Momma was stunned this weekend when her Poppa gave her his treasured Red Ryder BB gun.
The Red Ryder BB gun was prominently featured in the classic 1983 movie A Christmas Story, in which Ralphie repeatedly requests one for Christmas but is always told, "You'll shoot your eye out."
(Beginning on Sunday, Nov. 6, 1938, Red Ryder was a popular long-running Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman that also appeared in radio, comic books, movies and television, until the strip came to an end in 1964. )
The Red Ryder BB Gun was introduced in 1938 by Daisy Outdoor Products. Made to resemble a Winchester rifle, the movie's fictional BB gun, described as the "Red Ryder carbine-action, 200 shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time," never existed. The Red Ryder featured in the movie was specially made to match the BB gun author Jean Shepherd remembered. (The "Buck Jones" Daisy air rifle, immediately above the Red Ryder in the Daisy line, did have a compass and sundial in the stock, but no other features of the "Red Ryder" model.)
The BB gun and a stand-up advertisement featuring the Red Ryder character appeared in a Higbee's store window in the film, along with dolls, a train, and Radio Flyer wagons.
According to Grand momma, Higbee's was a department store founded 1860 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Public Square flagship store featured in A Christmas Story closed in January 2002, but now houses the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland.
(Beginning on Sunday, Nov. 6, 1938, Red Ryder was a popular long-running Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman that also appeared in radio, comic books, movies and television, until the strip came to an end in 1964. )
The Red Ryder BB Gun was introduced in 1938 by Daisy Outdoor Products. Made to resemble a Winchester rifle, the movie's fictional BB gun, described as the "Red Ryder carbine-action, 200 shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time," never existed. The Red Ryder featured in the movie was specially made to match the BB gun author Jean Shepherd remembered. (The "Buck Jones" Daisy air rifle, immediately above the Red Ryder in the Daisy line, did have a compass and sundial in the stock, but no other features of the "Red Ryder" model.)
The BB gun and a stand-up advertisement featuring the Red Ryder character appeared in a Higbee's store window in the film, along with dolls, a train, and Radio Flyer wagons.
According to Grand momma, Higbee's was a department store founded 1860 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Public Square flagship store featured in A Christmas Story closed in January 2002, but now houses the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland.
And don't worry - neither Momma nor I shall shoot our eyes out since Momma declined Grandpoppa's offer of buying BBs.
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