Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Christmas Extravaganza 2024

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Christmas Extravaganza 2024 · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Well, good morning everybody. Happy weekend, weekend before Christmas. Do
0:06
Speaker 1: you have big plans? I'm betting a good number of
0:09
Speaker 1: you are going to be attending Christmas parties tonight, tomorrow,
0:13
Speaker 1: on and on. You know, the next few days are
0:14
Speaker 1: going to be pretty busy. And if that's the case,
0:17
Speaker 1: if you've got events with people coming up, I mean,
0:21
Speaker 1: if you're not just having the big parties alone in
0:23
Speaker 1: your basement, if you've got people there, you're gonna want
0:26
Speaker 1: to stay tuned. You're listening to the Repco Lite Home
0:28
Speaker 1: Improvement Show twenty twenty four Christmas Extravaganza sponsored by Benjamin Moore,
0:35
Speaker 1: and we're doing a twenty twenty four Christmas Extravaganza because hey,
0:40
Speaker 1: first off, it's twenty twenty four, so that's the right
0:42
Speaker 1: time to do that. But secondly, I don't feel like
0:46
Speaker 1: home improvement stuff this week. That's the paint point for
0:49
Speaker 1: the week. I don't feel like a paint point. I
0:51
Speaker 1: feel like talking about Christmas. So we're going to talk
0:54
Speaker 1: about fun stuff. And like I said, if you've got
0:56
Speaker 1: parties or events coming up, you know tonight, tomorrow, and
1:00
Speaker 1: n I anytime in the near future, you need to
1:02
Speaker 1: stay tuned. I've got so many fun Christmas facts for
1:05
Speaker 1: you that you're gonna be able to amaze your friends
1:08
Speaker 1: and family with all of your knowledge and your wit
1:11
Speaker 1: and your wisdom. And while you're gonna be able to
1:15
Speaker 1: blow them away. And I do want you to let them,
1:18
Speaker 1: you know, think for a while that all of this
1:19
Speaker 1: knowledge is innate. You know that you just possess this
1:22
Speaker 1: and you're just cranking it out at a whim. Let
1:25
Speaker 1: them think that for a while. But then let them
1:27
Speaker 1: know that you did get some of it. You don't
1:29
Speaker 1: have to tip your hand and see you got all
1:31
Speaker 1: of it here. Let them know you got some of
1:33
Speaker 1: it by checking out the radio show. So steer them.
1:37
Speaker 1: Steer them to catch the radio show in the future,
1:39
Speaker 1: or better yet, direct them to the podcast. Anywhere they
1:42
Speaker 1: get their podcasts. You can catch the Repolite Home Improvement Show.
1:45
Speaker 1: So do that for me. That's your gift to me,
1:49
Speaker 1: and I greatly appreciate that. And my gift to you
1:52
Speaker 1: is the rest of the show. It's one hundred percent fun.
1:55
Speaker 1: And like I said, I've got a bunch of different stories,
1:58
Speaker 1: a bunch of different facts, little trivia things that you
2:01
Speaker 1: can take to whatever party. And even if you don't
2:03
Speaker 1: care to do that. There's a lot of really interesting stuff.
2:07
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about, some surprising stories about the
2:10
Speaker 1: origins of a Christmas song that we're all familiar with,
2:14
Speaker 1: Surprising origins to where that song came from. We'll talk
2:16
Speaker 1: about that. We'll also talk about, you know, kind of
2:19
Speaker 1: a sad story behind one of the most iconic Christmas
2:23
Speaker 1: stories of all time. And yeah, that's what everybody wants,
2:26
Speaker 1: kind of a sad story about some Christmas story. But
2:31
Speaker 1: the good news is, even though there's a little bit
2:33
Speaker 1: of a sad aspect to it, it's got a really
2:35
Speaker 1: good payoff or really happy ending. So we'll get to that.
2:38
Speaker 1: But before we jump into all of that, I want
2:41
Speaker 1: to talk about the story of the Christmas Truth of
2:44
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's one
2:48
Speaker 1: of those moments where humanity and kindness and all of
2:52
Speaker 1: the good things you know that we like to think
2:54
Speaker 1: about in this world, the things that we can do
2:56
Speaker 1: when everything really clicks, all of that goodness shot in
3:00
Speaker 1: the middle of a really, really dark time. So I
3:04
Speaker 1: know you've probably heard of this before. You know, soldiers
3:07
Speaker 1: on opposite sides of the Western Front laying down their
3:10
Speaker 1: weapons to celebrate Christmas together. I can't remember where and
3:15
Speaker 1: when I first heard about this, but I do know
3:18
Speaker 1: that the story always had, you know, almost like a
3:21
Speaker 1: magical quality to it. It seemed too perfect, really, you know,
3:25
Speaker 1: too good to be true. Maybe you've thought that too,
3:28
Speaker 1: you know, I know I certainly have. But if you have,
3:31
Speaker 1: what would you think if I told you? There's more
3:33
Speaker 1: of the story than what most of us learned in school.
3:37
Speaker 1: And not all of those things are going to dispel
3:41
Speaker 1: the myth of the story or the idea of the story.
3:43
Speaker 1: I shouldn't call it a myth, because it's not. It
3:45
Speaker 1: really happened. Some of the things will temper some of
3:48
Speaker 1: the items that we know, some of the stories that
3:50
Speaker 1: we hear. I've got probably the true version of what
3:53
Speaker 1: went down. But then there's other things that I'd never
3:55
Speaker 1: heard before that make the story even better. So let's
3:58
Speaker 1: get to that. Let's talk about some of these lesser
4:00
Speaker 1: known details, and it'll just set the pace, set the
4:04
Speaker 1: tone for the rest of the show. All right, nineteen fourteen.
4:07
Speaker 1: It's December nineteen fourteen, and we're just a few months
4:11
Speaker 1: into what was then called the Great War. All Right,
4:14
Speaker 1: soldiers are on both sides. They're entrenched along the Western Front,
4:17
Speaker 1: and initially the war was expected to be super quick,
4:21
Speaker 1: you know, over by Christmas, it's not going to take
4:23
Speaker 1: any time at all. It'll almost be fun. You know,
4:25
Speaker 1: that's how wars used to be. It'll be fun for
4:27
Speaker 1: a while, Civil war, same thing. Then they realize, no,
4:31
Speaker 1: this really stinks and it's going to last for a
4:33
Speaker 1: very long time. And you know, December nineteen fourteen, the
4:37
Speaker 1: reality of this prolonged and brutal conflict was really starting
4:41
Speaker 1: to set in. So of course you've got morale that's
4:44
Speaker 1: really low. The freezing conditions they're not helping anything, the
4:47
Speaker 1: conditions in the trenches, you know, miserable, absolutely miserable. Everything
4:52
Speaker 1: is terrible. Then in the midst of that, something really
4:55
Speaker 1: really crazy and incredible happened, almost a little Christmas miracle.
