What happens
Gildersleeve, a small-town civic figure, decides one morning to abandon his daily routine and live by impulse rather than the clock. His resolve leads him to skip work, dismiss his household's schedules, and rebuff the school principal Irene Henshaw, who has always kept to her own strict timetable. Gildersleeve then calls on a travel agent, Kelly, at midnight and takes her on an impromptu drive into the countryside. The Great Gildersleeve is an NBC radio comedy, first broadcast on November 4, 1953, and starring Harold Peary, Willard Waterman, Lillian Randolph and Lurene Tuttle.
Summerfield, a small town, and the nearby village of Minnerville, in the 1950s
Characters: Gildersleeve, Irene Henshaw, Leroy, Birdie, Peavey, Kelly, Justice of the Peace
Listen for: Gildersleeve's announcement at breakfast that he will no longer live by the clock, and his rapid reversals as his new plans unravel
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.