I hope you are archiving a reasonable sampling of your stuff somewhere. Someday someone might want to create a shrine to what you did, said, sang, and wrote. It got us folks of about your age through a lot of tough times. And while most your former young, then older, adult listeners from the radio days will be beyond caring soon, there is ageneration of young middle agers coming up who remember listening to you with us at the dinner table or in the car, and laughing along with us, and may even be telling their own kids about it. I hope you, or somebody, puts your stuff in a shrine/museum in St.Paul, I guess, someday, with, I don't know, an auditorium where they watch your old shows. Or something. Displays to look at your old performing suit, shoes, scripts. autoharp, and other sacred relics. Don't be one of those stupid, selfish, a------s who decide for their posterity that their material possessions are of no value. It is.
I'm not signing-up to send you money, I assume you have plenty, and I send too much already to the desperate, the oppressed, the planet, and those fighting the war in defense of facts, reason, and decency. But if there is, or will be, a " Garrison Keilor" of "Prairie Home Companion" museum somewhere, I'd send it a few bucks.
You're much too generous. I'm in favor of a shrine to Bob & Ray or Jean Shepherd or Steve Cannon but I'm not ready to be put in a museum. This week I wrote the best Guy Noir sketch I ever wrote which a few people will see in some upcoming PHC shows but it's no longer broadcast so the audience will be tiny. That's okay, it was fun writing it. St. Paul is the last place for a PHC museum, I got kicked out of there years ago and the last time I did a show there, about 28 people came. I do better elsewhere. GK
Yes, we are in the process of downsizing. Like you, I pick up and item, like a toy race car I built when I was 15 and the memories flash back. It has no value, except to me, and I decide it can make the move.
GK, When I was a small boy growing up on the east side of St Paul, I attended school at St Pascals. It is on the corner of Third Street and White Bear Ave. The nuns who taught there were of the St Joseph order. A number of years later, I learned that when a woman joined the order she was given three habits to wear for the rest of her life. A light weight one for summer. A heavy weight one for winter. The third was the one she would be buried in.
I’m glad you are not pessimistic like so many who have seen such great changes to our society. Your optimism is refreshing and encouraging. I’m a lucky man myself and as I continue to age I realize I should be more optimistic and thankful too. Enjoy your new place and continue to be cheerful. Thank you very much.
You have been and always will be a personal hero for me, Mr. Keillor, for championing my poetry, recording it with such gorgeous sensibility and jettisoning my work into a professional world that had been previously unknown to me as as a poet. I will always feel grateful to you (and to Helen, too). Your work and words will live forever..
Thank you for this. It is a refreshing diversion while sorting the attic's many boxes.
I too sampled life in the academy. And yes, it has its own faults and frustrations. But what it does provide and, or may, insist upon is the opportunity to hone one's thoughts or ideas among one's peers. In what other venue is this as readily accomplished? I still miss that.
I think journalism is a venue in which a person's ideas come grinding up against reality and a person is forced to confront evil. I think academia avoids moral judgment. My verdict, however had to do with a university radio station that was dead as a skunk on the highway. GK
Thank goodness I won't be here when the six semis park outside waiting to carry my lifetime's souvenirs to the dumps. It takes courage to do what you did.
I’m never sorry I take the time to read these posts. And so it goes, from the first times I listened to phc with my parents on the radio, enjoyed a 5 minute almanac interlude or finished one of your books closing the cover with a smile on my face. Time with you is time well spent. Thank you Garrison.
I do relate to this morning's writings Mr. Keillor, like looking into a mirror. Thanks. RRoeder
Wilbur is dead⁉️
Sorry, he died for my sins.
🫢😂🤣😂
Yes, there you go again, interpreting my own thoughts and feelings. Please keep writing, bro.