5:00
Speaker 1: On Christmas Eve, German soldiers begin singing carols British troops
5:04
Speaker 1: across No Man's Land. They hear the songs and they
5:07
Speaker 1: join in. And then what starts as this caroling kind
5:10
Speaker 1: of a thing grows into more as the two sides
5:13
Speaker 1: eventually end up shouting holiday greetings at each other, and
5:16
Speaker 1: you know, cautiously, even emerging from their trenches to you know,
5:21
Speaker 1: meet each other halfway across the field. By Christmas morning,
5:24
Speaker 1: in several places along the front, the war had literally
5:28
Speaker 1: been paused and enemies were shaking hands, singing songs, possibly
5:32
Speaker 1: possibly even playing soccer. It's one of those stories, like
5:35
Speaker 1: I said, that really hits hard. You know, even in
5:38
Speaker 1: the darker war, there's this shared humanity, you know, the
5:41
Speaker 1: shared experience of Christmas that has the power to draw
5:45
Speaker 1: people together even in the midst of war. It's pretty crazy.
5:48
Speaker 1: But like I said, there's more to this story than
5:50
Speaker 1: we always realized. Now, first off, let's get to some
5:52
Speaker 1: of these It wasn't universal. You know, it's easy to
5:55
Speaker 1: alter the story and the telling and you know, kind
5:58
Speaker 1: of make it out to be the case that everywhere
6:01
Speaker 1: the soldiers laid down their weapons. But that's just absolutely
6:04
Speaker 1: that's not the case. There wasn't this universal moment of
6:07
Speaker 1: peace that swept across the entire front. Some areas, you know,
6:10
Speaker 1: the Scroogey areas, they kept fighting as usual, and others
6:15
Speaker 1: experienced you know, only brief, cautious interactions. It really depended
6:19
Speaker 1: on the soldiers and their proximity to each other. But
6:21
Speaker 1: there were certain areas where literally it was a full
6:25
Speaker 1: blown truce for the course of a day or so.
6:27
Speaker 1: All right. Second thing, it wasn't officially sanctioned. This truce
6:32
Speaker 1: wasn't something that came down from higher channels. In fact,
6:35
Speaker 1: when they heard about it, people in high command on
6:37
Speaker 1: both sides tended to disapprove of it. This was news
6:41
Speaker 1: to me, it makes sense, But they feared it was
6:43
Speaker 1: going to weaken soldiers resolve to fight each other, and
6:47
Speaker 1: in some cases, as it was happening, if there were
6:49
Speaker 1: officers there, some of those officers ordered their men and
6:52
Speaker 1: their troops to just stop being nice and resume hostilities.
6:57
Speaker 1: You know, they just didn't want to have this happen.
6:59
Speaker 1: They didn't think it was a good idea. So that's
7:01
Speaker 1: an interesting thing. I wasn't aware of. Gifts were exchanged.
7:05
Speaker 1: I know I've always heard that, but among the soldiers
7:07
Speaker 1: who participated in the truth, there really was this great, big,
7:11
Speaker 1: makeshift gift exchange that occurred, you know, like secret Santas.
7:15
Speaker 1: It happened out there. People shared simple gifts, you know,
7:17
Speaker 1: they had whatever they had. They had cigarettes, chocolate, maybe alcohol.
7:21
Speaker 1: A lot of the times even buttons badges from the uniform,
7:24
Speaker 1: they'd cut those off and exchange them. So that really
7:28
Speaker 1: took place that soccer match. Let's get to that. I've
7:32
Speaker 1: mentioned it earlier, that maybe there was a big soccer match.
7:35
Speaker 1: I know we hear a lot about that. The idea
7:37
Speaker 1: of a full blown soccer game happening is probably one
7:41
Speaker 1: of those notions that just sounds really good, really adds
7:44
Speaker 1: to the story. But the truth is it's probably a
7:46
Speaker 1: bit of a stretch. You know, there are a number
7:48
Speaker 1: of accounts out there of moments when some people informally
7:51
Speaker 1: kind of kicked a ball around, but it doesn't sound
7:54
Speaker 1: like those were any kind of organized matches of the
7:57
Speaker 1: kind that you know we hear about all the time. Still,
8:00
Speaker 1: when you think about it, even a quick informal game,
8:03
Speaker 1: you know, to pass a few minutes with people who
8:04
Speaker 1: had previously been trying to kill you still pretty cool.
8:08
Speaker 1: Doesn't need to be a full bown soccer match for
8:10
Speaker 1: me to think that's pretty cool, pretty amazing. Another another little,
8:15
Speaker 1: maybe lesser known fact or something that at least we
8:18
Speaker 1: can put a stamp of yes, this is real on
8:21
Speaker 1: Carrol's really did spark the truce? You know, I mentioned
8:24
Speaker 1: it earlier, but music played this key role, and the
8:26
Speaker 1: Germans started singing still Knocked. I have no idea how
8:30
Speaker 1: to say that. I could have looked it up. I
8:32
Speaker 1: didn't because probably I wouldn't be able to say it anyway,
8:35
Speaker 1: and my accents aren't all that great, and really, to
8:38
Speaker 1: be honest, most of my accents are drawn from stereotypes
8:42
Speaker 1: that I picked up from cartoons that I watched when
8:45
Speaker 1: I was little. Chances are it would have been offensive
8:47
Speaker 1: had I tried. So Still Knocked they start singing that.
8:52
Speaker 1: The British recognize it, of course as Silent Night, and
8:55
Speaker 1: this shared song and the shared meaning behind it, you know,
8:59
Speaker 1: really created this between the soldiers in the opposing trenches.
9:03
Speaker 1: It's crazy to think about to me, but that song,
9:05
Speaker 1: you know, Silent Night, when you look into it, it
9:08
Speaker 1: was first performed back in eighteen eighteen. That's the first
9:11
Speaker 1: time it was performed, and that's about one hundred years
9:14
Speaker 1: before this event in nineteen fourteen. And I can only
9:17
Speaker 1: imagine if the composer of that song could have heard,
9:20
Speaker 1: you know, all the renditions that ever occurred since he
9:23
Speaker 1: wrote that song. I got a feeling that this particular
9:26
Speaker 1: one and the resulting truce, even though it was just temporary.
