2024 Christmas Episode

Here's a pair of holiday tales to warm your hearts in this special day. Merry Christmas to you all 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My, folks, it's sean uh. Just after we finished recording
the seats in finale for this year, I lost my
brother in law Jeremy, and a month later I lost
my adopted brother Alex. And today's episode is not only
in the spirit of Christmas, but in remember and so
those two great men you will surely be missed. I
love you guys both. I wish you were here with

(00:21):
us today.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
If the dog works were shadows, creep stories rise as
the camp art reeves, John the voice of haunts it
through with every sale.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
He's been so well.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
A goose whispered, Tonight's saute.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
By the fire light of fierce t line's a kill
a lot of storyteller John through the spokking thousand and
five Fangels of.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Dark missing Night.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Then let's sells a Friday, dread every heart beat a
path we tread see.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Welcome back to the Carolina Storyteller, Folks, I am your storyteller,
Jonathan Phoenix. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas. Jeble, I hope
you will have a wonderful Christmas season. This year is
our second Christmas episode, and I went out and searched
to find a perfect story to tell. To help make
the season brighter and happier for all of you.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
I found two. So here is the first of the
two part Well, I'm gonna do it all in one part,
but two stories for your Christmas to help make it
merry and bright as you're traveling and shopping with family
and friends. The first story comes from December of nineteen

(02:03):
forty four. Actually, last year, we covered the Christmas Truce
of World War One. If you recall, this is a
time when soldiers just laid down their arms and kind
of celebrated Christmas together in the middle of a war
that was going on between an entire world. This year
we're covering the Christmas Truth, the unknown Christmas Truth, should

(02:26):
I say, of World War Two. Now, this incident did
not occur officially. In fact, it was so little known
that it didn't really get hurt about until almost fifty
years later. There was no official truce. During the Battle
of the Bulge in nineteen forty four, that's what was
going on on Christmas Day. Allied soldiers were fighting for
their lives, trying to take German territory in a bid

(02:48):
to stop the Nazi regime from taking over the world.
It was bloody it was brutal. But this story comes
from Ben Sticken. He was a young German boy during
the time of the battle, twelve years old, will be
in fact, this is the story of what happened his
small cottage and the Hurgaden forest near Atchin, which was
partly destroyed during that American infensive. It was Christmas Eve

(03:10):
and the area had kind of gotten quiet, you know,
the Germans and the Allies were kind of fighting a
little ways off, and they could hear the constant booming
of the field guns, and they could hear the planes
going over. It was kind of a horrible time to
be living in the area because you never knew when
those weapons were going to be coming towards you. You know,

(03:30):
during war kind of forget the innocence that are just
stuck there in the middle of it and have nowhere
to go, nothing to do. Fitz's father had been a
German soldier and had passed a long time before, and
so he lived alone with his mother and their small
farm cottage. And here it is Christmas Eve nineteen forty
four when there was suddenly a knock at the door.
As they answered, they'd find three American soldiers. One of

(03:52):
whom was horribly wounded standing there. While they didn't speak
English and the Americans didn't speak German, of them, all
of them did speak a little bit of French, and
because they were able to communicate slightly in French, they
were able to understand that one of the soldiers was
very badly wounded, and Fritz's mother, out of kindness, invited

(04:13):
the Americans inside to try and make them comfortable. Fritz
stated that the dark haired, stocky fellow's name was Jim
and his slender friend was Robin. The wounded one's name
was Harry. They put Harry to sleep in Bits's bed.
His face was white as the snow outside. He had
lost so much blood. They had been separated from the
battalion and wandered for three days in the forest with

(04:34):
no food, looking for the American soldiers and hiding from
German patrols. They weren't shaved, they were I mean, they
were heavily beaten. They didn't even have their heavy coats,
and it was cold out. They were just big boys
to Fritz, they weren't soldiers. These kids were only a
few years older than him. Fritz's mother made a meal

