Butch Thompson Trio, Finnish Dance Band, Garrison Keillor, Tom Lieberman, Peter Ostroushko. Third Generation, Wintergreen, Sylvia Woods,
Strike up the band (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Have a little dream on me (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Girl of my dreams (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Down and out (Butch Thompson Trio , Tom Lieberman ) Brandesweer ( Sylvia Woods ) Irish jigs ( Sylvia Woods ) Haroer's are ( Sylvia Woods ) Child think of me ( Garrison Keillor ) Eleanor Plunket (Wintergreen ) The Valley Desmond Polka (Wintergreen ) Where Texas Borders on Finland (Wintergreen ) Finnish Medley (Wintergreen ) Cricket (Wintergreen ) Earthquake Polka (Finnish Dance Band ) Butte Polka (Finnish Dance Band ) Yochi (Finnish Dance Band ) Memories of Finland (Finnish Dance Band ) Handsome Molly ( Peter Ostroushko )
Landwehr, Carl Old Man Lundberg Sister Brunhilde
This portion of our show is brought to you by your friends in Lake Wobegon Minnesota and it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. Last week was the week that the lawns were raked and I imagined today with the sunny skies and warm temperatures is a day when the gardeners up in like Wobegon are at least starting to think about putting some things in the ground. Some of them had been burned before or frozen before I should say so they're a little cautious.
But gardening is a competitive sport in Lake Wobegon. Particularly the race to grow the first big red tomatoes. A lot of people getting a head start with the cuttings the plants set out in the little milk cartoons in the kitchen window, and I bet you anything that if one person goes out today and sets in their tomato plants. You'll see a bunch of them racing out there likewise.
There's a dance tonight in the town hall. May Day dance which is benefit for the Lake Wobegon Whippets, whose opening day is now just one month away, Memorial Day weekend. And the boosters club is putting on the dance tonight, proceeds of which will go to build a new dugout for the Whippets. They need all the help they can get this year. Ronnie and Earl from the Whippets have formed a band and they will be playing tonight. Three sets or as long as they last, and... starts at 7:30 in the town hall. Let's all get out and support our team. The Big Mayday dance tonight.
Reminded a lot of people seeing posters for the dance, both of them, one in Ralph’s and one in the Chatterbox.. reminded people of a time 20 some years ago when Mayday used to be celebrated by the children at Our Lady School under the direction of Sister Brunhilde. They'd have a big Mayday celebration, all dress up and they'd have a procession and may pole. And then the nicest and smartest girl in the eighth grade would be chosen for the honor of placing a wreath on the Blessed virgin. Which was a fairly tall statue and required kind of an easy underhand toss to get it up there.
It was a celebration that was carried on year after year, and nobody thought anything about it. Until one day a woman came up to Sister and said that Mayday was a communist holiday and only Communists celebrated. She didn't understand that she went to Father Emil, asked him about it. He didn't quite understand it either, but he said, “you know there's no sense in taking chances. With a thing like this” and so it was cancelled 20 some years ago and it was not until about a week ago that Sister Brunhilde got up the nerve to come up to Father Email and to say “I wonder if Mrs Lugar actually read it someplace about it being communist? Or did she just hear it from someone?" Well, he didn't know he's going to look into it.
It has been only in about the last 10 years that the teaching of German was resumed at Our Lady School. German classes were cancelled at that school 50 some years before that. During the First World War. Threw em right out the window. And everything else German, which was quite a feat in a town, half of whose citizens came from there. And many of whom spoke no other language. But all of a sudden Germany was our enemy, and everything that was Germanic had to be thrown out or put under cover, and sauerkraut became liberty cabbage. Frankfurters became hot dogs and people who were German were no longer German. They were Dutch because the Dutch were not our enemies. They had to un-Germanize themselves rather quickly. Because there was a patriotic committee of Public Safety organized in that town, made up entirely of Norwegians which was established for the purpose of wiping out German influence and to prevent sabotage or something as if the Krebs Box or the Krugers were going to go down blow up the depot and lose the war for us. Formed to carry out all sorts of nonsense.
If the truth be told, it was organized by people who had always disliked the German Catholics. And now that they had a reason to they intended to make up for lost time and do something about it. The Lundbergs, whom I've mentioned on this show, they are descendants of a man whose name was Landwehr and who was a school teacher. And who changed his name to Lundberg in order to keep his job. And then was fired. And he kept his name in the hopes that they would change their minds, which they didn't.
Well, it's a long story. I'll tell it to you someday. And I'll bring it up here only because some people mentioned to me from time to time what a wonderful place Lake Wobegon is and how much they would like to live there. And it may be, and maybe they would like to live there, but it is also a town that has a history, a speckled history. And there are parts of it that we might want to change, but it's about all we can do just to try and understand it. And to make some sense out of it.