9:30
Speaker 1: You know, this version had to be one of the
9:32
Speaker 1: most rewarding. You know, to write a song that ends
9:34
Speaker 1: up sparking this truce in the midst of this horrible,
9:38
Speaker 1: horrible war, you know, that's pretty powerful, all right. Another
9:41
Speaker 1: interesting fact is that the truce wasn't all about celebration.
9:45
Speaker 1: You know, in many areas, it allowed soldiers to recover
9:47
Speaker 1: bodies from no man's land and bury their dead, and
9:50
Speaker 1: there are even stories of shared burial ceremonies with prayers
9:54
Speaker 1: offered in multiple languages. Again, really really amazing stuff. Another fact,
10:01
Speaker 1: soldiers in some sectors didn't just talk. They actively helped
10:05
Speaker 1: each other. There are accounts of men repairing barbed wire
10:08
Speaker 1: and then strengthening trenches together before returning to their respective sides. Amazing.
10:13
Speaker 1: You know, after the truce ended, a large number of
10:16
Speaker 1: soldiers expressed regret. You know that this part really isn't
10:19
Speaker 1: surprising to me at all. They expressed regret fighting it
10:22
Speaker 1: really hard, crazy, difficult to resume fighting after meeting their
10:27
Speaker 1: enemies face to face. You know, this is one of
10:29
Speaker 1: the reasons that upper command, higher command didn't want these
10:33
Speaker 1: kinds of things to happen, but really played out you know,
10:36
Speaker 1: it's hard to hard to go back to battle when
10:39
Speaker 1: you were all working together the day before or hours before.
10:43
Speaker 1: After nineteen fourteen, another interesting fact, high command on both
10:47
Speaker 1: sides took measures to prevent future truces, and the story
10:52
Speaker 1: itself wasn't widely celebrated or spread during the war. Instead,
10:56
Speaker 1: it lived on in soldiers' letters and diaries. That's how
10:59
Speaker 1: we know about it. It wasn't, you know, touted as
11:02
Speaker 1: a story that got spread outside of the soldiers themselves
11:07
Speaker 1: telling it. Now, what makes the Christmas Truce of nineteen
11:10
Speaker 1: fourteen so compelling to me, isn't you know? It's not
11:14
Speaker 1: just that brief pause and fighting. It's the power of
11:18
Speaker 1: the day, you know, the power of Christmas. That really
11:21
Speaker 1: kind of gets me. Sounds kind of dumb, but these
11:24
Speaker 1: were people who were ordered to hate and kill each other.
11:27
Speaker 1: But you know they're sitting there looking at this shared holiday.
11:30
Speaker 1: They're approaching Christmas, Christmas Eve. They've got to be you know,
11:33
Speaker 1: they're young men. They've got to be thinking about the
11:36
Speaker 1: years before, you know, on that night, the years before,
11:40
Speaker 1: what they would have been doing, you know, the hopes
11:41
Speaker 1: and dreams that they had as kids waiting for that
11:44
Speaker 1: next morning, you know, to see the presence, the food,
11:47
Speaker 1: and the get together, all of the things that Christmas
11:50
Speaker 1: brings to, you know, both sides of this particular conflict,
11:54
Speaker 1: you know, the peace, all of the ideas, everything behind Christmas,
11:59
Speaker 1: all of that has to be resonating in their minds
12:02
Speaker 1: as they're thinking about their situation now that they're in
12:04
Speaker 1: these trenches, you know, in a life and death struggle,
12:07
Speaker 1: and nobody knows how it's going to go, how it's
12:09
Speaker 1: gonna shake out. Those moments had to just really stir
12:12
Speaker 1: up the nostalgia and just the longing for what Christmas
12:17
Speaker 1: really speaks to. And from there, somebody starts singing this hymn,
12:21
Speaker 1: this carol that everybody else knows, Silent Night, and before
12:26
Speaker 1: long a ton of people are joining in. You know,
12:28
Speaker 1: it's really amazing to think that even in the darkest
12:32
Speaker 1: of situations, Christmas still shines this beautiful and powerful light.
12:37
Speaker 1: All Right, there you go. That's the history, the real history,
12:40
Speaker 1: as far as I know it, of the Christmas Truth
12:42
Speaker 1: of nineteen fourteen. We're often running on our Christmas extravaganza.
12:46
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break and when we come back,
12:49
Speaker 1: I've got a surprising story regarding the origins of a
12:51
Speaker 1: really popular Christmas song that's coming up next stick around,
13:01
Speaker 1: Welcome back here, listening to the Repcolite Home Improvement Shows
13:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Christmas Extravaganza. And we're off to a
13:09
Speaker 1: rollicking start. And really we're a few days away from Christmas,
13:13
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, I'm just not in the mood to
13:16
Speaker 1: talk about paint. I'm just not feeling it. And honestly,
13:19
Speaker 1: I really do hope you're not in the mood to
13:22
Speaker 1: listen to me talk about paint. There's bigger fish to
13:25
Speaker 1: fry right now. And yeah, it's not home improvement stuff.
13:29
Speaker 1: We'll get back to that stuff soon in the next
13:31
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. But for right now, we're kicking back
13:34
Speaker 1: and we're having a little Christmas fun as we look
13:36
Speaker 1: ahead to the holiday. And right now, I want to
13:38
Speaker 1: take a look at the interesting history behind a popular
13:42
Speaker 1: Christmas song. Do you hear what I hear? Right? You
13:45
Speaker 1: know that one? Do you hear what I hear? Not
13:48
Speaker 1: going to sing it? I struggled just to say it
13:52
Speaker 1: that last time. Right there, I stumbled over everything to
13:55
Speaker 1: start with. I want to be really, really straight up honest.
13:58
Speaker 1: This has never been one of my favorite Christmas songs. Right,
14:01
Speaker 1: it's right up there for me with Little Drummer Boy
14:04
Speaker 1: and some of the other ones. It's a real snoozer
14:07
Speaker 1: for me, not a big fan, but there's such a
14:09
Speaker 1: good story behind it that I think it's moving up
14:12
Speaker 1: my list. It's still not going to displace some of
14:16
Speaker 1: the leading songs on there, but it's way moved up,
14:19
Speaker 1: all right, And maybe that will happen for you too. Now.
