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Alaska Home Companion

December 9, 2003 |

Dear Mr. Keillor,
I have been lured to come home to MN with my fiancé the past three Christmases by the in-laws with the promise of attending a Prairie Home Companion show, but alas your show has always been in New York. Why? Would you consider coming up here to Juneau? The whole Prairie Home Companion gang could stay in my cabin if you came up. It's 16 by 20, in the woods surrounded by Sitka Spruce and Mountain Hemlock trees, no plumbing, a dog, two chickens, and an outhouse. What more could you ask for? I'll bake cookies.
— Danielle

Dear Danielle,
There was a time when we went on tour and stayed in people's homes and it didn't last long. Maybe we felt guilty about the trouble we were causing them. Maybe we felt the strain of having to try to be funny or at least interesting for long periods of time. Maybe we felt cramped. Sixteen-by- twenty is about the size of the hotel room that I occupied all by myself last weekend in San Luis Obispo, at the Econo-lodge. If you and your fiance and the Shoe Band and the actors and crew had been there, I would have had to go sleep in the car. I write on the road and writing involves sitting for periods of time and doing nothing and that's not easy to do when other people are jangling around. Do you have motels in Juneau? If so, we'd love to come.

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