If you were on the sidelines of the Barrie Santa Claus Parade on Saturday evening, you may have noticed a special old car cruising by among the floats.
That vintage automobile is a 1937 Oldsmobile Six touring sedan, and is the original car used in the iconic 1983 movie A Christmas Story.
In a memorable scene from the film, the young and adorable Ralphie, the star of the movie, tries to help his father change a tire on the car at the side of the road in wet, slushy snow.
Needless to say, the tire change didn’t go as planned and resulted in Ralphie uttering his famous line: “Oh fudge!”
“Only I didn't say ‘Fudge.’ I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!” his character would go on to say in the narration.
The movie was low-budget, with many of the old vehicles that appear in the film driven by local car owners braving the elements during filming, as much of the flick was shot in Ontario, including Toronto and St. Catharines.
Seven years ago, after passing through the hands of a few other owners, Al Grondin, a Wasaga Beach resident and mechanic, bought the Olds and, thanks to that tire-changing scene making the vintage car an iconic film prop, is now shown off at events and parades all over the region.
Grondin says he has had to do some work on the car, but the interior is all original.
“And I'll never change any of it. It's just as it was when Ralphie opens the door to get out to help his old man fix that tire,” he said in a Car and Driver interview last year, as the publication featured him and his vintage vehicle.
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” is the main film line that gets thrown at Grondin many times as he travels around with his car, which is in reference to Ralphie asking a store Santa for an air rifle.
“People at car shows get so excited — I know they have seen the movie because of the big smiles on their faces — and say it’s so beautiful,” Grondin tells BarrieToday.
“Kids will open up the back door where Ralphie got out of it and they sit in there and take photos,” he says.
Even actors from the film have reached out to Grondin wanting to come and see the car again.
A group in Cleveland also asked him to bring the car down to the Ohio city this year, as most of the actors in the original film were attending a 40th-anniversary celebration of the movie’s release.
“Well, I can’t go there, I told them. I don’t have a trailer or anything to take it out there, so that was that,” Grondin says.
One may wonder what young Ralphie would think of the custom “OH FUUDGE” licence plate Grondin has attached to the Olds.
He applied to ServiceOntario for a genuine vanity plate with the classic line, but was turned down due to its interpretation as an inappropriate phrase.
It seems the provincial agency sided with the young boy’s father, Old Man Parker, in this case, as they, too, know what Ralphie actually said.
