Dear Garrison,
You were a Boy Scout, right? I'm a 17 year old Scout, and did my Eagle service project this past summer restoring an old neglected cemetery. I realized, talking to the town officials who helped me, that there was a lot more to the small town of 4,000 (which they've known since they were boys) than I had thought. The kind of lore they shared really helped me to appreciate our town, though it's now grown to 12,000, and the historic past less accessible. I'm almost certain that my listening to 'News From Lake Wobegon' ever since I came across the tapes in our basement at 12 helped amplify that appreciation for a hometown with which one can identify- like a personality, familiar, sometimes embarrassing, but reliable and rooted. It's a good connection with my town that I'll carry to college and throughout life.

My question to you is- do you feel that the increasingly urbanized generations ahead will need these hometown roots, or will we be all right without them?

Benjamin Piche
Raynham, MA

I admire your work, Benjamin. Cemeteries are lovely places for people to go to contemplate life and your project gave some people a little space where they could do that. And I admire your letter, which, in addition to being thoughtful and graceful, is grammatical and your spelling is exemplary. (I am teaching a college composition course these days, so I notice this immediately.) As for future generations and whether they will have roots, I'm sure they will. Urbanization doesn't change that. People don't tolerate loneliness very well, and when they leave home and family, they form new families ---- they fasten onto people in their line of work, or neighbors, or people at church, and weave whole new complicated networks. We can't be too sentimental about small towns, Benjamin ----- they're only as good as the people who live in them, and they certainly have been the source of considerable cruelty and bigotry and also boredom. And boredom is the only explanation for the high incidence of alcoholism and drug addiction in rural America. I hear horrible things about drugs in the small-town midwest and it grieves me, good kids who get on crystal meth and their lives go to ruin. Benjamin, I really think that what happens to you before you're 17 sets your life on course ---- that's your root ---- and if kids are subjected to divorce or adult addictions or abuse, it wounds them terribly for decades, and when you're set on the right course, as clearly you were, then you can live in big cities, travel the world, do as you like, and you'll be comfortable with yourself and feel that you belong here. That's a gift that your people give you before you're even aware of it. Thanks so much for your letter and for your good work.

Garrison,
I am curious what a "grave blanket" is. I saw a local florist create a spectacular arrangement of evergreens, ribbons, artificial flowers, and other decorative stuff, and he explained that it was a grave blanket, which he said is primarily a mid-west custom and was brought to Minnesota by the Scandanavians who settled there. It is not seen in any other part of the country, and is viewed as a way to keep a grave "warm".

As a Protestant minister, I understand earthly death to be a fairly cold thing and no amount of evergreen is going to change that. Wondering what your thoughts would be on such a thing. Keep up the good work!

Mary Jo Bray
Wauseon, Ohio

Mary Jo, I asked Holly Harden about grave blankets, she being a writer and colleague who knows more about real small towns than I do, and this is her reply:

Traditional grave blankets have been around for years, and are made from live pine branches, pine cones, baby's breath, and ribbons or bows. A grave blanket might have a centerpiece representing something special about a loved one -- a special occasion or hobby, a favorite pet or talent.

History tells us they were used to decorate grave sites in the winter, when flowers were not available or too fragile to withstand the bitter cold. Traditional grave blankets were used in the late fall and winter and were most popular during the Christmas season. They are designed for decorating the grave site for a short time and are then removed after the holidays. They are to the grave what the wreath is to the door.

In recent years, grave blankets have been used throughout the year, often to commemorate the birthday of the deceased, an anniversary, Mother's Day, etc. The use of the grave blanket is not exclusive to any part of the country, though they were first used in colder areas.

In smaller towns where the temp drops below freezing, a real blanket might be placed on a gravesite to keep the ground from freezing a few days before a funeral. This should not be confused with the use of the pine grave blanket described above, whose purpose is mainly decorative. Placing a real blanket on a grave is more a practical thing, and not custom or common, even, but one of those "let's hope this works" things that might save a man the struggle of cutting through frozen earth in January, or, throughout the course of a day, piling hot coals on a grave in order to soften the earth for the digging.

Mr. K: I happened to be surfing the web, and I ran across Patti LuPone's web site, where she answers a question about your show:

"9) My favorite radio show is Prairie Home Companion and, as a final question, have you ever done anything with this show or if you haven't, would you ever?

Patti answers: "I love Prairie Home Companion, I've never been on it and I'd love to be."

As a longtime, HUGE fan of PHC, I want to do poor Patti a favor, and let her on your show! It's the least... (well, maybe not...) a Minnesotan can do for a city girl.

