Bergmann noticed that Clark uses as Ralphie’s target on Christmas morning an old metal sign, partially obscured, that says, GOLDEN AGE. “It’s the GOLDEN AGE sign that ricochets that BB back at him and [knocks off] his glasses and almost shoots his eye out,” Bergmann explains. “Talk about irony. You only see that sign, and it’s partly covered, but I’ve seen uncovered versions of it—somebody was selling one on eBay.”
But even if our golden age is rusty and obscured and being sold on eBay, A Christmas Story nonetheless reflects a golden age. Zack Ward sums it up: “I’ve seen five-year-old kids squat down in front of the TV and not talk while they’re watching it. There’s no song from Frozen, there’s no dancing, no talking reindeer or snowman. It’s kids, in a time when that five-year-old doesn’t care if it’s a little white boy or girl, little black boy or girl, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish—it doesn’t matter: they don’t care. They’re watching it because that’s their family.”
