Chet Atkins, Stan Boreson, Alexander Epler, Frank Ferrrel, Johnny Gimble, Garrison Keillor, Peter Ostroushko,
Pike Street Market Rag ( Peter Ostroushko ) Acres of clams ( Stan Boreson ) Secret password ( Stan Boreson ) Who hid the halibut ( Stan Boreson ) Play bagpipe ( Alexander Epler ) Quail ( Alexander Epler ) Alice blue gown ( Chet Atkins ) Yesterday ( Chet Atkins ) I love you so ( Garrison Keillor ) Ain't that news ( Garrison Keillor ) My Father ( Garrison Keillor ) Blues when it rains ( Johnny Gimble ) I'll Keep on Loving You ( Johnny Gimble ) The Peddlers ( Alexander Epler ) Yellow Bird ( Chet Atkins ) Tell Me Why ( Garrison Keillor ) Margaret Haskins Durber Poem ~ Missing Socks ( Garrison Keillor )
Household Odorizer Spray for Travelers (Household sprays/Warning labels) Krebsbach, Carla Minnesota Church Basement Kitchen of Seattle (Home cooking at a Minnesota Church Basement Restaurant in Seattle by the PHC cast.) Powdermilk Biscuits (Seattle/How beautiful is our city?/Cities for lovers/) Raw Bits (Houseboat/From Minnesota/Goose hunters/) Sidetrack Tap Swensen, Marlis Swensen, Ron Thorvaldson, Senator K Tollefsen, James United Tubing (Sponsor with Howard Mohr as spokesman.)
This transcription may have been auto-created from the audio. Can you help improve the text? Email us!
Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown. I guess it has been, though it's hard to report on it from here. I am two thousand miles west of there and I am in a beautiful theater here in Seattle with an ornate ceiling and a great chandelier hanging up there and beams on the side that look to me like carvings from the prow of Norwegian boats so that it's a sort of combination of the Romanesque and the Chinese and the Norwegian all here under one roof in Seattle. It's an amazing beautiful theater that takes your breath away and when your breath is taken away it's hard to stand up here and talk about your hometown. It's also hard to report at this distance, not that I don't know what is going on there, I know quite well, but because you live so far from Minnesota and are so unfamiliar with it, that it would be very easy for me to lie to you up here and to... make up things being so far away from home so it'd be hard for you to check my veracity. I'm determined not to but believe me it's a great temptation for a person who's benefited as much as I have from fiction. It's hard to resist when you are among strangers telling stories that make yourself look good. But I have told myself that I'm going to tell nothing but the truth out here, even though it might mean that I don't say much. The pauses are longer than usual and it turns out to be an extremely quiet week. And like Bobagon. Which it was anyway, it always is this time of year because we get this wonderful chill that settles in on the town, what we refer to as good sleeping weather. Not that people where I'm from need all that much help or encouragement in that department. But it is wonderful sleeping weather when even those who sleep quite well seem to go down deeper into the depths. and dream dreams they have not had before. Some of us don't even need to be asleep to dream those dreams, but other people would rather be. Mr. Lundberg has been sleeping hard, always one of Lake Wobegon's great sleepers. Mr. Lundberg has been hard to wake up in the morning, has bruises, in fact, on his shoulders and his arms where Betty has had to... yank at him and poke him so hard to get him up in the morning. She's got a couple red marks on her too where he's kind of lashed out at her in his sleep. A rugged marriage when we get to good sleeping weather between those two. Father Emil dozed off Saturday in the confessional. during confession. Not unusual for him to do that, even when it's not good sleeping weather. Because Lake Wobegon does not have great sinners. Pretty ordinary sinners in that town. Not many people who might sell a film option on their sins. It's all pretty straight stuff. He fell asleep on Saturday, dozed off. and then awoke with a start, which was unfortunate, banged his knee against the side and said, Carla Krepsbach was making her confession and had just confessed to having impure thoughts. Shocked her, she almost lost her faith on the spot. But in fact, she hadn't had any impure thoughts at all, really. She was just trying to make a good confession. He dozed off, went to sleep. Poor, poor old man. Mr. Senator K. Torvaldsen has not been sleeping much. He has been walking, walking the streets and sidewalks of our town. A man so much in love with a woman out in the state of Maine who will be coming for Thanksgiving this year. down to his nephews Byron Tollefson and his wife Betty are having Thanksgiving. They're going to have Thanksgiving for a great many Tollefson's it turns out. Betty mentioned to some of her cousins and cousins-in-law that this year we ought to get together for Thanksgiving. It would be good to get together. And about a week after that people started calling her and asking, what would you like us to bring? So it looks as if they'll