Gabor Salamon Woodbury, MN.

We'll make sure to invite Miss LuPone on the show soon, Gabor, though she's fully occupied at the moment singing and dancing and playing the tuba in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway, which I saw last month and she was astonishing. By the way, did you write the letter to her website, Gabor?

Dearest Mr. Keillor,
I was just sitting at my computer, trying to be productive and thought that, instead, I should write and thank you for hosting "A Prairie Home Companion" all these years. I am a northern-Minnesotan living in Ohio after a stint in northern Ghana. Listening to your show has enabled me to take a little piece of home wherever I go. While I was in Ghana, it was reassuring to hear your midwestern voice talking about my home through the months of trying to teach trigonometry, optics or balancing chemical equations to 200 students with mediocre English skills in 140-degree heat. (It was a dry heat.) Thank you.

Warmly, and with fond thoughts of coffee and pine trees,

Katherine Almendinger
Columbus, OH.

You young people lead such adventurous lives, Katherine, and it's a privilege to get a glimpse of one now and then. My top lifetime temperature probably is around 110 and I can't remember where that was ---- guess it affected my brain cells. But I can sort of imagine a tall girl from northern Minnesota in Ghana patiently going over trigonometry with her class as perspiration trickles down her face. She's wearing khaki shorts and a sleeveless blouse and sandals and she feels greasy and slightly faint but she keeps soldiering on. You can do these things when you're young. But when you get to be a certain age, Katherine, you may want to think about returning to the comforts of the north woods. That little cabin in the birch trees, the frozen lake, the sauna, the big window looking out onto the bird feeder, the bluejay vs. the chickadees, the smell of coffee and woodsmoke and pancakes with lingonberry jam.

Dear GK,
My family and I love your show and listen to it here in China when we are lucky enough to have a good connection. I absolutely love the Guys All-Star Shoe Band and the stories and my 2-year-old daughter loves the music and dances around our office. What an amazing cast you have. And we're grateful that you have such a superb archive because it is almost impossible for us to listen to your show live. I longed to be at the Minnesota State Fair when listening to the broadcast from there back in September. Somehow here in China the melon, sausage, corn, and candied miniature apples on a stick, which are sold on the street everywhere, just don't compare to the greasy fair food.

Maybe you should have a Peking Opera singer on the show sometime. What do you think? Well I wish you the best in the coming year and hope that your show will go on for many more years.

Sarah Willford
Beijing, China

Sarah, I went to a traditional Chinese massage clinic in New York in December to get poked in the sharp way that Chinese therapists do so well, and the woman who was jabbing the soles of my feet with her small fingers told me (in response to my question) that she had been a singer in China and she proceeded to serenade me in her lovely (to Western ears, somewhat shrill) soprano and it was Different, as we say in Minnesota. I immediately thought of inviting her onto the show, and now here you are seconding the idea. Okay, a seed has been planted. We shall see. And thanks so much for writing.

Post to the Host:
Well, you almost made the earth wobble in the last month by shifting your monologue to the first half of your show. Thank God you are back on track. For more than twenty years, our schedules have been defined by the tales of Lake Wobegon. We have laughed, cooked, drank and been of a genuine human nature while we listened to you. And then you changed the timing. The wine was not ready! My wife had slipped into the shower and you had started! My Gawd! Well, it seems to have been short-lived. I hope that this has corrected itself so that the monologue will be forever in the second part of the show, but it makes no difference, we will listen and be a part of your show no matter the timing. Thanks for the years we have had, and the ones yet to come.

Tom Sapp
Charlotte, N.C.

It's gratifying to know that I can cause a stir in the Sapp household, though this was unintentional, believe me. The monologue got shifted to the first hour because we kept experiencing monologue drift. We'd have a lot of good stuff on and guests whose songs we hated to cut and before you knew it, the host was saying "It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon" and looking down at the stage clock and seeing the number 14:32 on it, the number of minutes remaining, and suddenly realizing that the elaborate saga he'd planned to tell could not be told this week and instead he should perhaps reminisce about his old dog or do a meditation on waffles. But when the monologue was moved to the second half-hour, voila, he had all the time in the world. Luxury! Extravagance! And now I can tell a story about the Sapps, once an upstanding family of Lake Wobegon, who moved to Charlotte, a den of hedonism, where men and women drink wine in the shower on Saturday evening while listening to the radio. You've opened up a whole new world, sir.

