That is a fun movie. Coal was still being used to heat older houses and apartment buildings in Washington D.C. at least up into the mid 6o's, and probably for a time after. The delivery trucks had this long chute running from the truck into the building coal door and dumped the coal in bins in the cellar near the coal burning furnace. I can still remember the combination odor of coal, the furnace and collected garbage in the old brick apartment building next door to my apartment in a big house near Dupont Circle back then, and it was not a bad smell, just distinctive.

John Stokes
Bellevue, WA

To: STMFC@...
From: davenorth@...
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:20:16 +1000
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Coal for home heating?


























Am I the only one reminded of the movie, "A Christmas Story" with Darren

McGavin, by this remembrance? The movie was set in Gary, Indiana, in 1947,

iirc. McGavin, the dad, battled daily with the home's recalcitrant furnace.

The movie is a hoot.

Brian Chapman

Evansdale, Iowa



Brian,



Is that the movie where he regularly makes



reference to someone "poking an eye out"?



If so, it was shown on TV here in Australia for



a number of years at Xmas time, and I always



looked forward to it.



As you say it was a hoot.



Cheers



Dave North