The world waits…
It’s Christmas Eve. There’s always something…expectant about this one night. Every year I spend a little time outside…it’s the quietest night of the year, as if the entire world is waiting, almost in frightened anticipation, for the magic and wonder that is Christmas.
But I’m thinking now about a quieter, more gentle Christmas magic. Earlier this evening, Judy and Jimmy woke from their dream to find the Silver Star atop their Christmas tree, and a small four-inch-high bear softly singing a song only they could hear. Now I look in on my daughter, and I watch her sleep with a half-smile on her face, next to the Crazy Quilt Dragon, and I wonder…is she, in her dreams, soaring astride the colorful rascal, laughing at her reflection in the Looking Glass Mountains, or touching off the Root Bear Ocean? Is she protected from the Inkaboos by a mighty, “Grrrr-AH!” Might she visit the Singing Tree to be lulled back to sleep, only to awake tomorrow morning excited to see what’s waiting for her under the tree?
Seventy years on, and a simple story with silly characters still has the power to make a child laugh, and tremble, and see the world with a new sense of wonder. Even after all this time, the story can become what will be a treasured memory of childhood, something that lasts long after youth is gone, a warm place to hold on to as the world grows cold. All this time, and it still holds the most powerful magic in the universe - the magic to excite and expand a child’s imagination.
And maybe…just a little…her father’s, too.
December 26th, 2007 at 3:07 am
Hi Charlie - Let me extend to you yet another Merry Christmas! You have completed again, a remarkable year of work with the OTR DIGEST. For us old timers, it is a pleasant pause in the day’s activities.
I was most amused by the copy of “A Christmas Carol” that you posted here on your blog that you
mentioned was sent to you by Jerry. Without comparing it with other copies of this 1939 Campbell
show, I was startled to hear the “popping” noise on the recording after Ernest Chappell’s comments
at the beginning of the show, about the special bond between the sponsors and cast feel with the listeners. The pop is clearly heard as the type that we (as kids) used to make as a funny noise -
a joke in certain situations. It does sound like Ernest was just, for an instant, going to break up,but boldly continued on. Could this have been a rehersal?
It certainly was a funny surprize to hear ??Orson (or whoever) add the cute little noise into Ernest’s very heartfelt comment.
It has to be a rarity!! The noise, as you may remember, was the type kids used to make by inserting their index finger against the inside of their cheek and popping it out. It was also considered an
amusing noise on radio comedy shows too.
Whatever - it did give me a chuckle on Christmas - Thanks!!
All kindest regards for a wonderful 2008.
TOM
Tom Heathwood HeritageRadio@msn.com 12/26/07
December 31st, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Thanks Charlie for a lovely word picture. This is the reason “The Cinnamon Bear” is my favorite golden age radio program. It leaves an enduring impression, one that reawakens the child within us year after year.
Elizabeth Heisch, widow of Paddy’s creator, once told an interviewer that her husband Glanville had played with a stuffed bear when he was a little boy. He called it “Cinnamon.” He used the bear in a poem he wrote in honor of the birth of his first child, which he titled “Cinnamon Bear with the Shoe Button Eyes.” Paddy O’Cinnamon first sprang forth from this verse.
Dennis Crow