A Thanksgiving Carol

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and John Whittaker is behind the counter at Whit's End, nose deep in a recipe book, when Bernard Walton drops in to give the windows a "checkup." Their chat is interrupted by Connie Kendall and Eugene Meltsner, who arrive in the middle of an argument. Eugene has declared that God does not have anything to do with Thanksgiving - in the modern age, he is careful to add. Connie calls the statement outrageous and expects Whit to back her up, but to her surprise, Whit thinks Eugene is right. Many people these days never connect God with the holiday at all. Christmas, Whit explains, is inescapably linked to the birth of Christ, and its classic stories always point back to Him. But Thanksgiving, despite its name, has no such stories, so people never make the connection. Connie wishes there were something they could do about it, and Whit has an idea: they will borrow a classic story, adapt it, and show everyone what the "thanks" in Thanksgiving is all about - on Kids Radio.

And so, live from high atop Whit's End, KYDS Kids Radio presents its Playhouse of the Airwaves drama, "A Thanksgiving Carol," with Whit as announcer and narrator and the gang playing the parts.

The story is set at the close of the last century. Ebenezer Stooge is a rich, cold-hearted money lender who sits day after day in a chilly office counting his money with his loyal clerk, Bob Wretched. When Wretched asks to turn up the furnace just a tad, Stooge tells him to make good use of his candle instead. A visitor arrives - a cheerful lady whose name, delightfully, is Cheerful Lady - collecting donations to help the poor at Thanksgiving. Stooge refuses. Are there not welfare offices and missions the poor can take advantage of, paid for by his taxes? He grudgingly gives Wretched the holiday off, grumbling that Thanksgiving is a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every fourth Thursday in November. When Wretched says the day reminds him to thank God for his blessings, Stooge scoffs. What has God to do with a day of gluttony and frivolity? He does not celebrate Thanksgiving at all.

That night, just as Stooge drifts off to sleep, he is startled awake by a jingling noise and a voice calling his name. It is the ghost of Jacob Arley, his partner who died ten years before. The jingling is not chains but change - a pocket full of coins, each one a blessing Arley was never thankful for, which he must now carry forever. After some very forgetful fumbling about why he has come, Arley remembers his message: Stooge will be visited that night by one spirit - there have been cutbacks - and he had better pay heed, lest he end up like Arley.

At the stroke of twelve the spirit appears: Terrance Clodbody, the spirit of Thanksgiving. He pulls the protesting Stooge out the window, and together they fly through the night. Their first stop is a mission house, where the poor are gathered for their Thanksgiving feast. Cheerful Lady apologizes that there is less food this year because the funds ran out, but a man at the mission assures her they are happy with whatever they get, and everyone bows for the blessing. Not quite the gluttony and frivolity Stooge imagined - though he suspects his clerk is another matter.

So the spirit takes him to the Wretched home, where Bob, his wife, and their ten children are sitting down to the scrawniest bird Stooge has ever seen. Stooge notices a small boy with a crutch, whose name is Teeny Tom. In his grace, Wretched thanks God for the meal, for his family, for his job, and most of all for His son Jesus, the greatest blessing of all. Mrs. Wretched only wishes Mr. Stooge would notice how hard her husband works - especially since Bob quietly saved Stooge money that very week by correcting an error in the account books, without ever asking for credit. Teeny Tom raises a toast: "God bless us everyone!" But when Stooge asks whether the boy will live, the spirit sees only an empty chair and a crutch standing alone in the corner. There is an operation that could save him, but doctors are expensive.

Flying home, Stooge is troubled. The Wretcheds and the people at the mission have nothing, yet they are thankful; he has everything, and is not. The spirit explains what they know and Stooge does not: true happiness does not lie in things, but in the Maker of all things. God is what He has to do with Thanksgiving - take Him out, and the holiday becomes meaningless. There will be no trip to the cemetery to see Stooge's lonely grave - it is not in the budget - but the spirit tells him he does not need to see it. That future is only his if he wants it to be, and being thankful for the right reasons is a good place to start.

Stooge wakes on Thanksgiving morning a changed man. He calls to a boy on the street and sends him running to the butcher shop to buy the two largest turkeys they have - one for the mission house and one for the Wretcheds, who are going to have the best Thanksgiving dinner they have ever had. Teeny Tom will have his operation, Bob Wretched will get the promotion and salary he deserves, and there is so much more to do for the poor. But first, Stooge remembers the most important thing of all. He bows his head, thanks God for everything, and adds, "God bless us, everyone."

Whit signs off the broadcast, thanking listeners for tuning in to Playhouse of the Airwaves and crediting his cast - Bernard Walton, Eugene Meltsner, and Connie Kendall - before saying goodbye from high atop Whit's End.