A Christmas Story House

Cleveland’s west side neighborhood known as Tremont would be a quiet place if not for the decision made more than forty years ago to film portions of a low budget Christmas movie at a house on West 11th Street.

Those responsible for the movie magic behind A Christmas Story needed a large downtown department store in a city that would accommodate filming of a Christmas parade in late winter. They found exactly that in Cleveland where the historic Higbee Department Store had agreed to leave up their over-the-top Christmas decorations through the new year in 1983. The city streets and store exterior were transformed into 1940 Hohmanm, Indiana for middle-of-the-night parade filming.

Hohman was a fictionalized version of Jean Shepherd’s hometown of Hammond, near Chicago. The movie is based on a collection of Shepherd’s semi-autobiographical short stories. Ironically, he grew up on Cleveland Street, perhaps a bit of foreshadowing of what was to come. 

After securing the department store location, there was a long list of places and things that needed to be scouted. Much of the film was made in Canada and a lot of the interior shots were done on a sound stage in Canada. However, when they stumbled into 11th Street and found the now infamous two-story yellow home with a large front porch and picture window looking into a remarkably unremodeled front room, movie magic was alive and well. 

This is the story our tour guide shared when we toured the house earlier this month. He shared lots of other stories including how difficult it was to track down the homeowner only to find that he was nursing a drink in the back of a neighborhood pub just down the street literally every time they went in looking for help to locate him. He had no interest in their scheme to rent and stage his home to look like a forties era middle class household for a Christmas flick. That is, he had no interest until they offered to pay him $60,000 for his trouble. So he moved out and gave them free reign to do as they pleased. 

The house was purchased several years ago and transformed into a museum. A lot next door serves as a very small parking lot. Next to that is a home turned Airbnb where you can stay. They call it the Bumpus House. If you don’t understand that name, you really need to watch the movie. You can also stay in the Christmas Story House where a portion of the house is an Airbnb and where overnight guests have the run of the home outside of tour hours.

Across the street, another house has been turned into an artifact museum and one next to that is a gift shop. A garage in between is home to a 1939 fire truck and an Oldsmobile like Ralphie’s Old Man drove. 

The street is narrow. The place is popular. There’s precious little parking and signs at every driveway boldly demanding that visitors not block their driveway. Personally, I would either have to move or lose my mind if I lived in this neighborhood. It’s just too busy with the tourists to not make a person crazy. 

Still, it’s a neat place to visit and a fun little tour if you enjoy the movie as much as I do. It wasn’t a smash hit when it was released but has since become a cult classic with so many quotable lines and vignettes that many of us can recall the entire script by heart. 

If you’re not familiar, it’s about a boy named Ralphie and his quest for a Red Ryder BB Gun during one special childhood Christmas,  America was still on the cusp of joining World War II. Entertainment came from gathering around the radio with his parents and brother. Fun with neighborhood friends sometimes led to trouble and education was a mixture of elementary school classroom and the flaring temper of his father who “wove a tapestry of obscenity, that as far as we know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.” 

Ralphie calls his dad “the Old Man.”

You can pose in front of the Christmas tree with a Red Ryder B.B. Gun and a blue bowling ball like the one the Old Man received. You can take a selfie with the infamous leg lamp in the window and even crawl under the kitchen sink like when Ralphie’s kid brother Randy did because he was sure their dad was going to kill Ralphie. 

Two people on our tour wore pink bunny suits similar to the one Ralphie received from his aunt Clara for Christmas that year. The Old Man said that Ralphie looked like “a deranged Easter bunny” in that costume and this description wasn’t far off for the people we saw wearing their own. It was ridiculously hot that day so the teenaged girl and middle aged man who donned these costumes had to be truly dedicated to their cause and willing to suffer heat stroke in the name of enjoying the moment. 

Either that or they lost a bet. 

Speaking of people on the tour – manage your expectations if you are an introvert or really hate crowds. There were forty people on this tour and that was about twenty too many for my comfort level. We made do and it was fine but it was a little overwhelming in these small spaces. 

In the museum across the street, you’ll find vintage toys from Higbee’s Christmas window, some original costumes, letters and other memorabilia. 

I am not always a fan of guided tours but this one was a good compromise. The tour guide kept everyone together to tell us stories and then turned us loose to explore on our own in the house and the museum. 

If you go, remember, parking is a pain so this might be a good time to take an Uber. If you have to drive, be courteous and don’t do anything that will get your car towed.

While it may be tempting to go at Christmas (because how fun would that be?), I will tell you now that this will be no fun at all. If it was this nuts in July, imagine how awful it will be in December.

Want to visit or just learn more? Check out their website!

Who Would You Chat With?

A recent journaling prompt has sent me down a rabbit hole. The prompt asked who you would like to sit on a park bench and chat with. In this exercise, it could be any person living or dead.

There are so many people that I would like to talk with, especially people I never met. The one I chose is someone I did meet but didn’t get to know.

My maternal grandfather died at the hands of a drunk driver when I was a month shy of my seventh birthday. A car load of young adult men from Wellston, Ohio were drinking and high when they chose to get in a car and set out on a path of destruction. Turns out, one of them also died and they killed a good man in the process.

I remember him only vaguely and some of my memories are likely hand-me-downs from others who did get to know him well. My own memories are snippets and are often atmospheric like the feel of the backseat of his station wagon on a cold winter night. I think we were going to hear him preach somewhere.