have 15 or 16 at the Tollefson's for Thanksgiving, including Senator Kay and his true love, his sudden true love coming out from Maine for the occasion. He was walking around town wondering to himself if maybe he was rushing things a little bit. rushing things, and then had to laugh out loud at himself, the thought of it. He's 72. It's kind of late in life to be worried about your timing. It's getting late in the day. It's time to dance if you're going to dance. Senator K. Torvaldsen, so much in love. Jim Tollefson, his grand-nephew, in love with Michelle Barfnick, and still rehearsing the play, The Glory of Her Love, and still making his speech, Oh, Sylvia, I know now what I've never known before, and it's getting better and better between those two. Ah, it's a romantic, such a romantic time of year. And another guy walking around town looking at the sky and the trees, a guy about my age, about my height, murmuring to himself, sighing to himself. It's a great story, folks, but he's busy living it right now and is in no hurry to come to a stopping place, though when he does he will tell you all about it. Marlis and Ron Swenson were out to the West Coast just this last week, and she sent a letter back home. Don't ask me how I got my hands on it, but it has to do with this. I've been thinking about it. Marlis and Ron, she's writing back to her cousin Karen, who's taking care of the kids. She writes, This is being written Monday night outside of Bakersfield somewhere, a nice motel but right on the highway, and the truck traffic sounds like the Russian army. Ron says to say hello. Sunday we come home, that's tomorrow, which I wouldn't mind doing right now, though I suppose we are having a pretty good time considering what we've done. We've spent practically the whole trip looking up some old buddies of Ron's from the army and who knows where else, who he hasn't seen for 10 years. And when we met the first one, I suddenly remembered why it had been 10 years and wished we could make it 15, but then it was too late. His friends invite you to spend the night at their place and they just don't stop to think that you might like a room with a door or a bed. They say, we've got plenty of room. It's no trouble. And you don't know what they mean until you get there and then all the trouble is yours. We went to his friend Dave's in Rapid City and they, Dave and Sharon I mean, gave us some cushions and two army blankets. We slept on the living room floor and there was a clock ringing every hour and we woke up at six and her two kids were sitting two inches away with messy pants watching cartoons on TV. They are her kids and Dave has some of his own someplace and he and she aren't married but I guess none of that bothers them. I said to Ron, I can't stay two nights here. But he said it had been 10 years since he saw Dave. Well, those are the 10 years since we were married, so it's not as though he's been without company. But these are people I wouldn't have around my house, so I guess you've got to travel if you want to see them. The country is so empty here, you drive forever without seeing anything, and when you do find something, you're so exhausted by the anticipation, you can't get very interested in it, whatever it is. I guess it takes a different type of person to live here. We saw Ron's cousins, Denny and Donny, who live outside Las Vegas, where they race cars on weekends at a racetrack, and the rest of the time, I think, they drink beer and say, Hey, all right. We had dinner with Denny and Donny at a Burger King drive-in, and they never asked how I was or who I was either. Women out here are supposed to just sit outside in the car and wait to go home, I guess. Denny's girlfriend, Lou Anne, sat and looked at him like he was the world's number one most wonderful man, and you didn't have to know him very well to see that he isn't. Denny and Donny are over 40 and still in their teens, and I doubt they will know much more until the day they die, though the day after that they may find out a lot of things. I thought I ought to take Luanne to the ladies' room and have a talk with her, but when we wound up in there, all she talked about was him and how she wants to have a family when he's ready to settle down. He has a couple little girls who live with his ex-wife, she said, and he tries to get out to see them as often as he can, like they were a couple of pets. Well, after dinner it was midnight, and Ron and I went to go look at Las Vegas, where, just as they say, it never stops, and 4 a.m. is the same to them as 4 p.m. I know because we stayed up until 4 a.m. Farmers are milking cows now, I thought, and here I am playing cards and winning money. In fact, I am getting more money than farmers earn in a week. I played blackjack, which was the only game I knew how to play, and went along pretty well. And then about 3.30, I had a great feeling and put everything on the table and won $1,864. Ron wasn't doing so well. And so when I quit then, he wanted some of that to play with. And I said, no. I said I had promised