14:23
Speaker 1: Chances are, when most of us think about the song,
14:26
Speaker 1: you know, do this right now, think about when the
14:28
Speaker 1: song was written. When do you think it came about.
14:31
Speaker 1: Most of us probably figure it's some kind of older
14:33
Speaker 1: traditional carol, but it's actually surprisingly quite modern compared to
14:38
Speaker 1: what I was thinking anyway, And it was written as
14:40
Speaker 1: a plea for peace during one of the most terrifying
14:43
Speaker 1: moments in modern history, at least in regards to American history.
14:48
Speaker 1: So let's go back to October nineteen sixty two. The
14:52
Speaker 1: US is in the height of the Cuban missile crisis,
14:55
Speaker 1: and quickly just summarize that time period in the situation.
14:58
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar, let's just say the world was
15:01
Speaker 1: on edge because the United States and the Soviet Union.
15:04
Speaker 1: We were going to standoff over Soviet nuclear missiles that
15:08
Speaker 1: had been placed in Cuba. That's why they called it
15:10
Speaker 1: the Cuban Missile crisis. If it had been placed somewhere else,
15:14
Speaker 1: they would have called it by a different name. But anyway, Cuba,
15:17
Speaker 1: that's where these missiles are at. There's a lot of anxiety.
15:20
Speaker 1: What's going to happen. Some of you were alive back then,
15:23
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you remember the tension. I was not
15:27
Speaker 1: far too young for that. Six more years had to pass, no, no, no,
15:31
Speaker 1: ten more years had to pass before I graced the
15:35
Speaker 1: world with my presence. But some of you ten years
15:38
Speaker 1: older than me, you were just babies then. Chances are
15:41
Speaker 1: you don't remember anything. Anyway, I'm on a tangent that
15:44
Speaker 1: doesn't need to happen. Some of you remember what was
15:47
Speaker 1: going on back then. I wish I could fix my
15:50
Speaker 1: brain and just not get hooked into those things. Some
15:53
Speaker 1: of you were worried that we were on the brink
15:55
Speaker 1: of nuclear war back then. Right now in New York City,
15:58
Speaker 1: against that backdrop, Noel Rainey r e g n e Y,
16:04
Speaker 1: a French born composer, and his American wife, Gloria Gloria
16:08
Speaker 1: Shane Baker, a talented pianist in her own right. Those
16:12
Speaker 1: guys were approached to write a Christmas song. Now, the
16:15
Speaker 1: two had collaborated often in the past. They were a
16:18
Speaker 1: songwriting duo. They were like Batman and Robin, only with songs,
16:22
Speaker 1: but maybe not quite as famous as Batman and Robin. Again,
16:25
Speaker 1: I'm going to avoid one of those tangents I don't need.
16:27
Speaker 1: They were an accomplished duo writing a large number of
16:31
Speaker 1: pop songs. But anyway, they get approached to write this
16:33
Speaker 1: Christmas song, and really, with the timing and all of that,
16:38
Speaker 1: this request felt crazy, tough to pull off. You know,
16:42
Speaker 1: just how are we going to do this? They're both
16:44
Speaker 1: freaked out about what's going on in the world, worried
16:47
Speaker 1: that cooler heads aren't going to prevail, and that chaos
16:50
Speaker 1: and destruction are looming just ahead. You know, everything felt
16:54
Speaker 1: dark right in those particular days during this crisis, and
16:58
Speaker 1: that's when they were asked to write this song. Everything
17:01
Speaker 1: felt heavy, you know, it just didn't seem possible for
17:03
Speaker 1: them to sit down and write some cheery little Christmas
17:06
Speaker 1: jingle in the midst of all of that. And really,
17:09
Speaker 1: that's not me just being overly dramatic. Noel in Oel, Noel, Noel,
17:15
Speaker 1: I don't know how to say it. Noel later explained
17:19
Speaker 1: in interviews or in writing somewhere, he explained that in
17:21
Speaker 1: the recording studio during that time period, his producer kept
17:26
Speaker 1: checking the radio between takes, you know, checking the news
17:29
Speaker 1: to find out if the worst had happened, if missiles
17:32
Speaker 1: had been launched. So that's what's going on. That's the
17:34
Speaker 1: mindset that everybody's in. So Rainy is supposed to write
17:38
Speaker 1: this Christmas song for Harry Simeoni Simeoni. I'm sure some
17:45
Speaker 1: of you know Harry Simeoni and the Harry Simeoni Corral,
17:49
Speaker 1: and I have no idea how to pronounce that name.