(04:57):
of potatoes and roosters that she was for a reunion
with other family, and as it was being cooked, there
was a second knock at the door. Honestly, they expected
more lost American soldiers to be coming, but to their surprise,
four German soldiers standing there. They were also very war

(05:24):
beaten and lost and had been traveling for three days
trying to just find something. They were separated.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Now.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
The problem here is that German law was very harsh,
and right now the family was sheltering three American soldiers.
That was treason, so they could be killed right there
in the spot. Now, the corporal leaving the patrol asked
Fritz's mother if they could just wait till daylight. Fritz's

(05:53):
mother didn't didn't miss didn't miss a beat.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
She just.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
She said, fine, you can stay here. We'll prepare you
a warm meal for you to eat, and you can
eat until the pot's empty. But understand, we have three
other guests who you might not consider friends. But this
is Christmas. Even there won't be any shooting at this house.
The Germans just immediately were like, who's here Americans? And

(06:26):
Prince's mother just said, you could be my son's you're
so young, and so could they there's a boy in
here with a gunshot and fighting for his life and
his two friends, just like you. They are lost and
hungry and exhausted this one night, this Christmas night, can
we forget about killing? So the Germans nodded their heads.

(06:50):
They stacked their arms outside the door, and after a
quick conversation in Prince with the American soldiers, Fritz's mothers
took the Americans weapons and placed them with the German weapons.
And then the entire group, except for Harry, who was
of course laid up in the bed, kind of somewhat tensely,
sat down for dinner. And it was really tense at first.

(07:14):
You know, of course, the Americans and the Germans are
sitting across from one another at this table. There's Fritz,
there's his mother, there's.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Food, they're all starving. But you know, can you trust
the guy across from you when they're being paid to
kill you. It's a really good question. It started to
sink into them. But this was just Christmas meal, you know.
For the German soldiers. Two of them were from Cologne

(07:45):
and they were sixteen years old. The other was only eighteen,
and the corporal was the oldest out of everyone except
for Fritz's mother at twenty three. As they sat, he
pulled from his bag a bottle of red wine and

(08:11):
offered it.

Speaker 5 (08:13):
To the table.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Another managed to pull out a loaf of rye bread.
The mother cut the bread into small pieces to be
served with dinner and the wine, but she put half
of it away for Harry. And then the mother.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
Said grace, and she had tears in her eyes, and
she said come. Heared Jesus be Odgust. And as they
looked around the table, all of them were crying. They
were all just overcome with emotion because here they were

(08:49):
being able to have a home cooked meal around the
table at peace. And they ate and there wasn't very
much chatter. But just before midnight, after the meal, the
mother went to the door and just stared up towards
where the Star of Bethlehem was supposed to be, and

(09:11):
she asked the boys to join them, and they did
and they stood there in silence, staring up at the sky,
thinking about the Star of Bethlehem, thinking about Christmas, thinking
about all this, and then they slept for the night.
And during that moment of silence, looking to what was
the brightest star in the heavens, they felt like the
war was gone. The truce held all the way to
the next day, when both sets of soldiers shook hands

(09:33):
and departed, each going towards where their own army should
be after receiving direction from Pritz and his mother. There
might have been more small scale truces, but this is
the only one that was ever reported. The Americans and
Germans continued fighting on through to the end of the
Battle of the Bulge, and eventually it led to the
end of World War two nineteen forty five. But on

(09:54):
this Christmas Day, these seven young boys who were children.
Honestly they were are no older than my boys. Oh no,
I'm sorry. One of them was older than my boys
by a year, and one of them was younger than
my boys by a year. These could have been my sons,
These could have been your sons. They had been away
from home, they had been fighting, they were hungry, they
were starved, and they found peace and food in a

(10:16):
small cottage through the kindness of a woman and her child.
And if that's not what the real meaning of Christmas
really is, I don't know how to explain it any better.
Christmas is about sharing and caring and showing kindness, and

(10:38):
I hope that the story helps you remember that got
one one for you, so stay tuned.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
And then I.