He was a minister but I don’t remember his voice. I do remember how he held his Bible and have vague memories of him at the supper table grinning at something funny.

He and my grandmother raised ten children and had more grandchildren than I can count. Once the kids were grown and gone and they had a little extra money, they enjoyed traveling. I’m told that he could sit for hours with his maps, studying roads and planning trips that he might never even take.

Even if he had survived that accident, he would be gone by now but I suspect he would have made the best of those years he had left.

Being a minister, he was an orator who studied and thought through what he would say before writing his sermons. It sounds like he was a smart man, a thinking man.

Being a country boy and product of the Depression, he was a Jack-of-all trades and was capable with all sorts of skills like laying block, cutting glass and mechanical work. He also liked fast cars – another thing we would have in common.

I suspect we would have a lot to talk about on that bench.

He died forty years ago today and left an irreparable hole in the fabric of his family. Unfortunately, when he died he took a piece of my grandmother with him. She outlived him by many years but was never the same after his death. It’s foolish to question what might have been so I won’t do that but I sure would like to have that conversation.

Tell me – who you would like to share that park bench with?

Surprises At The Cleveland Museum Of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is filled with surprises around nearly every corner.

With about 60,000 pieces in a collection that ranges from African and Chinese art to Renaissance art and even armory. The building itself is spectacular with a gorgeous exterior and an atrium that somehow makes you feel like you are at once inside and outside.

Adam and I met four friends and it was striking how different everyone’s interests were and how much we all responded to seeing things that we automatically enjoyed and things that were perhaps a little foreign.

A gorgeous Tiffany glass window, a wall sized tapestry, some Japanese statuary and a room of Impressionist paintings were among my favorites.

 I have said here before and will say again that I don’t have much to say about art that’s especially insightful or intelligent. I do know what I like and what moves me. While I enjoy hearing expert analysis of artwork, I also think it’s important to remember that art was meant to be enjoyed and appreciated. 

Wherever you are in this world, if you’re near an art museum, I suggest you go look around and see what you think. You may find a new passion or you may simply have something new to think about.

If you’re near Cleveland, go check out this museum. There is a fee to park but admission is free. If you want to spend the day, they do have a museum cafe and plenty of seating to rest a while and think about all the beauty this museum holds.

Learn more here.

Black Cat Oddities And Books

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that print books and bookstores are in trouble. During this trip to Cleveland, we visited seven bookstores (one of them twice) and every single store was hopping.

I liked every store for different reasons but Black Cat Oddities and Books won the award for atmosphere. This store is actually located in two houses that are within walking distance of each other. 

Themed rooms packed with new books for all ages are charming and fun to browse, even if they are outside your preferred genre. True crime, mystery, romance, fantasy, horror and general fiction are among the genres you’ll find here. Banned books are displayed together, behind drapery in a closet, no less. The children’s book section is so whimsical and charming I couldn’t help but wish there had been a store like this when I was a child.

Those themed rooms are decorated in ways that are both creative and smart. Frankenstein’s laboratory, Narnia and Sherlock’s Study are just a few of those themes and the attention to detail is fun to see.

Both locations ooze with charm and the variety of their chosen genres is impressive. Note that we didn’t find a lot in the way of non-fiction like history or science but they make up for that in other ways. 

My pictures from this visit are absolutely terrible. I think that’s partly because both locations were busy and I was so preoccupied with just enjoying the fun that I didn’t put much effort into photos. That means you should go visit so you can see for yourself how cool it is! 

Black Cat Oddities and Books is located at 420 S. Court Street and 119 Lafayette Street in Medina. Note that their parking lot is small but customers are welcome to park at the Autozone across the street. Learn more at www.blackcatmedina.com.

Happiness Is…..

Happiness is kicking up your feet on the hotel room couch after a long day of adventuring and digging into a pizza. It’s nice to try new restaurants and have those experiences when you travel but it’s equally pleasant to simply chill.

Give yourself the opportunity to relax with takeout and luxuriate in the joy of knowing there’s more adventure ahead!

Edgewater Walk

Waves lapped at the rocks as a man rode by on a tricycle made for grown-ups. A sailboat in the distance glided effortlessly along the horizon. Sunbathers were beginning to arrive with their tote bags of towels and cold drinks.

It was funny. They were arriving as the thermometer was beginning to rise and we were fleeing for that very reason.

One thing that makes Cleveland’s Edgewater Park unusual is that the shoreline has weeping willow trees that provide shade to fishermen and the beach has massive, beautiful trees that provide some shade in the middle of the beach.

A pier makes a great spot to view the city skyline and to people watch. An enormous ship loomed on the horizon. The man walking by reeked of marijuana. Welcome to Ohio where the everyone smells like a skunk.

A couple across the beach had three Irish Wolfhounds in tow. Technically, I think the dogs were in charge. Come to think of it, they could have been mistaken for a trio of small horses in need of saddles.

People went every which way, talking, listening, jogging, staring at their phones. In fact, it seemed many people had no interest in the beautiful Lake Erie summer day that we were so enjoying.

I was grateful that we were both tuned in to the lapping of waves, the shade of the trees and even the increasingly hostile sun beating down on us as we cut through the grass.

Nature. Fresh air. People watching.

What more could we ask? I can’t think of a thing.