Greg Brown, Butch Thompson Trio, Dale Warland Singers, Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys. Tom Lieberman, Peter Ostroushko,
Straighten up & fly right (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) After You've Gone (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Japanese sandman (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Get away from it all (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Too much monkey business (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) I Get Misty (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Waltz in three-four time (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Iowa Waltz ( Greg Brown , Peter Ostroushko ) Snoozin' ( Greg Brown , Peter Ostroushko ) Daughters ( Greg Brown , Peter Ostroushko ) Some folks (Dale Warland Singers ) Somebody's coming (Dale Warland Singers ) I took her to the ball (Dale Warland Singers ) King Alcohol (Dale Warland Singers ) Darling Nellie Gray (Dale Warland Singers ) Bound to Ride (Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys ) Satan's Jeweled Crown (Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys ) T for Texas (Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys )
Ajua! Hot Sauce Augmented Chord Mitt for Piano Players Bertha's Kitty Boutique (Cat Clinic) Bob's Bank Butch Thompson Music Corporation Father Emil Father Todd Krebsbach, Wally Pastor Ingqvist Powdermilk Biscuits Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery Rocky Top Hair Products Sister Mary Francis
It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon- it's been a rather warm and pleasant week, at least compared to the last six months or so. We don't get real finicky about our weather in the month of April up- we get a day when the sun shines and it gets up to 45 or so- we'll accept that and feel grateful for it.
It was a little bit chilly on Easter on Sunday so that the women who made the march up the hill to church Easter services had to wear their coats so the people didn't see all the bright colors of all the new dresses. But it was warm enough so they wore their coats unbuttoned. So you'd see some of it.
There was kind of a poll cast over Easter at Our Lady Church anyway, the fact that Father Emil was not there to celebrate mass for the first time in that anybody can remember. He celebrated holy Saturday Mass went back to the rectory and had terrible chest pains and tried to go to bed but couldn't get his breath lying down. Sat up all night and his old chair there in the rectory parlor. Sunday morning come, he called Sister Mary Francis and said he wasn't going to make it. Well, she was terrified. She figured if Father Emil was going to miss Easter Mass he must be close to death door. She ran over there, she got him a blanket and took his shoes off and took his temperature and put some water on to boil. I'm not sure why- what would she do with it... wanted to have something to do, I guess.
Finally made some tea from it. Said she was going to call a doctor but he said no she wasn't. He said I feel so bad. I think he'd kill me if I knew what it was.
So he sat at home. The diocese sent out a young priest from Saint Cloud- Father Todd, I think his name was and he did well, but to look up there at the altar and not see Father Emil there was a terrible shock to people is almost like the roof been blown off the church. Something was gone that they just had always taken for granted. And even though he was feeling better on Tuesday and up and around on Wednesday and Thursday- looked just like his old self- it was still a terrible shock.
Father Todd was not really a Father. You know he's more like a cousin. Nephew Todd. But Father Emil is a true parent of the faith up there in Lake Wobegon. Anybody who is who is under the age of 50 or 55 be too young to remember when there was another one. And when the parent weakens and starts to fade we're all afraid, even if you are an adult and have been on your own for years, they're still afraid 'cause none of us are ever really on our own, you know that.
It's a totally year when one big shock for a lot of parents up in Lake Wobegon. I mentioned graduation coming up at the high school. All 42 members of the senior class. God and their teachers willing will be marching up across the stage in about a month from now the Friday, the 21st of May. Coming up real fast and I know there are a lot of parents of graduates there in Wobegon who are taking a close look at their graduates and saying “no, good Lord, they're not ready yet. We need another six months or so this this kid needs a crash course in about 18 different things before we're not ready to let go of him yet”, but the date’s been set. Friday, the 21st of May. Put on the old black graduation gowns nd the band strike up Pomp and Circumstance and they march in, set down in the front rows as Pastor Inkquivt delivers the invocation. That's all scheduled. It's too late to cancel it.
Pastor Inkquist have about 3 minutes there to ask God to do all the things for those children that their parents and the schools have not managed to do in 18 years. And then off they go into the setting sun. God's always being asked to come in at the last minute like that, you know. When it's too late. 42 graduates, I will bet you that five years from now about 30 of them be gone- moved away, there's not much choice for a graduate of Lake Wobegon High School. Either you stay or you go. You can stay and then go. But you can't go and then come back. It doesn't seem to work that way. I'll bet you five years, probably 30 of them be gone only to come back at Christmas, and even that less and less often.
Move off to strange places those children will. And tell Lake Wabigoon stories. Move to New York and Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and amuse their pals, just like I do, with stories about Father Emil and Ralph and Dorothy and Miss Falconer and all the teachers and all the rest of them.
I bet they'll all be gone. Some of those parents are worried, though I think about the Krebsbach's- Elmer and Claudia- and their middle child, Wally graduates this spring. Waldemar, Wally, as he'd prefer to be called. He's a sweet boy, but you have to wonder about him sometimes. he's about 6’4” I would guess. Probably weighs 140 pounds with his ID bracelet on. Long tall kid who just seems lost half the time.
Walks into walls. Trips over things. You take a look at Wally walking into a room you think God ought to redesign some of his components. He just seemed as a kid who didn't seem to have any idea why God put him on Earth. He was kicked out of school this last week. Kicked out because he wasn't there, which doesn't make sense either. I would think you'd have to be someplace before they could kick you out, but school is different I guess. Father had to give him a long talk and take him back.
Elmer said. “Why weren't you in school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday?”
Wally said, “I don't know. I guess I forgot.”
“Forget? you've been going to school for almost 12 years, how could you forget?”
“I don't know, I guess I just forgot.”
“You're 18 years old. You're about ready to have a wife and a home and a family.”
“I am?”
“yes!”
“You gotta learn to remember.”
“Well, I'm sorry dad.”
“That's your problem is that you are sorry I don't want you to be sorry. You're too sorry. I want you to do well at something- to do well. Anything will do, almost just do well at something. School for starters.”
“Well, it's boring at school. I get bored sitting there.”
“Oh for heaven's sake.”
And on it goes. Kind of a circular conversation you know. Goes around and around with those two.
“What are you going to do when you graduate?”
“I don't know”
“what do you mean. You don't know?”
“I don't know.”
Well, that conversation is about to end. May the 21st Friday night at 7:00 PM that conversation comes to an end. Something is going to change, something is going to happen. And those children are going to go off someplace. I wish them well, I worry for them.
But whatever happens, they will always be from Lake Wobegon and they will always be from good families who love them in a bewildered sort of way. And that means something, even if they don't know it now. It means something, because that is the town where girls grow up to be strong and boys grow up to be good looking and all of them are above average. Every single one of them, even him.
GK's mother said that he wasn't ugly, just homely. GK's Iowa vacation trip. GK reads wedding poem. GK said: that he is back from a two-week vacation. Bob of Bob's Bank is back from two weeks in San Diego. Joe Val, Stevie Beck, Phil and Gary Johnson will be on next week's (April 24) broadcast,
Berto: There were no live broadcasts on April 3 or April 10. This is a Sliker tape from KOAC-Corvalis. Complete. Audio- Good. / Audio of the News available on CD.
Archival contributors: Frank Berto