Like most, I am a fan of the movie, The Christmas Story. Since 1997, a A Christmas Story marathon has aired on either TNT or TBS, comprising twelve consecutive airings of the film and beginning at 8 pm on Christmas Eve. I watch the movie every year at least twice. Watching it this year got me thinking about how excited Ralphie was to get his Red Ryder BB gun and how innocent it all was. Even when he imagined chasing down the would-be robbers the outcome was comical; he shot them down dead resulting in X marks on their eyes and tongues sticking out.

It was naive and innocent child's play. And I can honestly say that as a child, this is exactly how my friends and I would play Cops & Robbers or Cowboys & Indians. Nowadays, thanks to modern television and politically correctness, playing with toy guns is imagined in a child's mind as gory and anything but innocent. As a result, the fun is gone....but with the following images, the good memories aren't.