{"id":36432,"date":"2013-08-08T20:34:31","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T00:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=36432"},"modified":"2013-08-08T20:34:31","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T00:34:31","slug":"now-and-then-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/now-and-then-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Now and Then"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A quiet night in Lake Wobegon
\nby Jean Martin
\nA rainy, muggy day was promising to turn into a perfect evening at Interlochen this week. Hordes of people, most of them well past middle age and all of them pretty white, were converging on Kresge Auditorium. They were all coming to enjoy the final night of Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion – Radio Romance” Tour.
\nUnlike almost everyone else in the place, we chose to heed admonitions against using cameras or recording devices. We knew that this was going to be an experience, kind of like a perfect sunset that could never be captured in pixels or bytes anyway.
\nThe Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band struck up a number, and Keillor stepped onto the stage. Audience members all knew what was coming next and what their part was. There followed a pretty fair summary of everything the typical radio audience would be expecting.
\nThere was a girl singer, Fred Newman and his sound effects, duets, corny jokes and an advertisement for Powder Milk Biscuits.
\n\"\"
\nFor a man whose forte is radio Keillor has excellent stage skills. It was remarkable to watch him virtually disappear on stage when the other performers took their time in the spotlight.
\nKeillor got a surprise when he was explaining about winter weather in his hometown, Lake Wobegon. He mentioned those snow warnings, you know the kind where the earnest weatherman warns everyone to stay off the roads. To his people, he said, these were sort of a challenge, a bugle call . . . At that thunderous applause broke out in the auditorium. Keillor seemed a little taken aback and said that he now understood something new about people in Northern Michigan.
\nLike any PHC radio program, there was an intermission in which the audience was invited to sing along. It was remarkable to hear almost 4,000 people sing so many songs we all held in common. We sang everything from America the Beautiful to Everly Brothers favorites. At one point Keillor began, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years . . . .” It was the final verse to Amazing Grace, and everyone knew it and could sing in the four part harmony.
\nAlong toward the end of the evening – he must be giving us the whole 2-hour radio treatment, we thought — Keillor turned reflective. He confided to the young singer, Sara Watkins, that her star was rising while his career was winding down.
\nFinally after three hours, we all sang Good Night Ladies – for about the fourth time – and Keillor and the cast walked off the stage. The next day, August 8, would be Keillor’s 71st birthday; and he was heading home, back to Minnesota.
\nPhoto courtesy of Tour Journal<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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