17:51
Speaker 1: Hopefully you know what I'm talking about. This is the
17:53
Speaker 1: group that also is famous for the Little Drummer Boy song,
17:56
Speaker 1: which seriously evokes responses similar to Mariah Carey's All I
18:00
Speaker 1: Want for Christmas Is You song? You know, people love
18:02
Speaker 1: it or hate it anyway. He's supposed to write a song,
18:05
Speaker 1: a Christmas song to go on the album for this
18:08
Speaker 1: Harry Simoni Corral to go on the album with the
18:12
Speaker 1: Little Drummer Boy, and Rainy has no idea, how he's
18:15
Speaker 1: going to do it, how he's going to channel the
18:17
Speaker 1: muse and come up with words of peace and love
18:19
Speaker 1: and all of that when he's not feeling any of it,
18:22
Speaker 1: and honestly, when no one is. So that's what's going on,
18:25
Speaker 1: That's what the world is doing right now, that's what
18:27
Speaker 1: the world is thinking. That's what the world is feeling
18:30
Speaker 1: right now. The furthest thing from Christmas cheer that you
18:33
Speaker 1: can imagine. Now, that's tough, right, that's a tough job
18:37
Speaker 1: to have to come up with something cheery with all
18:39
Speaker 1: of that going on. But there's another element to the
18:42
Speaker 1: story that further explains his feelings and further complicates things,
18:45
Speaker 1: and we're going to get to that on the other
18:47
Speaker 1: side of the break. So stick around and we're back
19:01
Speaker 1: here listening to the Repcolite Home Improvement show Christmas Extravaganza,
19:05
Speaker 1: brought to you by Benjamin Mohr. And I'm in the
19:08
Speaker 1: middle of a story about the Christmas song. Do you
19:11
Speaker 1: hear what I hear? That's a song that's not as
19:13
Speaker 1: old as we typically think. It was written in nineteen
19:16
Speaker 1: sixty two during the height or in the height of
19:19
Speaker 1: the Cuban missile crisis, And I explained in the last
19:22
Speaker 1: segment that the composers Noel Rainey and his American born wife,
19:25
Speaker 1: Gloria Shane Baker, they had been hired to write this
19:29
Speaker 1: Christmas song and they were struggling to get in the
19:32
Speaker 1: spirit of the season since the world was literally melting
19:35
Speaker 1: down at that point. But on top of all of
19:38
Speaker 1: those common fears that people were fearing as on the
19:40
Speaker 1: missile crisis was growing in intensity. I mentioned that Rainy
19:44
Speaker 1: also had another experience that made the thought of war
19:47
Speaker 1: even more impactful on his psyche. And that's where we
19:50
Speaker 1: left off, so I'm going to pick it up right there. See,
19:53
Speaker 1: Rainy had been born in Strasburg, France, and when the
19:56
Speaker 1: Nazis overran his country in World War Two, he was
19:59
Speaker 1: construed gripted into the German Army against his will. However,
20:02
Speaker 1: instead of serving loyally, he ended up becoming a double
20:06
Speaker 1: agent for the French resistance. You know, he wore a
20:08
Speaker 1: German uniform, but he worked for the French Resistance and
20:12
Speaker 1: one particular mission that haunted him the rest of his
20:14
Speaker 1: life was a time when he led a group of
20:16
Speaker 1: German soldiers into an ambush. He was wounded in the process,
20:20
Speaker 1: probably intentionally, you know, to make the whole thing look
20:23
Speaker 1: real and not blow his cover. And though he survived
20:27
Speaker 1: that particular event, the memory of that day haunted him
20:31
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. Now, after the war,
20:34
Speaker 1: Noel moved to the United States and that's where he
20:36
Speaker 1: met his wife and the two began this career in music. Now,
20:39
Speaker 1: as I said, Rainey's upset about the missile crisis, right,
20:42
Speaker 1: and the terrible events that he witnessed in World War Two.
20:45
Speaker 1: Those are hanging over him. All of it's probably getting
20:48
Speaker 1: dredged back up, and he's really hitting a point where
20:51
Speaker 1: he doesn't know how to come up with this song,
20:53
Speaker 1: you know, how to do what he's tasked to do.
20:56
Speaker 1: And so he goes walking around New York City trying
20:59
Speaker 1: to find some inspiration. But every single place that he goes,
21:03
Speaker 1: everybody that he sees is just you know, down in
21:06
Speaker 1: the dumps. You know, everything feels heavy. The people walking
21:10
Speaker 1: past are sad, they're lost in their own worlds. They're
21:13
Speaker 1: just doing what they need to do, grinding out the
21:15
Speaker 1: day to day's stuff. But everybody's just too concerned to
21:18
Speaker 1: be cheerful or upbeat or even remotely friendly. There's just
21:22
Speaker 1: this all pervasive sense of despair that's hanging over everything.
21:26
Speaker 1: And in the midst of all of that, as he's
21:28
Speaker 1: ready to give up, he sees something that he says
21:31
Speaker 1: changed everything. He sees two young mothers with their babies
21:34
Speaker 1: in strollers. Like I said, everybody's down, everybody's quiet. The
21:38
Speaker 1: mothers are down, they're quiet, but the babies, the babies
21:41
Speaker 1: are laughing and smiling and carrying on with each other.
21:45
Speaker 1: They're oblivious to the fear and the tension that is
21:48
Speaker 1: just everywhere around them. Now. He later went on to
21:51
Speaker 1: say that all of a sudden, when he saw those kids,
21:53
Speaker 1: those babies, his mood was extraordinary. He explained that the
21:57
Speaker 1: innocence of the babies reminded him of newborn lambs. Just
22:00
Speaker 1: like that, the opening lyrics of the song came to
22:03
Speaker 1: him in a flash, So the night Wind to the
22:05
Speaker 1: little Lamb. Do you see what I see? Well, if
22:08
Speaker 1: you've ever been struggling, you know, for inspiration, and it
22:11
Speaker 1: finally strikes you know the feeling. You know, you feel
22:15
Speaker 1: like you've caught lightning, but you don't know how long
22:17
Speaker 1: it's going to last, how long you can hold it
22:19
Speaker 1: before it gets away. So the race was on. Rainy
22:23
Speaker 1: takes this idea. He's got this idea in the back
22:25
Speaker 1: of his mind, you know, these first opening lyrics. Takes
22:28
Speaker 1: those ideas and he runs home, you know, heads straight home,
22:32
Speaker 1: and busts into his house, sits down, and cranks out
22:34
Speaker 1: this entire song, all of the lyrics. He then brings
22:37
Speaker 1: it to his wife and she goes to work and
22:40
Speaker 1: soon has a melody composed to go along with it,
22:42
Speaker 1: and together, against all odds, they ended up creating this
22:45
Speaker 1: song that wasn't just about Christmas. It was a plea
22:48
Speaker 1: for peace in the midst of a very real and
22:51
Speaker 1: very terrifying situation. And that's what really makes me reassess
22:55
Speaker 1: what I think of that song, you know, and I
22:57
Speaker 1: guess I really don't know why that really hits me.
23:02
Speaker 1: I mean, I always knew the song was a prayer
23:03
Speaker 1: for peace. It's a key part of the lyrics. You'd
23:06
Speaker 1: have to not be paying attention to not understand that
23:09
Speaker 1: the song's about peace. But knowing that it wasn't just
23:12
Speaker 1: a feel good concept or just a generic prayer for peace,
23:16
Speaker 1: you know, written from a place of comfort and stability,
23:19
Speaker 1: I think that gives the words more weight to me.
23:22
Speaker 1: You know, Rainy and his wife and much of the
23:24
Speaker 1: world at that point didn't know what was coming. And
23:27
Speaker 1: even though neither of them, you know, the two of them,
23:29
Speaker 1: weren't profoundly religious from what I'm reading, they still found
23:33
Speaker 1: peace in a rock solid concept, you know, the true
23:37
Speaker 1: meaning and power of Christmas. Their prayer for peace in
23:40
Speaker 1: the song wasn't just this generic Christmas wish. It was
23:44
Speaker 1: really really deeply personal. In fact, they both explained later
23:48
Speaker 1: that they couldn't perform the song without tearing up anyway.