Speaker 6 (10:48):
Got settled in the first place, so pretty much.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yep. You know there are multiple independent days that I'll
go back to America being like, no, we're not going
to do that. But that's what July fourth. This is
not July fourth. So today's story, well, let me phrase that.

(11:16):
This second story for this episode is one that I
think ties into the importance of the Christmas spirit and
how easy it is to lose it and how easy
it is to get it back. So it is going
to be a Southern retelling of a classic Christmas tale
written by one Charles Dickens in the eighteen hundreds. Ladies

(11:39):
and gentlemen, this is a Southern Christmas Carol. I'm gonna
tell you all the story of a fellow named Ebenezer screwed. Ebannezer.
He's a miles with the type, lacked his money. He
knew how to get his money too, and if you
got between him and his money, there wasn't much he
wouldn't do to make sure he got his money. Abenezer

(12:03):
was the time that you were laid on a payment.
He was coming and taking your house. He'd take your car,
he'd take your boat, he'd take your truck. He didn't care.
You either had Ebenezer's money or you were out in
the wind. Albanezer. He ran his place down in town,

(12:25):
and it was Christmas Eve. Ebenezer walked in and found
that it was unusually warm in the building. Immediately he
looked to his poor assistant, Bob, crashing and crashing, one
the hell you got the heat on board. Bob, who
was busy at work and had been there since six

(12:47):
o'clock in the morning, even though it was now ten,
looked at him over the small, tiny desk that he
worked at, said, mister Scrooge, the ink was frozen. I
had to heat it up so we can fill out
the forms. Ebenezer just snort and went, bah, you wasting

(13:08):
the money. Boy proceeded on to go to his office,
where he counted money and did countless things. A few
moments later, cratch It walked into Ebenezer's office knocked on
the door. Ebenezer looked up and said, what do you want.

(13:29):
You're bothering me when you could be working, to which
cratch It replied, well, sir, it's Christmas Eve, and I
was hoping I could leave early and perhaps have tomorrow off.
Hebaniezer looked at him like he was looking at a
moron or the unreasonable fact similar one. You want a

(13:53):
day off, I assume you know it will be without pay.
Bob cratch It said, yes, sir, yes, sir, I completely understand,
just for this Christmas thing. Bob cratche nodded his head. Yes, sir,
just just to spend time with my family on Christmas.
If you don't mind, sir, I Meaneezer waved his hand

(14:16):
dismissingly and spine whatever you can leave at noon. Bob
quickly proceeded, without jumping to hyperjoy, back to his table
to work because he didn't want mister Screws to change
his mind. A short time after that, there was a
knock at the door and Bob answered the door. In

(14:37):
walked Ebeneezer's nephew, Gerald. Now Gerald was from up North,
but he was a happy type and he loved Christmas,
so he came in burying a Christmas wreath for his uncle.
He walked into his uncle's office and he said, Marry Christmas, Uncle,
I've come and I've brought you a wreath and an
invitation to join us for supper tomorrow, having the most

(15:01):
fine dinner my wife Isabella's cooking. Please say that you'll
join us. Ebenezer looked at him and said, no, I
ain't coming to eat none of your wife's nasty cook
and I'll be fine with corn beefing hash in my house.
Get the hell on out of here and take the
stupid wreath with you. Ebanezer didn't really like Christmas, so

(15:24):
cratch It left and Ebenezer stayed there, working until late
in the evening before he proceeded homes. He had a nice,
stately little house out in the country. He only kept
one fireplace lit, most of the lights were always off,
never used any of the rooms, even though he had
twenty of them in the house, and he sat before

(15:47):
his fire, eating a cold can of corn beef hash
and staring off and eventually not at all went to sleep.
And that was during this sleep that Ebenezer heard a
noise sounds of chains rattling. Ebenezer was almost positive dogs outside,

(16:12):
but he forgot that he wasn't beating the dogs right,
and they died two years ago. And when that came
back to his mind, he began to hear a moaning
and knew that the chains couldn't be from his long
since gone dogs, so he had no clue where the
sound could be coming from. So he slowly peered behind