Hey Garrison,
My wife and I are faithful listeners to your show, even managing to see you in New Orleans (our home, or former home) a few years ago. Our perfect Saturday afternoon is to make a big pot of coffee, get comfortable and listen to the show. Now that I'm in Kuwait I have a problem recreating that experience (other than that my wife is 6,000 miles away!), your show appears on the Armed Forces Network but I can't get it here in the hinterlands of Kuwait. So, my question is: which of your cd's will give me a "virtual" Lake Wobegon that will do until I get home next year? The coffee I can do; the show I can't!

Thanks from the windy desert,
Captain Paolo Profumo
Camp Victory, Kuwait

Capt. Profumo, sir! (CLICK OF HEELS) I guess that the 25th Anniversary CD set might be good for someone in your position, and if you'll send on your APO info, we'll ship you one and you can buy us a cup of coffee when you get back to the States. Happy New Year, sir!

Garrison,
As someone who works in an East Los Angeles barrio, I have found that the stories and experiences of the Mexican and Salvadoran people with whom I work have moved me to discover more about my own Irish, Scottish and New England roots. Lake Wobegon has also played a large role in awakening me to the richness of our immigrant heritage. I firmly believe that harsh attitudes to present-day immigrants are really a failure of many Americans of European descent to be in touch with their own family histories which more than likely include stories of struggle, hardship, and difficult adjustments to the new world. How can the stories of Lake Wobegon not put us in solidarity with the immigrants of today? How can these stories not be of comfort and interest to 21st century immigrants?

Jane Argento
Pasadena, CA.

I want to agree with you, Jane, though I have the luxury of living in St. Paul, Minnesota, which isn't so susceptible to big waves of immigration as L.A. is, with the inevitable problems it causes. Winter reduces our attractiveness as a destination. We have a large Hmong and Vietnamese population, a considerable Mexican and Salvadoran community, and now a growing African (Somalian and Ethiopian) one, but you don't hear people worrying about it as you do in L.A. The schools seem to be handling this enormous challenge with courage and ingenuity. It can be desperately hard to leave your country for another, and the price may be enormous in human terms. But you're right: when we look at these hard-working, devout, loyal families in our midst, we are looking at our ancestors.

Mr. Keillor,
My husband and I were just married last week and I'm trying to convince him to take me to see your show for our honeymoon in May. Can you tell me where Prairie Home Companion will be?

Many Thanks,
Emily Pesci
Newton, MA.

I don't have a calendar here in front of me, Emily, but as I recall, the show will be in Rome on May 6, the island of Patmos on the 13th, Antigua on the 20th, and New Zealand on the 27th, so just pick your weekend and go.

Dear Garrison,
I realize that your show's main pull is nostalgia for a Minnesota (or an America) that once was. Ethnic Norwegians, Swedes, and German Catholics living in sheltered communities.

However, the Minnesota of today is largely urban-centered and that Norwegian/Swede cultural domination is slowly giving way to Hmong, Laotians, and Vietnamese, Somalis and Ethiopians, Mexicans and Russian Jews. Perhaps your show could reflect this new Minnesota a bit more.

Thanks,
Douglas, from St. Paul

Douglas, the Somalis and Ethiopians who listen to the show regularly like it just the way it is. They feel that it teaches them something about American English and the midwestern culture in which they find themselves. It was strange to them when they arrived, and the show makes it less so. You are naive about culture, my friend, if you think that we can put it on and take it off as one might put on a serape or put some African carvings up on the mantle. We are who we are. Foreigners realize that. When they come to the midwest, they find a very distinct culture. It doesn't reflect them particularly and they have to accommodate to it, just as you would need to make peace with the French if you lived in France.

Dear GK,
I'm a young listener to your show (19) and have been a fan for quite some time. This morning I awoke listening to a classic rock station and suddenly a commercial for a cellphone company came on, and the unmistakable voices of Sue Scott and Tim Russel lcame across my speakers.

I didn't know that those two very fine actors did commercial work. It just never crossed my mind that someone working for the semi-elitist field of NPR would work in the gritty corporate world of commercials.

Do folk in your troupe often take outside work? It just seems a bit odd. Ah well, such is the life I am repeatedly told I have no grasp upon due to my youth.

Farewell!
Steven Taylor
Parkers Lake, KY

Yes, some of them do, Steven. At least that's what I've heard. (I don't listen to enough commercial radio to know.) As for elitism, there is no elitism like that of people who program stuff they loathe for a listenership they despise, which is the case with commercial radio management, for the most part. Programming classical music and jazz and folk, as most public stations do, is not elitism, it's idealism.