23:52
Speaker 1: The song debuted in nineteen sixty two, recorded as I
23:55
Speaker 1: said earlier in the last segment, by the Harry Simeoni Coral.
24:00
Speaker 1: And I think Harry Simeoni no idea how to say that.
24:03
Speaker 1: It's a name, It's not a descriptor. They weren't a
24:06
Speaker 1: Harry Coral, a horses, or of people, a chorl like
24:12
Speaker 1: a choir, you know what I'm saying. I don't have
24:15
Speaker 1: to explain that Harry Simeoni the person's choir. They debuted
24:20
Speaker 1: the song, but it was Bing Crosby's nineteen sixty three
24:23
Speaker 1: version that made it a Christmas staple, and since then,
24:26
Speaker 1: artists from Whitney Houston to Carrie Underwood have recorded it,
24:30
Speaker 1: and there's over one hundred versions that exist today. Now,
24:33
Speaker 1: one last interesting tidbit. Noel's favorite version is Robert Goulais. Now,
24:38
Speaker 1: I was unfamiliar with this version, and I had to
24:41
Speaker 1: look it up, and when I did, I realized right
24:43
Speaker 1: away I've heard that version one hundred times. But you
24:46
Speaker 1: should go check it out. Noel loved how Gulay's version
24:49
Speaker 1: builds in intensity with each verse until at the end
24:52
Speaker 1: he's almost shouting the line pray for piece people everywhere.
24:56
Speaker 1: You know. It just emphasizes the urgency of the message.
24:59
Speaker 1: So there you go. Next time you hear, do you
25:01
Speaker 1: hear what I hear? You can think about the deeper
25:04
Speaker 1: message and how the song came to be, or you can,
25:07
Speaker 1: as it's going, explain to the people in your car
25:10
Speaker 1: or the people nearby, all this cool stuff that I
25:13
Speaker 1: told you. You choose what you want to do with
25:15
Speaker 1: the information I've given you. All right, let's take a break,
25:18
Speaker 1: and when we come back, I got that somewhat sad
25:21
Speaker 1: story with a happy ending about one of the most
25:24
Speaker 1: iconic Christmas stories of all time. That's coming up next.
25:27
Speaker 1: Stick around, and we're back you're listening to the Repcolite
25:35
Speaker 1: Home Improvement Show twenty twenty four Christmas Extravaganza sponsored by
25:40
Speaker 1: Benjamin Moore. Now, you know, growing up, Christmas was my
25:44
Speaker 1: absolute favorite holiday. That's probably the case with most kids.
25:49
Speaker 1: I was completely wrapped up in the commercial aspect of it.
25:52
Speaker 1: I get that. I admit that. My name's Dan. I
25:56
Speaker 1: was attracted to the commercial aspects of Christmas. I liked presence. Yeah,
26:03
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us, if we're honest, that's
26:06
Speaker 1: where we are. I mean, there's some of those kids
26:08
Speaker 1: who were truly only and solely devoted to the religious aspects,
26:13
Speaker 1: the deeper, deeper meanings of Christmas. I liked those things.
26:18
Speaker 1: But I sure did like getting stuff. I really did
26:21
Speaker 1: like that, you know. And honestly, there were so many
26:24
Speaker 1: things about Christmas, about the Christmas season that I loved.
26:28
Speaker 1: And we were off from school for two whole weeks.
26:30
Speaker 1: That was great. It was usually snowy outside, there was
26:34
Speaker 1: a ton of fun outdoor things to do. The Christmas
26:37
Speaker 1: tree and all the decorations in the house, those were
26:40
Speaker 1: big deals to me, you know. I loved how the
26:42
Speaker 1: season came into our lives once a year and it
26:44
Speaker 1: changed everything. You know, even in the house everything changed
26:48
Speaker 1: because of Christmas. I love the parties that we would
26:50
Speaker 1: go to my Grandma Hanson. She especially made memorable and
26:55
Speaker 1: over the top Christmas parties that we all still talk
26:58
Speaker 1: about all these years later. I love the movies that
27:00
Speaker 1: we'd watch, and just the build up to the day itself.
27:04
Speaker 1: You know, everything about it was magical. It still is,
27:07
Speaker 1: but as you grow up, you kind of get to
27:09
Speaker 1: see how the sausage is made, so to speak. And
27:12
Speaker 1: I won't say more than that if there are kids listening,
27:15
Speaker 1: but the mystery behind the magic is explained a little bit,
27:18
Speaker 1: and it often feels more like work than it does
27:21
Speaker 1: when you're little. But still it's one of my favorite seasons.
27:24
Speaker 1: And yes, there's a lot more to it than the
27:26
Speaker 1: commercial aspect, you know, and now I get all of that.
27:30
Speaker 1: There's a much more, much deeper meaning and much more
27:33
Speaker 1: importance on the day. Whether you're religious or not, the
27:36
Speaker 1: day still represents a lot more than just the presence.
27:39
Speaker 1: But still the presents aren't bad anyway. I am auditioning
27:43
Speaker 1: out presence on the show today, and I just told
27:46
Speaker 1: you about one of the Christmas songs that I never
27:48
Speaker 1: cared for all that much and how that song came
27:50
Speaker 1: to be, And when I realized the story behind it,
27:53
Speaker 1: I found myself liking that song more and more. Hopefully
27:56
Speaker 1: you had that experience as well, or maybe you just
27:59
Speaker 1: snag some trivia that you can break out at your
28:01
Speaker 1: next Christmas gathering. Well, let's do it again, but this
28:04
Speaker 1: time let's keep the big reveal a little more secret.
28:08
Speaker 1: So this is my last gift to everybody out there,
28:11
Speaker 1: and I think this is a ton of fun. Let's
28:13
Speaker 1: talk about how a famous Christmas story came to be
28:16
Speaker 1: and see if you can figure it out as we go. Now,
28:20
Speaker 1: it all starts back in the year nineteen aught five,
28:24
Speaker 1: nineteen oh five, when the author of the story in
28:27
Speaker 1: question was born in New York to an affluent, a
28:30
Speaker 1: well to do happen in family. He was a quiet
28:34
Speaker 1: and introverted kid, kind of kept to himself, and he
28:37
Speaker 1: was typically, as a result, overshadowed by the more outgoing kids.