(16:32):
his chair into the hallway and saw the spectral vision
of a man walking towards him, laid down with massive
chains and huge locks. Elbes, the spirit called out to him,
so Ebenezer just kind of hidding his chair because he

(16:53):
didn't have nowhere else to go. Ebenezer even looked at me.
It was in that moment that Ebenezer recognized the voice. Jacob.
He said as he turned and looked for it was.
It was the spirit of his dead partner, Jacob Marley,

(17:15):
who had died a year past on Christmas. And Jacob Marley,
it is you, Yes, Ebenezer, I'll come to warn you,
Marley said as he approached.

Speaker 7 (17:30):
Look upon me and see what my creed has done.
The chains of greed that I held so close to
in life now weigh me down in death. Ebenezer was confused,
why are you telling me this? What's that got to
do with me? And Marley said, because the same thing

(17:53):
will befall you if you don't change your ways.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Bah humbug, no such thing. I'm fine, Marley shot said no, Ebenezer,
you're not. You will be visiting this night by three spirits.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
He hid their words are you will suffer the same
paint as me.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
And Marley just faded away. Ebaneese are kind of planking
a few times, looked at his corn beef hash checked
the date on the bottom and make sure that it
wasn't bad. It wasn't bad, put the can down, turned
the fire down, and decided he had had a weird
dream and went to bed. Upon the stroke of midnight,

(18:52):
Ebenezer had been sleeping for just a couple of hours,
got a small wisp of light and bringing sound. Awoken,
he sat up, bolt right in his bed, didn't know
what to do. Who's there? I got a shotgun? A

(19:17):
very soft voice called out to him. A shotgun won't
hurt me, Ebenezer, but it might hurt you. Who are you?
Demanded of this voice, and all of a suddenly, walking
along his leg was a tiny pixie glowing a bright

(19:41):
bright light. I am the ghost of Christmas past. I'm
here to show you who you were before you became this. Well,
whatever you are now obviously it's not good. Your fashion
is horrible. Nevaneza said, leave me alone, and the pixie said,

(20:05):
you don't get a choice or that. She grabbed Ebenezer
by the hand and whisked him away off of his
bed and out the window into the sky. And by
now Ebanza realized he was in trouble because he was
pretty sure that there were seven forty seven so that
didn't fly this side. And the pixie all of a
sudden it took him down and stopped outside of the

(20:27):
window of an old barn, and inside there was light
and there was singing, and there was dancing. And the
girl pointed and said, look there, what do you see.
Emanezer peered through the window, and there he saw his

(20:48):
old boss playing the guitar. Well, his friend Jacob fiddled
beside him, and he was on the drums, and everyone
was dancing around and they were having a grand old time.
It was Christmas nineteen eighty seven. They were just celebrating
like nothing, like nothing's business. He watched his young Ebenezer

(21:15):
got down off of a drum set and went and
met with a young woman. This as Mary, beautiful as
can be. She was long since gone from Ebenezer's life.
But there she was the vision of beauty. It just
so happened that as Ebenezer was speaking to her, he
stepped underneath the mistletoe, and it was at that moment

(21:40):
that she had that she gave him his first kiss.
Before Ebenezer could get too into the moment, the spirit
grabbed him again and pulled him away and shoved him
into a dank old office. His office. There, younger Ebenezer

(22:01):
sat counting his money angrily. When in walk is married upset.
Did you really poor clothes on my grandmother's house? Ebenezer
set straight up. You're damn right I did. She was

(22:21):
two months behind on payments. That's one month more than
I'd give anybody else. And she but Ebenezer she was
in a car wreck. She'll be able to make up
the payments when she's better. Oh and she's better, she
could find another house. Now, I'm busy, see you at home.

