thedrifter
12-05-06, 03:06 PM
December 11, 2006
Legwork
Academy grad cashes in on classic holiday movie
Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it’s like to want something.
For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it: “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”)
For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie’s house — the one in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story,” a film that’s become a holiday classic like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”
A 1998 Naval Academy graduate and former lieutenant, Jones bought and restored the three-story house to its appearance in the movie. It opened for tours Nov. 25, when some 2,900 people — including many who had waited in line for two hours — were the first to see the house, located in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.
Jones’ original dream was to be a P-3 pilot like his father, but it was denied because of his eyesight. Instead, he went into intelligence, “which is not quite the same as being a pilot,” said Jones, whose wife Beverly is a surface warfare officer on the cruiser Lake Champlain. “I was majorly bummed.”
To cheer him up, his parents sent him a “leg lamp” like the one received by Ralphie’s father in the movie. Jones’ mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. And in 2003, while stationed at Fleet Intelligence Training Center Pacific in San Diego, he started doing just that. Jones left the Navy in 2004, and selling leg lamps is now his full-time job, along with the tours of the “A Christmas Story” house.
“I lost the one dream of being a pilot and fulfilled another dream of running a business,” Jones said.
Ellie
Legwork
Academy grad cashes in on classic holiday movie
Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it’s like to want something.
For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it: “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”)
For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie’s house — the one in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story,” a film that’s become a holiday classic like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”
A 1998 Naval Academy graduate and former lieutenant, Jones bought and restored the three-story house to its appearance in the movie. It opened for tours Nov. 25, when some 2,900 people — including many who had waited in line for two hours — were the first to see the house, located in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.
Jones’ original dream was to be a P-3 pilot like his father, but it was denied because of his eyesight. Instead, he went into intelligence, “which is not quite the same as being a pilot,” said Jones, whose wife Beverly is a surface warfare officer on the cruiser Lake Champlain. “I was majorly bummed.”
To cheer him up, his parents sent him a “leg lamp” like the one received by Ralphie’s father in the movie. Jones’ mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. And in 2003, while stationed at Fleet Intelligence Training Center Pacific in San Diego, he started doing just that. Jones left the Navy in 2004, and selling leg lamps is now his full-time job, along with the tours of the “A Christmas Story” house.
“I lost the one dream of being a pilot and fulfilled another dream of running a business,” Jones said.
Ellie