Greg Brown, Butch Thompson Trio, Tom Lieberman, Dave Moore. Swedish Fiddle Trio,
[undocumented]
Living Flag
Well, sir, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. Has been quiet for a long time, especially since Jim Edd left. The gardens are doing great this week. Coming along great guns. There's been some lettuce already, and there are even rumors of fresh spinach, though I think it's just kind of some loose talk.
I don't really believe it. Well, we're looking forward to the day, I'll tell you. When the first of the fresh greens comes in, the spinach and the beet greens, that is a green letter day in Lake Wobegon.
Those of you who have lived all these years on frozen and canned spinach and beet greens might just as well be taking tablets as far as the flavor is concerned compared to the real stuff. If people... knew what fresh greens tasted like. I don't think anybody would plant grass in the Twin Cities.
We'd have yards full of vegetables. The Red Cross held the blood drive in Lake Wobegon here this last Thursday. We're going to have it at Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery. But Ralph was making sausage that day. He decided he would rather not. They did it down at the school instead. Ralph went and gave blood and got a Red Cross medal from Mrs. Krebsbach for having given a gallon. Not all of it on Thursday, but back over the past year or so. Though I must say when she pinned it on him, she stuck him a little bit and he didn't bleed from it. People were alarmed by that.
Tomorrow is Flag Day in Lake Wobegon. I don't know if it's observed here in the cities, but it is in Lake Wobegon. The Chamber of Commerce still has some flags. on the poles with the nails at the end. You can stick into the ground out in front of your house.
You want to see Duane down at the feed and seed or stop by Scoglin's yet this evening and pick up yours. I believe that is all that they do on Flag Day is just fly flags in Lake Wobegon. I can't really think of what else you could do on Flag Day. Though they did used to do more
It seems to me I heard that back in 1936 about 400 people in Lake Wobegon put on red, white, and blue caps, and they formed what they called a living flag out on Main Street. The problem was that there were so many people in the living flag, there weren't many people left over to appreciate it.
But they did it. I think it was the idea of a traveling cap salesman who came through town. But Hjalmar Yngqvist more or less organized it. And he didn't see why anybody should have to see it.
He thought it was a patriotic thing and it should be enough for people just to realize that they were a part of the living flag. But as they were standing there on Main Street, of course, somebody broke ranks. And they said, excuse me, I'll be right back.
And they went and ran up on the roof of the central building right there. And they stood up there. and looked down on it and they said, oh, it's beautiful. You ought to see it. And then of course everybody had to have a look. It took hours. One person at a time leaving the living flag and running up to the roof of the central building up there and looking down at it and admiring it. And, of course, after a while, the people who had already had their look were saying, Okay, that's it now. We can go home.
And the people who didn't have a look were saying, Hey, hold on now. We didn't get our chance. So every single last one of them had to go up there one at a time. And tempers were running short. And the living flag was becoming sort of a sitting and kneeling flag.
It was a warm June afternoon until finally they came down to Mrs. Quigley, who was the last one. And they said, all right, go now, Mary, go now and make it quick. And she said, oh no, she said, I don't want you to go to any trouble on my account. She said, I don't need to.
They said, go look at it. Go look at the flag with you now. She said, oh no, I've seen flags before and I don't need to look at this one.
The whole lower right hand corner of that flag grabbed her and they hustled her up the stairs and up on the roof of the central building and they leaned her out and they made her look down at it. And then of course somebody thought they would run home and get a camera.
So that's why they don't do much for Flag Day anymore. in Lake Wobegon, but they will be flying the flag tomorrow. Services be tomorrow at Lake Wobegon Lutheran at 1030 Sunday School at 945.
Pastor Inkvist will be speaking on signs of things to come, which leads me to believe he may not have written all of that sermon by the time it went into the bulletin. At Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, Mass is at 8 and 10 tomorrow. Father Emil is back from his vacation, his tour of Civil War battlefields.
And so it is also the end of vacation for the parish, which has sat through and enjoyed the sermons of Father Frank from the seminary these past three Sundays. Sort of rambling sermons that have had a lot to do with his experiences in the Las Vegas diocese. And... spiritual lessons gained while playing golf out there.
Father Emil is back and his sermon is entitled, A Call to Arms. And I'm sure that he's going to give it. Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, where all the women are strong and all the men are good looking and all the children are above average. Every single one of them. Lake Wobegon.
1981.06.13 La Crosse Tribune / 1981.06.13 Berkshire Eagle / transcript from https://garrisonkeillor.substack.com/p/news-from-june-13-1981-the-living