Running with a Police Escort by Jill Grunenwald

Author:Jill Grunenwald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

9

It’s a Major Award

In case it somehow isn’t yet clear, I love Cleveland. And when I say I love Cleveland, what I really mean is that I FUCKING LOVE CLEVELAND.

Ask people what they know about the city of Cleveland and they’ll probably say that our river once burned. Well, that and a certain basketball player. What they may not know is that Cleveland is a bit of a Midwest Hollywood, with several movies filmed here.

Next to my sheer adoration of Cleveland, I love watching movies. Along with major Hollywood blockbusters Cleveland often plays host to a small smattering of independent films and I even have been an onscreen extra in one of them.

So, needless to say, my three favorite things are movies, races, and Cleveland. Not necessarily in that order because I pretty much love Cleveland more than I love anything else in the whole entire world. But, if you combine all three of my favorite loves, what do you get?

The Christmas Story 10K.

Oh yes, A Christmas Story. That annual holiday film that appears pretty much around the clock on Christmas Day about Ralphie and his Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle was filmed right here in good ol’ Cleveland, Ohio. (Cue chorus of “You’ll shoot your eye out, you’ll shoot your eye out.”) While the interior of the home where Ralphie lived with his mom, The Old Man, and his little brother Randy was located on a soundstage, the familiar exterior of the house is in the Tremont neighborhood. In the twenty-odd years since the film had been released, the home had gone through some cosmetic changes, including a new roof, new windows, and new siding. Driving past, it would have been hard for even the most devout fan to recognize the iconic home.

Then, in 2004, the owner put the house on eBay.

Because, really: when you are living in a filming location of a beloved holiday classic and want to sell it, where else would you post?

It was no surprise one of those devout fans bought the house. This was a fan that loves the film so much, he built a business around it, selling imitation leg lamps to other devout fans, complete with fishnet stockings and black high heels. He took the revenue from that small business to put a down payment on the house, buying it sight unseen off the internet. The house now stands as a museum.

My love for A Christmas Story is too numerous to name and like most Clevelanders, come December my halls are decked with leg lamps. (I actually have about a dozen all lined up together as a set of string lights.) Drive around the city during the holidays, and the Tremont neighborhood in particular, and the soft glow of electric sex gleams from window after window after window.

2013 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the iconic film and Cleveland was celebrating. One of the big events was a 10K. A 10K that I, kind of surprisingly, did not sign up for right away.

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