I hope you are archiving a reasonable sampling of your stuff somewhere. Someday someone might want to create a shrine to what you did, said, sang, and wrote. It got us folks of about your age through a lot of tough times. And while most your former young, then older, adult listeners from the radio days will be beyond caring soon, there is ageneration of young middle agers coming up who remember listening to you with us at the dinner table or in the car, and laughing along with us, and may even be telling their own kids about it. I hope you, or somebody, puts your stuff in a shrine/museum in St.Paul, I guess, someday, with, I don't know, an auditorium where they watch your old shows. Or something. Displays to look at your old performing suit, shoes, scripts. autoharp, and other sacred relics. Don't be one of those stupid, selfish, a------s who decide for their posterity that their material possessions are of no value. It is.
I'm not signing-up to send you money, I assume you have plenty, and I send too much already to the desperate, the oppressed, the planet, and those fighting the war in defense of facts, reason, and decency. But if there is, or will be, a " Garrison Keilor" of "Prairie Home Companion" museum somewhere, I'd send it a few bucks.
You're much too generous. I'm in favor of a shrine to Bob & Ray or Jean Shepherd or Steve Cannon but I'm not ready to be put in a museum. This week I wrote the best Guy Noir sketch I ever wrote which a few people will see in some upcoming PHC shows but it's no longer broadcast so the audience will be tiny. That's okay, it was fun writing it. St. Paul is the last place for a PHC museum, I got kicked out of there years ago and the last time I did a show there, about 28 people came. I do better elsewhere. GK
Thank you for this.
Bessed we are to have what we do. Our good friends and their memories can never be replaced. Home is where the heart is and who's there.
Yes, we are in the process of downsizing. Like you, I pick up and item, like a toy race car I built when I was 15 and the memories flash back. It has no value, except to me, and I decide it can make the move.
Good decision.
You can still save the memories in digital photos, but that creates its own kind of clutter!
GK, When I was a small boy growing up on the east side of St Paul, I attended school at St Pascals. It is on the corner of Third Street and White Bear Ave. The nuns who taught there were of the St Joseph order. A number of years later, I learned that when a woman joined the order she was given three habits to wear for the rest of her life. A light weight one for summer. A heavy weight one for winter. The third was the one she would be buried in.
Tom St. Martin
Brooklyn Park, MN
I’m glad you are not pessimistic like so many who have seen such great changes to our society. Your optimism is refreshing and encouraging. I’m a lucky man myself and as I continue to age I realize I should be more optimistic and thankful too. Enjoy your new place and continue to be cheerful. Thank you very much.
You have been and always will be a personal hero for me, Mr. Keillor, for championing my poetry, recording it with such gorgeous sensibility and jettisoning my work into a professional world that had been previously unknown to me as as a poet. I will always feel grateful to you (and to Helen, too). Your work and words will live forever..
Wish you well, Barbara. Keep persevering.
Words to hold close to my heart.
At our age, moving usually means to either Florida - God forbid - or to an assisted living place. Which is it?
New York, NY.
👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you for this. It is a refreshing diversion while sorting the attic's many boxes.
I too sampled life in the academy. And yes, it has its own faults and frustrations. But what it does provide and, or may, insist upon is the opportunity to hone one's thoughts or ideas among one's peers. In what other venue is this as readily accomplished? I still miss that.
Thank you and stay well.
Stephen
I think journalism is a venue in which a person's ideas come grinding up against reality and a person is forced to confront evil. I think academia avoids moral judgment. My verdict, however had to do with a university radio station that was dead as a skunk on the highway. GK
The piece touched a few chords that were surprisingly moving. Thanks.
The best so far, from a faithful listener and Tanglewood attender, approaching 77.
Thank goodness I won't be here when the six semis park outside waiting to carry my lifetime's souvenirs to the dumps. It takes courage to do what you did.
I’m never sorry I take the time to read these posts. And so it goes, from the first times I listened to phc with my parents on the radio, enjoyed a 5 minute almanac interlude or finished one of your books closing the cover with a smile on my face. Time with you is time well spent. Thank you Garrison.