It’s that holiday season, so as Ginger and I wrapped presents the other night, we watched the old movie, A Christmas Story. If you’re wondering why I’m telling you that, you might have forgotten – as I had – the scene where Frank Parker curses like a maniac when his furnace clanks and clatters and blows black smoke up through the vents!
The 1984 film, A Christmas Story, depicts one Christmas in the small, fictional town of Hohman, Indiana in 1939. Told through the eyes of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker, it’s the fictionalized autobiography of a boy, the quest for his dream gift of a Red Ryder BB gun, and his most memorable Christmas, EVER.
Based on Jean Shepherd’s novel, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, A Christmas story touched hearts, stirred emotions, and has since become an iconic film in American culture.
Maybe people relate to the family with a dad who was a champion cusser and a turkey taster of epic proportion. Maybe we remember our childhoods and that one special gift we longed for. Maybe everyone on earth has been dared to do stupid things at one time or another...
Maybe we just like nostalgia and thinking back on simpler times.
I hope it’s not because so many people have furnaces that shoot smoke out the vents and cause extreme cursing!
The Influence of A Christmas Story
If you’ve seen, heard, or know about any of these things, A Christmas Story has influenced you.
- The leg lamp
- The tongue-stick to a light post
- The pink bunny suit
- The mispronunciation of the word “Fragile” as “Fra-gil-le.”
- The phrase, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”
But for me, the smoking furnace is the one thing about that movie that I relate to the most!
A Christmas Story in Reality
I laugh every time I see that because believe it or not, smoking furnaces AND extreme cussing do happen!
“A Christmas Story” takes place in the winter in a Northern Indiana town, so the winters there are much more severe than in Central Florida. But even here in Florida, we have cold weather and cranky furnaces.
Furnaces can “smoke.” They can make loud noises and cause a ruckus. They can act up at the most inopportune times without regard for family gatherings and holiday parties.
How to Avoid a Smoking Furnace
Someday I'll tell you what causes furnaces to smoke, but for now, I'll just tell you how to avoid the problem that Frankie Parker faced with his cantankerous furnace in "A Christmas Story."
Call ServiceOne Air Conditioning & Plumbing for a pre-Christmas check-up…and avoid potential problems and cussing!
Don’t let your furnace cause your holiday to be A Christmas Story that you remember for all the wrong reasons.