(22:43):
Mary pulled the ring off of her finger, slapped it
down on the table, and said, you won't see me
at home. You won't see me ever again, And she
proceeded to walk right out of his life. As Ebenezer
watched her leave, he went to run after her, and
when he did, he found himself falling out of his

(23:03):
own bed. The spirit had left him. He was back
in his bed. Was it all just a dream? He
wasn't sure. He wasn't quite sure what was going on
at all, but he knew that he regretted the fact
that he had done that, he had lost his marry.

(23:26):
It's about that time the clock struck one. Oh boy,
Ebenezer could hear the laughter as a large, jovial round
man walked in, burying a large sack, and he sat
the sack down, and from the sack poured out a

(23:47):
feast like Ebenezer had not seen in forever. There was
fruitcake and turkey and ham, and mashed potatoes, and green
bean casserole pumped and pie lemon tarts, devil legs, mashed potatoes,
and gravy. Somebody had made a roast beef. There was

(24:09):
collared greens. There was red rice. Oh. Ebeneze's mouth watered
as he looked at it. A large man sat down
and bit into it, and Ebenezer said, what is this?
The beast of joy of Christmas? What else would it be?

(24:32):
But why are you here? I'm the ghost of Christmas present, Ebenezer,
I'm here to show you what you're missing by not
celebrating Christmas. And Ebenezer said, pop humbug, I'm not missing anything.
I'm perfectly fine where I am. There's nothing to miss

(24:54):
but people mincing marries and giving presents, wasting money that
has no point in Christmas. Ah, but I think you're wrong, Ebanezer.
Come with me. Before Ebenezer could even try put up
a fight, the man grabbed him by his collar and
drug Ebenezer down the stairs and out into the streets.

(25:18):
As they walked the streets, the man pointed to different places, said,
look there people singing carols, and look here children playing
in the snow. But perhaps you should look here. Man had,
unbeknownst to Ebenezer, led him to his very dear nephew's house.

(25:41):
And there his nephew was serving dinner friends and family,
and there was an open seat at the table, and
his nephew said, let us give thanks for this meal
before us, and for all of us, even those who
are not here, which the nephew's wife said, the only

(26:04):
one who isn't here is that miserly uncle of yours, Ebenezer.
Thank God. The nephew said, no, no, no, no, no. My
dear uncle has his ways, but he is still a
good man, and we should still be thankful that he
is in our lives. I toast to all, even my

(26:25):
uncle Ebenezer, and they toasted, even to Ebenezer, even though
he wasn't there, even though he had turned down the
gracious invitation. He watches these people drink and were merry,
and not just their name, but in his name as well. Next,
the spirit led him to a small ramshackle, beat up trailer. Well,

(26:50):
whose house is this? You should know, Ebenezer. You helped
pay the payments on it. Well, he tried out pay
the pack You tried not to pay the payments on it.
What do you mean? Well, look in and find out,
Evenuezer peered through the window, and there sat his assistant,

(27:13):
Bob crashed it, and around Bob was a whole heap
of young ones. Bob had a whole houseful. Two girls,
poor boys, but one of them, a little tiny Tim,

(27:36):
walked in on crutches, sat on Bob's lap, hugged him,
said I'm glad you were able to be home for
dinner tonight, Daddy. Bob said, yes, mister Scrooge was kind
enough to give me the day off. Cruise said, you

(27:57):
wasn't kind enough. He practically hit me over up far
out for it. We all know wasn't true, but Scrooge
wasn't willing to admit that he had done something kind
at the time. And he watched as they all gathered
around the table and walked Bob's wife, and she sat
down at the table the tiniest chicken you'd ever seen,

(28:23):
and it's easily size, and began doling out as much
as she could to each member of the family, except
for tiny Tim, who got his own drumstick. Eat up, Tim,
who needs your strength. The doctor says, you won't get
better without eating. Scrooge watched that this family still enjoyed

(28:46):
happiness with so little, even when Bob was hardly ever
there because Scrooge worked him like a dog. Scrooge looked
at the spirit and said.

Speaker 8 (28:59):
Just really all they have, Yes, Scrooge, this is all
that they have, And what will become of that boy there?

