In the past week, I have re found my love for listening to the radio drama: Adventures in Odyssey. I had a great urge one day to listen to some of the classics such as: Malichai's Message, The Underground Railroad, The Search for Whit, Passages, and many others. Listening to them reminded me of how much I loved them.
I'm not sure when I really started to become a fan of them. But, I do remember enjoying them every Sunday afternoon. In between church services, I would take a pit stop at the church's library and check out one volume of Adventures in Odyssey. After coming home and eating lunch, I would immediately turn on an Adventure that I had gotten that day. Eventually, I would listen to all of them that day. By the time I was almost done with them, it was getting dark out and I became hungry. I would eat and then return to the stories unless called away by a game, movie or something else.
In the hours that I spent listening to them, I would color. Color the same type of pictures, which were never good. Coloring turned into puzzles. Puzzles turned into more puzzles and some knitting. And growing older, I found less time to do such things, so ended my addiction to Adventures in Odyssey. Occasionally, I would listen to some, but never in the same way as before.
I hadn't realized my lack of enthusiasm until I started listening to them again. They brought back a flood of memories of those lazy days when all I had to worry about was the giant in my room at night with a snake around his neck (but that is a different story for a different time). They also brought back the memories of long road trips. I would fight to listen to them, and sometimes someone would agree with me. But when Dana and Hannah got older, they wanted to listen to music. I, feeling like that called what happened in the car on that respect, detested the music until sometime later. Also, they reminded me of the church library. I still go there regularly, but back in those days, several of my friends and I would meet there and see who would get the newest Odyssey first. We were so loud.
Adventures in Odyssey has been a big part of my life. I grew up with it. There were so many characters who I remember and still love. There were characters like Rodney Rathbone, the scary bully who I didn't realize to be funny until I was older, Connie Kendell, the uptight teenager who was fun and never got a boy friend and never really grew up, and Eugine Meltsner, the genius who spoke in science language and always fought with Connie (or the other way around). And of course, there was Mr. Whittiker, or Whit. He was the lovable grandfather type who was there for the kids when they had a problem. He was also the one who brought the moral of the story out.
Without knowing it, I have learned a lot from Adventures in Odyssey. I have also grown closer to my little siblings because of it too. Try to listen to it again, for those who have listened to Adventures in Odyssey. You may find more than you realize in the little kids radio drama.