myself that it was going to the missions. So he said it was his money to start with. He said, you don't earn no salary. So I gave him my view of the situation and launched myself out the front door of the casino and down the street as fast as I could. He yelled at me that he didn't care if I left or not, but he was walking along behind me as he said it. And when I got on the bus he got on too and we rode to the end of the line out in a regular neighborhood with churches and a school and houses with gardens. We walked all the way back as the sun came up and we had breakfast at a nice place and slept all day and drove last night and now here we are. When I shot out the front door of the casino, you know, I didn't look back. I just knew Ron was going to come after me. If it was him walking out, I'd go after him, and I knew he'd do the same. It's good to know that. Everything else can change if it wants to, even feelings, I guess, because if we stay together, we can always make those feelings again. But if he hadn't come after me, where would I have gone? I only left him because I knew he'd be coming along behind me. You asked me once why I got married. Well, that's why. Only a few days and then back home to our house. I hope the kids are behaving themselves. Love, Marlis." Well, it's a shame to stand here reading somebody else's mail. But folks, sometimes a person is so happy they have a hard time talking. You know, all the wonderful things that happen to us in life, things that we do, distinguish us from other people. And we try and do great things to set ourselves apart, to accomplish things. I always wanted to be a writer when I was a boy, and I always compared myself to other writers. The age at which they did things, you know. F. Scott Fitzgerald was 24 when he published his big novel. I passed 24 with a little twinge, feeling I'd kind of failed, you know. Hemingway published his first novel, For Whom the Sun Rises, when he was 27. So I was looking forward to 27. And I published a story in the New Yorker when I was 27. But you know, I'd wanted to publish a story there when I was 13. So... It was a big thrill, but it wasn't as big a thrill as it would have been if I'd been in there when I was 13. Say, I kind of wanted that. So then you enter into that long, broad area of middle age, still trying to distinguish yourself and to do great things in the world. And then along comes love. And love is a gift. And it doesn't set us apart from other people. It unites us to other people. It's the most magnificent thing because feeling these great feelings that we don't know where they came from, we look at other people on the street and know that they have that possibility too, that that has happened for them and may happen again, or may be happening even as we look at them, no matter what their appearance, how they look, or what they're wearing. They too are in love. When you are in love, the whole world is in love. It's an amazing thing. Sing a song here with me. Let's go out with this. You want to sing? You want to sing something? The trouble with most love songs is that they're so individual, you know. You can't get whole groups of people to sing them. But let's try this hymn, which you don't know, but I'll bet you'll learn it real quick because it's real repetitive. Don't ask me what it has to do with love, but maybe we'll find out. I think it's around in the key of C here somewhere, which is the only key I know. Let's try and make like a chord, the great chord here, just... That's a lovely thing. What a beautiful chord. There's a song I learned from Helen Schneier. My father how long? My father how long? My father how long? This poor sinner suffered here. We'll sing it again now, straighten out some of those notes. My Father, how long? My Father, how long? My Father, how long? This poor sinner suffered, and it won't be long. It won't be long And it won't be long This poor sinner suffered here We will walk the miry road We'll walk the miry road We will walk the miry road to the new Jerusalem. A little harmony, a few more basses here. And it won't be long It won't be long And it won't be long This poor sinner Suffering We will sing In harmony. We'll sing in harmony. We'll sing in harmony. When the Lord shall take And it won't be long I'm running out of verses. Would you say so? It won't be long. And it won't be long. This poor sinner's suffering. Amazing grace, how sweet. Amazing grace, how sweet. You sound so good, I've got to keep on. Amazing grace, how sweet. That saved a wretch. And it won't be long. It won't be long. And it won't be long. This poor sinner suffering. I will marry her this year. I will carry, carry this year, all my sweet, my darling dear, and it will be sweet. It won't be long. And it won't be long. This poor sinner suffered too. Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice to hear you sing.
Poem about red socks. Seattle is in the top rank of cities.
Winona Daily News Nov 9 1985
1985.11.09 Berkshire Eagle. Broadcast on November 9, 1986
Archival contributors: Ken Kuhl