Speaker 1 (29:12):
The spirit bowed his head, said, if nothing in this
picture changes, I see a crutch with no owner leaning
against the fireplace, and an empty chair at the table.
But I think you've seen enough, have one guest left

(29:34):
to see, and he whists Scrooge right back to his bed.
Scrooge shuddered in the cold, thinking about what he had seen,
laid back down and covered up. He was just about
to nod off to sleep when everything got deathly cold.

(29:57):
Cocks chimed once more. Scrooge looked around his room and
it was pitch black, it seemed, and dark, and finally,
as if by a miracle of light flashed and there
standing before him was a dark figure holding a staff,

(30:22):
staring at him. Scrooge couldn't even make out anything, just
the cloak that stood over him. The figure said nothing.
Scrooge was terrified of this figure. For moments, they sat
there in silence, until Scrooge finally spoke up. Might you

(30:45):
be the third spirit to visit me? The figure simply nodded.
If the first was past and the second was present,
I assume you represent the sure again, the spirit nodded, Well,

(31:06):
then surely you can just get it on with and
show me what you have to show me. Spirit said nothing,
merely pointed out the window. Scrooge went to the window
and was surprised to find himself looking inside of his
own window, or into a bedroom that looked like his.
There were two women taking all kinds of things out

(31:29):
of closets and cleaning up, and they were talking. Ooh,
did you hear he was found laying like this, had
been here almost a week. No one cared enough to
check on him. No one even cared at all. He's
just some mind of the old fellow that no one liked.
Oh girl, would you look at this? This chain is

(31:50):
gonna look so good on my wrist. It's not like
anyone cares. He doesn't even have it next to ken.
I heard that only his nephew attended his funeral, and
even then, his nephew really didn't have anything nice to
say about him, just said that he wished him well.
Must be a shame to have no one care about

(32:11):
you and no one love you. It really must be.
Scrooge looked up at the specter. Who are they talking about?
Can you show me who they speak of? The specter
merely pointed behind Scrooge, and when he turned he was
no longer in his room, but in a graveyard. He

(32:35):
was standing before a grave, But what caught his attention
was off in the distance. It was assistant Bob. Bob
was kneeling before a grave, crying, and his wife was
at his side. And in his hands Bob clutched crutch,
the same crutch that Scrooge had seen tiny Tim walk

(32:57):
in with an hour ago. Spirit, Spirit, tell me who
were they talking about? Who is it that they said
such horrible things about? Spirit merely pointed to the tombstone.

(33:21):
Scrooge crawled forward and looked, and there on the tombstone
he read his name, and he looked up at the
Spirit and said, tell me, Spirit, are these the things
that will or things that maybe? Is it still time
for me to change these things? Can't I fix them?

(33:44):
Can't I make them better? The Spirit said nothing. Merely
hick Scrooge into the open grave, and as he fell,
the coffin closed behind him. Scrooge screamed and screamed and
screamed and fought, and he found himself awake in his bed,

(34:06):
covered in his blankets, sweat pouring from him. Even though
it was cold, the light of the new day was
shining in. Scoop ran outside, threw up the window on
his house and it was daylight out. There was fresh
snow on the ground. People kids were outside playing and
he hollered out to a boy he saw walking past.

(34:28):
Young boy, what day is it? What day is today?
And the boy said, uh, it's Christmas? You okay? Amazing
the spirits did it all on one night. There's still time.
There's still time, boy, I tell you what I'm gonna do.

