Christmas Joe

On December 21, 1967 a mysterious stranger arrives in a small southern town. Branded a hobo, he has come to town hiding in a boxcar of a freight train. Mistaken for a drunkard, he is taken to the county jail. Once there and found instead to be ill, he is transferred to the town’s hospital where a young doctor finds that even though he is certainly ill, he cannot persuade the powers that be that they should accept a stranger into their hospital. With nowhere to go, the pastor of the town’s church takes him in, to the disdain of his socialite wife and several of her peers. Appearing disheveled and uncommunicative, the newcomer has little verbal interaction with anyone until it is found that he has a fondness for animals and children and they in turn sense something in him that is unseen by the adults. This revelation unnerves the townspeople fearing that he is a danger. Only the young doctor and the newly hired church choir director, recognize something gentle and kind in this stranger, known only as “Joe”. Where has this strange and difficult man come from? In a time more than fifty years ago before government and social service programs stepped in to manage such situations, who will care for him? And at Christmas? Such an inauspicious time for this loner to appear, needing food, needing care, needing shelter. Is he just another untimely inconvenience for the townspeople or has he come to bring a seasonal message? All these questions will be answered in this family friendly Christmas drama, inspired by a local small town legend.