Stevie Beck, Greg Brown, Butch Thompson Trio, Prudence Johnson, Garrison Keillor, Minnesota Dance Ensemble, Peter Ostroushko, Vern Sutton. Kate Wolf,
This year I'm staying home ( Greg Brown ) I want to feel Christmas ( Greg Brown ) Give yourself to love ( Kate Wolf ) Lilac and apple ( Kate Wolf ) Safe at anchor ( Kate Wolf ) Log Cabin Home in the Sky ( Kate Wolf ) Grandpa ( Kate Wolf ) Baby it's cold ( Greg Brown , Prudence Johnson ) Wassail ( Garrison Keillor ) Bobby Casey's hornpipe ( Stevie Beck ) Star of the County Down ( Stevie Beck ) Fanny Power ( Stevie Beck ) Santa Claus ( Vern Sutton ) Christmas carol ( Vern Sutton ) Scandinavian carols (Minnesota Dance Ensemble ) Winter Wonderland ( Peter Ostroushko )
Bertha's Kitty Boutique Chatterbox Cafe Don's Barbershop National Council on Wellness Powdermilk Biscuits Sidetrack Tap Skoglund's Five and Dime
The exiles arrive for a week at the grand parents. One moment, you're 42 years old and the next you are 8. Some will go to church for the first time in a long time. There is new stuff downstairs that they never had with the kids. Nothing is changed upstairs. It's a childhood interpretive center. Your model airplanes and pennants are still there. You sleep on your old narrow bed. GK reads a letter from Wayne, an old classmate who is a Methodist minister. He had to finish the cedar panel in the basement before the grandparents arrive. He will finish it in memory of his shop teacher. For his wife, Elaine, Christmas is the final exam in Motherhood 101. He bought Elaine an expensive set of pottery. He wishes that he could be overjoyed at Christmas. His little girl leans the tree and shakes the presents. A year ago, he thought he had prostrate cancer. Then a urologist told him no problem. He remembers how effortless Christmas was when he was a child. He and his brothers dropped bombs onto sister's doll house. / We are just days before Christmas and the exiles are returning. Adult children and the grandchildren move into their parents’ house for the week. Things change, yet they stay the same. When you try to help in the kitchen, you get specific instructions on what to do. The downstairs furniture has been updated but the upstairs remains untouched, so your childhood bed is your bed for these visits. The host talks about a letter he received from an old high school classmate, written because on last week’s show there was talk about putting up old Christmas decorations — ones made of plywood in shop class. This got the letter writer moving to ready the house for his own visitors, including finishing the upstairs paneling project. This funny long missive included an update on health issues and memories of bygone Christmas holidays.
1984.12.16 Star Tribune
Archival contributors: Frank Berto