(34:51):
Come here, come here, here, here, here's down at the
butcher's John Smith. He's got that uh, he's got that
excoose that he's got picked up. You know which one
I'm talking about. Dang right, I do. It's big. It's Goose.
I've ever seen good. Go down to John tell him
I want back Goose fixed up with all the fixings,

(35:11):
all the trimings, everything he can make for a good
Christmas dinner. And he delivered that down to Bob Kraft House.
And here take them a thousand dollars. That should be
more than enough. Whatever you don't spend, you keep. And
the boy was like, yes, sir, mister Scrooge and took
off running down the road, one thousand dollars in hand,

(35:33):
American dollars too. Understand, there weren't much were worth more
back than I assume. With that, Scrooge rushed around. He
didn't even bother getting dressed. He grabbed his coat, he
grabbed his hat, he grabbed his wallet, he grabbed some
extra stacks of cash, and he freed out into the
snow and into the cold, diddy as a schoolboy. And

(35:55):
as he was running along, he ran past some fellas
collecting for toys for time. And he had been mean
to them before, but now the spirit of Christmas welling
up inside of him, he looked at them and he said,
young men, I say, are you still collecting toys for
the children for Christmas? Yes? We are well here. And

(36:16):
he threw a fat stack of cash at him. Take
this and go and buy as many presents as you can.
Merry Christmas to all, and he ran off like a loom,
screaming Merry Christmas. As he ran, of course, the guys
were like, well, I guess we gotta go get some
toys for these kids. Grooge proceeded to go to every
store that he could find that was open, and bought

(36:38):
every possible gift that he could. He buttoned them all
up in a sack, and he went back home, and
he put on his best outfit, and then he proceeded
to the house of Bob cratching. He knew what he
had to do. It was just a little afternoon. He
rapped uncratched its door with his cane, and Bob opened

(36:58):
the door and said, mister Scrooge, come on in. Scrooge
walked in and said, cratch It. I think I ahead
about enough of this Christmas stuff. I'm sorry, sir, I
can get back to work. No, there's no need for that.
I came here to tell you in person. Uh, cratch it,

(37:22):
tell you in person that you will no longer be
my assistant. You don't need to worry about going back
to work tomorrow. You don't need to worry about going
back to work the next day. In fact, and before
Scrooge could get the sentence out, he burst out laughing,
you don't need to worry about going back to work
till after the first of the year, when they changed

(37:42):
the sign to say cratch it. And Scrooge, because I'm
making you my partner, and Bob was just shocked. You
didn't know what to say, and he said, literally, mister
screw I don't want to say say yes, son. No

(38:04):
one's worked harder for me than you have in all
the years, and there's not anybody I wouldn't want to
have working beside me. Fifty to fifty is my equal partner.
And because it's Christmas, I brought you my and a
young child, who had been eagerly curious went toys, and

(38:25):
he said, laundry, I mean toys. Sorry, yes, toys for
your children for Christmas. And as they all just opened
up the toys, there was another knock at the door,
and of course it was the butcher delivering this fine
Christmas dinner. Bob said, mister Scrooge, will you stay? And
he goes, no, I have one more thing I must do,

(38:48):
and Scrooge left and proceeded to his nephew's house. And
at his nephew's house, he knocked on the door, held
his hat in his hand, and he waded ashamed. His
nephew opened the door, very confused, Uncle Scrooge, nephew, I
have been a horrible person to you, and I have

(39:12):
been miserly, and I have been neglectful. But if you
would have me, I would love to celebrate Christmas with
you this year. And the nephew welcomed him in with
open arms, and they sat at the table and Scrooge
carved turkey and the ham as they all enjoyed Christmas dinner,

(39:36):
And it is said from that day forward there was
not a Christmas that went by that the spirit of
Christmas was not in Scrooge's heart. He helped Bob pay
for all of Tiny Tim's medical bills and was like
a second Bob's attem. It is said that there was
none to be more kinder and charitable than ebenez A Scrooge.

(40:00):
Oh that's the story, folks, as told by us.

Speaker 6 (40:03):
Other very nice, excellent. Huh see what you mean about
it being topical.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
It is topical. I mean, you know, Mike, get the point.
You know, you could get visited my three ghosts if
you're not careful. Certain people not point any fingers or anything.

Speaker 6 (40:30):
No, but some people could use such a visit there.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Yep, oh agree, definitely people who could use such a
basic visit. But that is going to be the end
of the Christmas story and to all from all of us,
very Christmas.