28:42
Speaker 1: That's how it goes for us, us introverts. I was
28:46
Speaker 1: always incredibly shy and the louder kids. Yeah, it's always
28:50
Speaker 1: hard for people who meet me to believe that I
28:53
Speaker 1: truly am an introvert, and I fake it for the radio,
28:59
Speaker 1: and I fake it and I meet people at events,
29:01
Speaker 1: but inside, I'm a cringing, cowering, shy little kid still still.
29:08
Speaker 1: And the confident kids when I was in school, man,
29:11
Speaker 1: they always outshown me, And the same was true for
29:15
Speaker 1: the author that we're focusing on. All Right, that's important
29:17
Speaker 1: keep that in mind. There's evidence out there that he
29:19
Speaker 1: skipped a grater two in school, that he advanced quicker
29:24
Speaker 1: and that made him younger and smaller than his classmates,
29:27
Speaker 1: something that really only added to his feeling of being
29:30
Speaker 1: an outsider. I haven't been able to verify that entirely,
29:34
Speaker 1: but the idea is out there. What we do know
29:37
Speaker 1: is that he kind of thought of himself as a
29:38
Speaker 1: bit of a nerd and even a loser. All right,
29:42
Speaker 1: So flash ahead to nineteen twenty six. Our nerdy, loser
29:46
Speaker 1: hero of this story is getting ready for college. He's
29:48
Speaker 1: enrolled at Dartmouth College, and you can bet he is
29:52
Speaker 1: like chock full of dreams and hopes for the future. Right,
29:56
Speaker 1: He's got a lot of things he's going to do.
29:58
Speaker 1: He's got fish he's going to fry, and they're big fish.
30:01
Speaker 1: But and this is a big butt. In fact, this
30:05
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest butts in this whole story.
30:07
Speaker 1: But despite that Ivy League education, despite all those hopes
30:12
Speaker 1: and dreams, he graduates from college and ends up getting
30:16
Speaker 1: a job as a copywriter for R. H. Macy and
30:19
Speaker 1: Company in New York. Now he does that for a
30:21
Speaker 1: little bit, and then he becomes DN an advertising manager
30:26
Speaker 1: for Gimbal Brothers, also in New York. Then finally, in
30:30
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six, he moves to Chicago, where he gets
30:34
Speaker 1: a job. You know, the big breakthrough, right, He gets
30:38
Speaker 1: a job working as an in house advertising copywriter for
30:43
Speaker 1: Montgomery Ward. Hopefully you're picking up the tone here. This
30:47
Speaker 1: kind of work isn't the glamorous career that he was
30:49
Speaker 1: dreaming of, And he later joked that instead of writing
30:53
Speaker 1: the great American novel, as I had once hoped, I
30:56
Speaker 1: was describing men's white shirts. Now some of us have
31:00
Speaker 1: been there, some of us not naming names. You know,
31:04
Speaker 1: there's some mystery to this. Who could Dan be talking about.
31:07
Speaker 1: But some of us went through college with a million
31:10
Speaker 1: things we were going to do, you know, and then
31:12
Speaker 1: we didn't do any of them. Other people, did you know,
31:16
Speaker 1: our classmates, They went on to succeed and be impressive
31:20
Speaker 1: people with big salaries. But some of us, some of
31:23
Speaker 1: us seemed to be far away from the docks when
31:25
Speaker 1: the boat finally came in. You know, when my ship
31:27
Speaker 1: came in, I was somewhere else, not seeing me. You
31:31
Speaker 1: fill in the blank. Some of us have had that experience.
31:34
Speaker 1: Whether you can relate to that or not, that's the
31:37
Speaker 1: situation that our hero was in. He comes from a
31:39
Speaker 1: long history of feeling inadequate, and it seems to be
31:43
Speaker 1: continuing into his adulthood. All right, but it gets worse.
31:49
Speaker 1: So I told you this was a little bit of
31:51
Speaker 1: a sad story. His situation gets worse. By nineteen thirty eight,
31:56
Speaker 1: life is just crazy tough for him. He's married and
32:00
Speaker 1: he's got a daughter, so there are some positives, some
32:02
Speaker 1: bright spots, but his wife is battling cancer and all
32:06
Speaker 1: of that especially takes its toll on him around the
32:09
Speaker 1: Christmas of nineteen thirty eight. In fact, this guy who
32:12
Speaker 1: goes on to write this ridiculously popular Christmas story was
32:16
Speaker 1: sick and tired at Christmas. When January nineteen thirty nine
32:20
Speaker 1: comes around, and the city and a company that he
32:22
Speaker 1: works for, Montgomery Ward, when they all take down their
32:25
Speaker 1: Christmas decorations. He's relieved, you know, he's so happy to
32:29
Speaker 1: see it go away. Most of us feel a little
32:32
Speaker 1: bummed out when that happens, when we see the decor
32:34
Speaker 1: come down and we realize it's over for the year.
32:37
Speaker 1: Our guy, he was thrilled. He was happy now that
32:40
Speaker 1: it was all down. He felt like he didn't need
32:42
Speaker 1: to walk around and fake that whole merry Christmas thing.
32:45
Speaker 1: So he goes on like that for a few months,
32:47
Speaker 1: and then things take a turn. Finally, finally a good turn.
32:51
Speaker 1: Executives at Montgomery Ward they seek him out. They'd been
32:55
Speaker 1: noticing the creativity, the excellence in writing that he put
32:59
Speaker 1: into the catalogs that he was working on. You know,
33:01
Speaker 1: I guess he really leaned into describing men's shirts, you know,
33:05
Speaker 1: maybe in a in a Dickenzian manner. You know, maybe
33:09
Speaker 1: maybe it was that brilliant. Anyway, that's what I like
33:11
Speaker 1: to think. These big wigs from the company, they come
33:14
Speaker 1: to him and they ask him to come up with
33:16
Speaker 1: an original Christmas story book to replace the coloring books
33:20
Speaker 1: that they usually give away every single season. Now, I
33:23
Speaker 1: can only imagine how he responded to that, at least internally,
33:28
Speaker 1: you know, it's not been the best year for this.
