Butch Thompson Trio, Tom Lieberman, Red Maddock, Jan Meara, Orchestra Balkan, Peter Ostroushko, Butch Thompson. Pop Wagner,
It's Wonderful ( Butch Thompson , Red Maddock ) Crazy About My Baby ( Butch Thompson , Red Maddock ) Ain't Misbehavin' ( Butch Thompson , Red Maddock ) The Sheik of Araby ( Butch Thompson ) Somebody Loving You ( Jan Meara ) Tennessee Blues ( Jan Meara ) Downtown ( Jan Meara , Tom Lieberman ) Don't Get Around Much Anymore ( Tom Lieberman ) Riding the El Capitan ( Tom Lieberman ) Irish Washerwoman (Orchestra Balkan ) Havanageela (Orchestra Balkan ) Under Paris Skies (Orchestra Balkan ) Italian Tarantella (Orchestra Balkan ) Macedonian Tunes (Orchestra Balkan ) Kicking My Dog Around ( Pop Wagner ) Cocktails for Two ( Pop Wagner ) San Francisco Bay Blues ( Pop Wagner ) Jerusalem Ridge ( Peter Ostroushko ) Little Joe ( Peter Ostroushko ) Shreveport Stomp (Butch Thompson Trio )
Ajua! Hot Sauce Bunsen, Arlene Bunsen, Clarence Chatterbox Cafe Nordberg, Diane Nordberg, Elmer Nordberg, Grandma Powdermilk Biscuits Sidetrack Tap
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Well, sir, this half hour brought you by your friends and Lake Wobegon- it's been a quiet week there this past week. The temperature dropped suddenly and dramatically on New Year's Day to the great relief of almost everyone- had been up in the 30s for a while before that, which makes people kind of uneasy in Minnesota, I think- have it so warm in December- guilty almost. As if they're sloughing off on the job and know they'll have to make up for it later. But finally turned cold on New Year's Day and people in Lake Wobegon said “good. Now we get down to it- get down to business here. The Bunsens, Clarence and Arlene, left this past Friday to go down to Los Angeles. They have a daughter who lives there and they're going down to visit her was what they said though a lot of people in town felt they really went down there to get away from the cold and to get warm. We just didn't dare say it. People in Lake Wobegon are not accustomed yet to the idea of going south for the winter. To them you only go south if you're sick, south is for convalescence. For invalids. People with weak tickers. If you got your health you stay up here. Go about your business- business of survival. School kids wished it had turned colder a little bit sooner because the school board met back about three weeks ago and decided since it was so warm they would keep school in session over Christmas and New Years except for the days themselves. Decided they would put off the two week vacation until January or February when it gets colder and they could save more money by turning down the heat. So school was in session most of the past two weeks, and Snow Week was moved up to this past week at Lake Wobegon High School. Their big winter do- they have a queen and dance and all the rest of it. The Nordbergs discovered, I guess it was the Friday after Christmas, that their youngest daughter Diane- it's Elmer and Dorothy Nordberg- discovered that their youngest daughter, Diane, had been elected the Snow Queen. She didn't tell them. A neighbor girl did. Diane was afraid to. She knew they'd be upset and they were. She got home, they sent her upstairs to her room without supper. Her father said, “you knew I wouldn't like it and now you know.” In a town like Lake Wobegon, where there are only two churches, you'll often find a lot of different varieties of Christian in each one. Some of ‘em stricter than the others, and the Nordbergs and particularly Elmer are very strict and very plain people, and playing out of principle. And the idea that a daughter of theirs would be queen of something and walk down the middle of the gymnasium in a low cut dress and be crowned and have a big fuss made over her and be the center of attention made them ashamed they feel very strongly Christians are not put on Earth to be royalty. It's all vanity and worldliness and pride. Christians put on Earth to be servants and to humble themselves. So they put it to her when she came home, I tell you. She left school a queen and she got home and she became a queen who was imprisoned in her chamber. Well, the word got around town fast as it always does in Lake Wobegon. People chose up sides as they always do in Lake Wobegon. A lot of people felt Elmer was being too strict with her. Her grandma said “oh let her do it." She said “it's just a small thing.” Elmer says it always begins with small things. What dads have always said. Other people felt that Diane ought to respect him and obey him and turn it down. But in the end, he relented. As parents often do with the youngest child in a family, I know this from experience being one of the older ones. Yeah, some other people here had that same experience. Parents always lay down the law with the older ones and then they get older and the years go by and the parents mellow. And by the time the youngest one, the baby of the family comes along, why they're in a mood to issue reprieves. Commute sentences. So he did. A he her let her be queen and she was queen. She marched down the middle of the gymnasium in a taffeta formal, with a neckline that, as some people said, came up over her head. And went and reigned over the snow dance in the high school gymnasium that evening and came home well past midnight to find the door’s locked. Father came down, opened it, said he was sorry it was a mistake, he'd forgotten, but it took him a long time to get there. And everybody knows that Elmer has never locked his doors in 20 years or more. So she had a long time to stand out there in her formal gown, and to think about it, but there is a price to be paid for being queen. Nobody ever sat on a throne without some kind of opposition. And the opposition was her father. I just hope she doesn't resent him for it. He was just afraid for her is all. Some people you put him under the bright lights- it's hard to get them out. That's the news from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and all the children are above average.
Shyness begins when we were born. Forced out of our warm waterbed into the cold world, we are afraid to become attached to other people. Mothers say nine months is all you get on full subsidy. Barbara Ann Bunsen wrote home from UM about her backed-up sink. It cost $48.00 to get rid of a quart of chicken gravy. Her realtor husband Bill sold a house for $75,000. Bill fixes supper every night.
1988-01-16 1990-01-20
1980.12.28 Star Tribune
Archival contributors: Frank Berto, Ken Kuhl