the miracles that have allegedly occurred on 34th Street, this is the Midwest where we give the lady what she wants and the kids a Frango mint if they’re lucky. We like our Santas thin and mean, our children scrappy, and our snow—not in pretty white flakes dancing from the sky—but charging in with an artic blast, capable of flattening you to the pavement. Now that’s winter!
Imagine then, my comeuppance when I discovered that the New York retail giant had honored my all-time favorite holiday film by creating amazing display windows for A Christmas Story’s 20th anniversary. The Big Apple has a heart at its core after all. Featured at their 2003 Herald Square Store, the windows drew millions and have become as iconic as the film they depict. And though the twenty-year milestone has come and gone, the giant display windows haven’t. You can see them all at the Indiana Welcome Center’s Wellman Hall in Hammond. The exhibit, entitled A Christmas Story Comes Home, will be on display from November 1, 2010 until January 9, 2011. Depicting memorable scenes from the movie including Flick’s Tongue and the Triple Dog Dare, Santa’s Mountain at Higbee’s, and the Parker Living Room, the windows are straight off the Warner Brothers’ back lot. Such astonishing attention to detail will make you swear you can hear Ralphie ripping off the f-bomb and note the taste of Lifebuoy on your tongue—who else makes red soap?
And why Hammond?
As it turns out, A Christmas Story is based on Jean Shepherd’s 1966 book, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. This compilation of short stories draws material from Shepherd’s colorful upbringing in Hammond, Indiana. A number of the stories appeared in Playboy Magazine and originated from Shepherd’s unscripted radio broadcasts from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In addition, Shepherd wrote the screenplay, narrated the film, and also had a cameo in the Higbee’s Department Store scene. The movie was set in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana. Hohman is one of Hammond’s busiest downtown streets.
A Christmas Story isn’t just a movie for post WWII American families, nor are Macy’s windows. They pull the curtain back on how children view the world…through a blurred prism that allows us to distort the real and the fantastic until, regretfully, we grow up. I have an older brother who could have been a body-double for Ralphie and when he reads this he’ll probably book a flight. In our case, it was me who channeled the BB gun, putting his eye out (temporarily) with a hairbrush I hurled down the back hall—a perfectly rational response to his insistence that there was no Santa Claus. He wore the resulting pair of glasses like a hair shirt and sent me into the confessional twice for my act. Later, he would stuff small wads of wet paper into his air rifle and shoot me in the rear to wake me in the mornings. To this day he insists there’s no finer use for a firearm. And then there is my daughter. Her father and I, “peacenik” children of the sixties, were convinced toy guns led to anti-social behavior until we saw A Christmas Story. We should have seen the futility of our position even sooner when our son tore the leg off a Barbie doll, bent it at the knee and fired invisible rounds over his cereal bowl. But we threw up our hands completely when our five-year old little angel stood on the top step one December evening, her arms crossed over her Ninja Turtle pajamas. “There are no weapons in this house,” she yelled down at us. “And that’s why I hate this family!”
“Guns,” I wrote on the Christmas list.
“And bullets,” my husband said. “Plenty of bullets.
Whether you saw my favorite movie in theaters or have joined the throngs of Americans who make it a Christmas DVD tradition, A Christmas Story Comes Home will lift your spirits like taking a holiday stroll down State Street, or 34th Street—where ever your allegiance takes you. Visit www.aChristmasStoryComesHome.com for details. Psst! All Red Riders must be checked at the door.
Special Events
• Festival Weekend, December 4th and 5th. Meet Flick, Randy Parker, Scut Farkus, Grover Dill and Miss Shields from the movie. Autograph signings will be held on Saturday and Sunday (fees apply).
• Letters to Santa and photos with the big guy every weekend.
• Mommy’s Little Piggy Mashed Potato-Eating Contest. Sunday, December 5th with special guest, Randy from the movie! The event will begin at 10:30 am. Registration will start at 10am.
• “Oh Fuuudge!” tire changing relay. Saturday, December 11th. Prizes will be awarded to the pair with the best time.
Only 30 minutes from downtown Chicago and 2 hours north of Indianapolis, the Indiana Welcome Center is located at the intersections of I-80/94 and Kennedy Avenue South in Hammond. Signups are available online at www.aChristmasStoryComesHome.com. Registration fee for both events is a non-perishable food item that will be donated to the Northwest Indiana Food Bank. Check online for additional events and details.
Mary Dean Cason’s short stories have won acclaim from Chicago Public Radio’s Stories on Stage and have appeared in regional publications. She won The University of Memphis Pinch Award in 2002 and the 2008 University of Chicago Writer's Studio Prize for Fiction.