33:30
Speaker 1: His wife's sick. He's feeling miserable as it is. He
33:33
Speaker 1: just barely got through Christmas of nineteen thirty eight, and
33:37
Speaker 1: now they want him to create some original Christmas story
33:40
Speaker 1: to be given out during the Christmas season of nineteen
33:43
Speaker 1: thirty nine. That's a big hill to climb and a
33:45
Speaker 1: lot of pressure, but he agrees and then goes to work, and,
33:50
Speaker 1: drawing from his childhood experiences and his frustrations as a
33:54
Speaker 1: young adult and probably a middle aged adult, and inspired
33:59
Speaker 1: by one of his favorite fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen's
34:03
Speaker 1: The Ugly Duckling, Robert el May writes one of the
34:07
Speaker 1: most beloved Christmas stories of all time. Now I've given
34:10
Speaker 1: you the author, Robert el May. Can you guess the
34:12
Speaker 1: name of the story? Have you figured it out? Robert
34:15
Speaker 1: el May, I'm giving you one second here, shout out
34:19
Speaker 1: the answer. If you're smart, and impress all the people
34:21
Speaker 1: around you. Robert el May wrote Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
34:25
Speaker 1: Now we all know the story. A reindeer with a
34:27
Speaker 1: glowing red nose. He's mocked and excluded by the other reindeer.
34:31
Speaker 1: Ultimately he becomes this hero and he guides Santa Slave
34:35
Speaker 1: through a foggy Christmas Eve. Right. Interestingly, when May first
34:39
Speaker 1: shared that story, you know that he drew on all
34:42
Speaker 1: of his own personal experiences to create. When he first
34:44
Speaker 1: shares that story, Montgomery Ward executives they were a little
34:49
Speaker 1: hesitant at first, you know, that red nose thing that
34:51
Speaker 1: was concerning to them because at the time that was
34:55
Speaker 1: usually associated with drunkenness, with alcoholism. It seemed a strange
34:59
Speaker 1: idea had to bring into a kid's book. But when
35:01
Speaker 1: a colleague of May's illustrated the story and they saw
35:05
Speaker 1: the innocent little reindeer and his big glowy nose and
35:08
Speaker 1: not a trace of alcohol anywhere to be found in
35:11
Speaker 1: the pages, they embraced the idea and they gave him
35:14
Speaker 1: the goal ahead to finish the story. Unfortunately, during this time,
35:18
Speaker 1: May's wife passed away. However, despite all the grief and
35:22
Speaker 1: the struggle of that, and despite offers from people at
35:25
Speaker 1: Montgomery Wards to find replacement writers, May sticks to it
35:30
Speaker 1: and he completes the story that Christmas. Montgomery Ward ends
35:34
Speaker 1: up distributing two point four million copies of Rudolph and
35:37
Speaker 1: it makes it an instant hit. But Rudolph didn't become
35:41
Speaker 1: the global phenomenon until years later when May's brother in law.
35:46
Speaker 1: This is another big twist of the story. May's brother
35:49
Speaker 1: in law, Johnny Marx, writes the famous song and then
35:53
Speaker 1: Gene Autrey the Cowboy, the Singing Cowboy, he records Rudolph
35:57
Speaker 1: the Red Nose Reindeer. It rockets up to the the
36:00
Speaker 1: charts and it becomes one of the best selling Christmas
36:02
Speaker 1: songs of all time, second only to Bing Crosby's White Christmas. Then,
36:07
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer became
36:10
Speaker 1: a stop motion animated TV special narrated by burl Ives
36:14
Speaker 1: and that version that's become a Christmas staple for generations.
36:18
Speaker 1: Now for many of us, it's really not Christmas until
36:21
Speaker 1: we see Rudolph save the day. All right. Here are
36:24
Speaker 1: a few more interesting facts to wrap all of this up.
36:27
Speaker 1: The name Rudolph that was chosen for its alliteration, but
36:30
Speaker 1: it wasn't his first choice. He first considered Rodney, Rolo, Reginald,
36:35
Speaker 1: and Romeo before finally settling on Rudolph. I would love
36:39
Speaker 1: to have had Romeo. The Red Nose Reindeer doesn't quite
36:43
Speaker 1: have the pop does it feels maybe like an adult version.
36:46
Speaker 1: Then the idea of the glowing red nose that came
36:49
Speaker 1: to May as he looked out his Chicago office window
36:52
Speaker 1: one foggy winter day. You know, he's watching the fog
36:54
Speaker 1: roll in and he's just playing with ideas in his mind,
36:57
Speaker 1: and he wonders how in the world would Sanna navigate
37:00
Speaker 1: in weather like this, And then boom, light goes on
37:02
Speaker 1: in his head and he realizes, Rudolf should have this
37:05
Speaker 1: bright red nose that leads the way. One last thing
37:08
Speaker 1: that I was completely unaware of. May wrote sequels, Rudolf
37:13
Speaker 1: the Red Nose Reindeer Shines Again that came out in
37:16
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four, and then Rudolph's Second Christmas That was
37:20
Speaker 1: written a long time ago, but it wasn't discovered or
37:22
Speaker 1: rediscovered until nineteen ninety two after the author had died,
37:26
Speaker 1: and then I believe in two thousand and six it
37:28
Speaker 1: was published under the title Rudolph to the Rescue. You know,
37:32
Speaker 1: Rudolph as a kid, I loved Rudolf. As I got older,
37:35
Speaker 1: you know, the magic of Rudolph kind of wore off,
37:40
Speaker 1: you know, it just seemed a little silly and we
37:43
Speaker 1: all know I am anything but silly. I live in
37:48
Speaker 1: a very serious spot, and Rudolf was just too silly
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Speaker 1: for my seriousness. Learning the story behind the story really
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Speaker 1: brings back some of the wonder, really brings back the
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Speaker 1: idea of how much I really might like the story.
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Speaker 1: You know, even in the darkest times, there's such a
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Speaker 1: great message behind it. Even in the darkest times. The
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Speaker 1: guy is going through the mill, you know, nothing turned out,
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Speaker 1: he didn't live the life that he was dreaming, he
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Speaker 1: loses his wife. In the midst of all of that,
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Speaker 1: he still finds hope, peace and all of that, and
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Speaker 1: just the idea that if we're small and unworthy and
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Speaker 1: feel that way, we still have a place and a purpose.
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Speaker 1: I love that. I love the idea with Do you
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Speaker 1: hear what I hear? That in the midst of darkness,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of all of the sadness out there,
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Speaker 1: there's still a light, there's still hope. That's what Christmas
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Speaker 1: is all about, and that's what the Christmas truth back
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Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, that's the same message that comes through.
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Speaker 1: It's the message of Christmas. So from all of us
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Speaker 1: at Repcolite to you and your family Merry Christmas. We
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Speaker 1: hope you have a great one, have a great weekend,
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Speaker 1: and I'll see you next week. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks
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Speaker 1: for listening The Boot