The Day Independence Came

Irwin Springer loves Revolutionary War history - so when Whit mentions a book about Benjamin Franklin on a high shelf, Irwin climbs a wobbly chair to reach it, and the book knocks him out cold. He wakes up in July of 1776, dodging British soldiers with a stranger who turns out to be Captain Nathan Hale himself. After Irwin scatters the redcoats with a well-aimed rock at a wasp nest, Hale hauls him from a lake and brings him to General George Washington, who hears the boy's newfound faith and hands him a letter to carry to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. There Benjamin Franklin walks him into the great debate, where John Adams thunders for independence while John Dickinson warns the cause is hopeless. Irwin can't help shouting that America will win... and then watches twelve colonies vote aye and the Declaration pass. He wakes on the floor of Whit's End, the whole ride through history only a seconds-long dream - though he could swear Ben Franklin looked exactly like Whit.

Found on The Wildest Summer Ever Album 02 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0027 A Change of Hart When relentless bullying makes a lonely boy beg his family to move away, he gets a fresh start at a new school and the chance to reinvent himself as somebody cool.

0028 The Price of Freedom When a new teacher tells twelve-year-old Kirk McGinty that the soldiers who died in Vietnam died for nothing, the boy's cherished image of the father he never knew is thrown into doubt on the eve of Odyssey's Memorial Day picnic.

0029 Rumor Has It When a quiet family's odd habits set the school rumor mill spinning, two kids must decide whether to believe everything they hear about the mysterious boy in the window.

0030 Honor Thy Parents When a sixth-grader's carefully planned graduation party threatens to expose the parents she's ashamed of, she learns how little she really knows about them.

1 of 2 0031 Family Vacation A family road trip to Florida tests the Barclays' patience with backseat battles, breakdowns, and a mysterious gift that can only be opened at peak boredom.

2 of 2 0032 Family Vacation When their car breaks down in a tiny town far from home, the Barclays discover that a ruined vacation might turn out to be the best part of the trip.

0033 The Day Independence Came A history-loving boy's quest to retrieve a book about Benjamin Franklin lands him in the middle of America's fight for independence.

0034 Stormy Weather A restless Connie, convinced she has no real friends in Odyssey, plans an escape to California - just as a violent storm bears down on Whit's End.

0035 V.B.S. Blues A young Sunday school teacher's big theatrical debut is in jeopardy when the three lead roles in his Bible sketch fall to the last kids anyone would trust on a stage.

0036 Kids' Radio When every station on the dial disappoints him, a kid with radio in his blood convinces Whit to help launch Odyssey's first station run by kids, for kids.

1 of 2 0037 Camp What-A-Nut A small-for-his-age boy hoping to escape his tormentor's nickname arrives at summer camp only to find the bully in his own cabin - and the wilderness holds bigger dangers than either of them.

2 of 2 0038 Camp What-A-Nut While Mr. Whittaker helps young Donny cope with being the smallest kid at Camp What-A-Nut, a walk in the woods turns into a wilderness ordeal - and back at camp, a skunk, a mysterious carved heart, and a boy bent on revenge stir up trouble of their own.

1 of 2 0039 The Case of the Secret Room A dropped transistor at Whit's End reveals a hidden basement door - and behind it, a forty-year-old mystery someone would rather stay buried.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 10 more roles

10 supporting roles

John Adams Jack Angel Benjamin Franklin Hal Smith Soldier (b) Walker Edmiston Soldier (c) Chuck Bolte John Dickinson Earl Boen Nathan Hale Charles Knox Robinson John Hancock Walker Edmiston Irwin Springer Donald Long George Washington Jack Angel Soldier (a) Paul McCusker

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Phil Lollar Writer · Director Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Steve Harris Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

Irwin Springer knows his history. At the Whit's End soda fountain he trades trivia questions with Whit and Tom Riley, rattling off answers about the Revolutionary War without pausing to think. It is his favorite period in all of history, full of heroes like Washington, Adams, and Nathan Hale. So when Whit mentions that he has found a thick book about Benjamin Franklin and set it aside on a high shelf in the Bible Room, Irwin is gone before anyone can blink.

The book is on the top shelf, and the stepladder is nowhere in sight. Irwin knows Whit does not like anyone climbing on chairs, but he decides one quick stretch will not hurt. The chair slips. The book comes down on his head, and the floor comes up to meet him.

When he opens his eyes he is lying on a dirt road that looks a little like the one up to Trickle Lake, except that it plainly is not. A stranger orders him into the bushes as British soldiers sweep the clearing, and the two of them are trapped with no ammunition left between them. It is Irwin who spots the answer hanging in a tree above the redcoats: a wasp nest. One well aimed rock scatters the soldiers, though it also sends the wasps after Irwin and his new friend, who plunge into a lake. Irwin cannot swim. The stranger keeps him afloat, gets him to shore, and then introduces himself as Captain Nathan Hale. The year, he explains, is July of 1776.

Hale brings him to the camp of the Continental Army, where General George Washington thanks Irwin for saving his captain's life and invites the boy to join the evening prayers. Listening to the general ask God to shape him into the likeness of Jesus Christ, Irwin realizes that everything he has read about Washington's faith was true, and truer than he understood. Washington asks whether Irwin holds those truths in his own heart, and for the first time Irwin thinks about it seriously and answers yes. That answer earns him a job. The Second Continental Congress is preparing a statement of independence, and Washington has written the delegates a letter urging them to remember the ruler of nations. Irwin is to carry it to Philadelphia. Hale rides the other way, back toward New York and near certain capture, saying only that he regrets he has but one life to lose for his country.

Sore from a long ride, Irwin reaches the Pennsylvania State House and is met by a kindly old gentleman who looks startlingly like Mr. Whittaker. It is Benjamin Franklin, and he walks the boy straight into the chamber. Inside, John Adams and John Dickinson are locked in argument. Washington's message reports thirty thousand British troops massing against an army short of ammunition, rations, and men, and Dickinson seizes on it: the cause is hopeless, better to be live Englishmen than dead patriots, and this union of thirteen colonies will only crumble in a few decades anyway. Irwin cannot keep quiet. He blurts out that they will win, that the union will hold and grow into the greatest nation in the world, and President John Hancock has to remind him that guests do not speak.

Franklin answers Dickinson with the conviction of a long life, that God governs in the affairs of men and that no empire rises without his aid. Adams declares that before God the hour has come, and that whether he lives or dies he is for the Declaration. Dickinson, unable to vote against his conscience or to stop what is coming, respectfully takes his leave rather than block the others. Hancock calls the roll. Twelve colonies say aye, New York abstains, and the motion passes. Franklin sends Irwin out to ride and proclaim the news that these United States are free.

Irwin is still shouting it when he wakes up on the floor of the Bible Room with Whit bending over him and Tom going to check on the ambulance. He has been unconscious for only a couple of seconds. The whole adventure, he understands, was a dream, though it seemed as real as anything he has ever lived. There was just one very strange part, he tells Whit: Benjamin Franklin looked and sounded exactly like him.