I'd never heard that story about Mr Landweer changing his name to Lundberg. But when I did it shed some light on old man, Lundberg, who lived down the block from us in the house on the corner in Lake Wobegon. He was a son of the man who had changed his name. Now old man Lundberg, Carl Lundberg, the man I knew was a man that all of us kids were frightened of, partly because he had big, bushy, fierce eyebrows, which moved in strange ways when he talked. Eyebrows that I hope to have someday for my own. And also because he had a voice that carried. And a voice that a kid would remember and he did not brook any nonsense. He did not permit children to cut across his lawn on their way to school. And if you did, you'd hear his voice coming from the front porch. And if you had ever heard Mr Lundberg say “hey you”, you'd remember it. And you'd never cut across that lawn again.
I used to cut his lawn for him. For a couple of summers for a quarter a shot. He had a bad heart. And I guess that I was the low bidder. And I soon found out that there was a particular way that he wanted his lawn cut and no other- that the edges were to be straight and the clippings were to be raked up and carried in a bushel basket back to the trash barrels and piled as neatly as you could do it. And that you were to take a pair of shears and to go and cut the grass right up close to the trees and around the flower beds. And I remember the first time I cut it my way. Hearing him call out from the porch. And say, “hey you. You're not done yet.”
Well, we thought that he was mean at the time we thought he was an angry man, but he wasn't angry. He was just very definite. Now he had a daughter whose name was Claire, who ran off with an insurance adjuster. Actually, she didn't run away exactly. She was living in Minneapolis at the time. But she did not come back to be married in her hometown, which was an embarrassment to her parents, and they called it running away. And she was not in close touch with them for a while after that until her child, her only child, and Carl and Bertha's only grandchild reached, I'd say, the age of about 7 or 8. Carl felt that he didn't have long to live and he wanted to see this boy, so they brought him up to spend a couple weeks with his grandparents.
He was kind of a flabby little kid. And he was decked out on his first day in town in a kind of a mustard colored play suit with matching trousers and a pullover shirt and he had little white sandals on his feet and a little white straw boater hat that he wore. And everyone took an instant dislike to him. Including Carl. Only grandson or not, the kid was a pain. And not because of the way he looked, but because of his voice. This kid had a voice like a seat belt buzzer. It had a kind of a whiny raspy sound too, especially when he'd pronounce certain vowels. “Aaaaa, yaaaaa, grandpa, yeah.” I want a glass of water. Yeah, and I just got on your nerves. This kid was used to getting good service evidently. And if you'd try to ignore him, he was capable of repeating the same request 10-15-20 times over and over in the same voice.
Well, Carl wanted to love him and I guess he did in his own way. But one day I remember the kid wanted to be taken downtown. And he asked to be taken about 10 times before Carl finally looked down at him and said, “hey, you? Shut up.” Kid's mouth dropped open, big tears welled up in his little blue eyes. His lower lip jutted out. Carl looked down at him. He said, “now beat it.”
I've often been curious what became of that kid. I guess he'd be in his early 30s now. I wonder if he thinks Lake Wobegon is a wonderful place and would like to move back. His grandfather is dead. Carl died about five years ago. It took him a long time. He was sick in bed for a year. His wife said that he never complained. And I don't doubt, but what it's true.
During the last year of his life as he lay in bed dying a path formed across the corner of his lot. Which became a deep rut. But he had other things on his mind. It came as a great surprise to people in Lake Wobegon when after his death they found out that he had left several thousand dollars to the school for the choral program. And it came as a surprise too when he left instructions that on his gravestone it was to be written Carl Landwehr, 1901 to 1977, love thy neighbor.
Father Emil wasn't surprised by that. He said he thought it was like Carl to put a commandment on his gravestone. It is a commandment. It’s not a request. It's not a suggestion. It's not a proposal that we think about. What it is is God saying, “hey you! Pay attention. Look around you. See some other people? Good. That's why you're here. It's not just to improve the landscape.”
So the dance is tonight. I just wanted to point that out. 7:30 tonight to raise money for the Whippets, new dugout. They need one. Been kind of rough on that team. It's clay out there, you know, at the Wally Old Hard Hands Bunsen Memorial Park and the old dugout collects rainwater and retains it for a long time after a rainstorm. And it's hard when you're getting beat out on the field to go back to your dugout and go sloshing around in a lot of glop. So let's get down there.
They got a good season coming up. The old knuckleballer Ernie- his arm feels good, his right arm, his left arm, his throwing arm is coming along too. After he dislocated it here this last December when somebody tripped him in the Sidetrack Tap. Actually, he thinks with a dislocation he may be able to throw that old sinker submarine pitch, the one that he used back in the ‘71 season when they won three straight and finished fifth. That'll be something to see.
See you at 7:30 tonight. Beer and setups. And there will be a door prize, which could be a terrific door prize if a lot of people come. So let's all come to support our team.
That's the news from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are absolutely above average.
Shy people have no trouble being alone and watching the milky way. Discussing the Irish harp. Letter from Jack about PHC becoming a big success even though it is only entertaining to incarcerated felons. Friendly sentry security system.
1982.04.26 Lafayette Journal / This is a Berto tape. Complete Audio - Good. It was rebroadcast on May 6, 1989. / Audio of the News available as a digital download.
Archival contributors: Frank Berto, Ken Kuhl