November 19th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Indian Summer is over. The forecast is for lows in the teens tonight. It is hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving already. “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go…” Now, grandmother has a townhouse in the city and there is hardly room for all of the family. My grandmother on my mother’s side owned a grocery store in Upsala, Minnesota, so Thanksgiving Day was a big deal. She would fix not one, not two but three entrees, turkey, roast beef and a small pork roast. My job was to fill the crystal glasses with ice and water from the cistern pump. “Gram” would always start out with a prayer and then an apology for the quality of the meal, “I don’t know why I keep doing this, I simply can’t seem to cook like I used to.” The food was delicious. I think that is where we got the Lutheran guilt from.
I will be going to my son Erik’s home in Wadena for Thanksgiving Dinner. Erik loves to cook and I am looking forward to seeing the grandchildren. I plan to stay away from the stores on the “busiest shopping day of the year”. I don’t shop, I buy. Waiting in line is one of the hardest things for a “recovering jerk” to do. Thank goodness for prepay gas pumps so that I don’t have to stand in line while someone chooses from the hundreds of lottery tickets that are available.
The show this week is live from the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas. Special guests include , western swing and hot jazz ladies of Fort Worth, The Quebe Sisters Band, Texas-born mandolinist/violinist Richard Kriehn and the Cherubin of Midland, beloved mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Enjoy the show.
There will not be a note next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
For those of you who are real public radio fans, check out this rap song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxRgNnue-zk
“The real messages of hope in our generation are not those to be bounced from the moon, but those to be reflected from one human heart to another.” Kenneth S. Wills
November 12th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Yesterday was Veterans Day, which started as Armistice Day which commemorated the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front in Europe, at eleven o’clock am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. In many parts of the world, people take a two minute moment of silence at 11 am as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the “war to end all wars”.
I visited the grave site of my father and my uncle at the Gethsemane Church Cemetery in Upsala and then I stopped to see Bob Holmen Sr. and Aymer Nelson who live in an assisted living facility in Albany. I found them in the dining hall sitting down to lunch. The staff offered me a plate and I joined a woman and two men at a table. The food was great. Pork chop, squash and potatoes. The dinner rolls were very tasty. I visited with a Mr.. Wolf who used to own the John Deere dealership in Albany. He had once attended A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald and he was bold enough to go up on the stage and visit with Garrison afterwards. His daughter and Garrison had a lengthy conversation.
Before I left I went back to Bob and Aymer and thanked them both. Bob was on a destroyer in the Pacific and Aymer went on the beach at Normandy on D Day. My dad served on a destroyer escort in Pacific. He was a radar man, spending hour after hour in the bowels of a “tin can” while the fighting raged around him. In one of his journals he wrote: “The two months at Okinawa were hell.” We owe a great deal of thanks to all of those men and women who have fought to protect this country. War is hell, but the warriors are not to blame. When you meet a man or women in uniform, simply offer them your hand and say, “Thank you for serving”.
The show this week is live from The Saint Augustine Amphitheater in Saint Augustine, Florida. Special guests include The Nashville Bluegrass Band and Floridian vocalist, guitarist and harmonica heavy JJ Grey shares his own brand of southern rock and soul. The usual cast of characters will entertain you. Enjoy the show.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
November 5th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Last weekend we gathered at “The Cabin” to celebrate my son’s 38th birthday. Erik loves to cook and he did a roast beef for the Saturday evening meal. It was very tasty and I mentioned that it reminded me of “Ma’s” roast beef dinners.
Each family has the one or two meals that everyone looks forward to. In our family, it was “Ma’s roast beef”. She always put on a very special roast beef dinner. The meat was very tasty, the mashed potatoes were perfect and the gravy was “right on”. There was many a time that the four brothers who lived near Minneapolis would gather at Ma’s apartment for her roast beef dinners. After she passed on, there was much discussion at the dining table about what cut of meat one should ask the butcher for. Since Ma raised six kids as a single parent, we know that the meat had to be “affordable”. Brother Craig always claimed that it should be “the eye of the chuck”.
I went to Byerly’s and they said that normally they would cut steaks from the “chuck eye”, but they would be willing to simply provide the cut as a roast. The balance of the recipe, as I understand it, is to sear the meat in a roasting pan on all sides, slow roast in a covered roaster with water added and roast it for a long time. Adding onions, potatoes and carrots is an option. The finished product should be a roast beef that will flake at the touch of the fork and not break the “piggy bank”. I suggested that the next time all of the brothers are on a fishing trip, Erik should cook a roast beef dinner in honor of Ma.
The show this week is a rebroadcast of shows from last fall as the crew is on the road embarking on their mini tour to St, Augustine, Florida; Houston, Cincinnati and New York City. Special guests include the Old Crow Medicine Show, Robin and Linda Williams and Neko Case. Enjoy the show.
“Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven”. Betty Crocker
October 29th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
It is a chilly morning in central Minnesota. This is the latest frost in many years, but say that we may have a bit of Indian Summer next week. A record was set for low barometric pressure in Minnesota. It is time to “brace up”.
Axel Borgstrom grew up in Upsala, Minnesota and he was the owner of the Farmers State Bank in Upsala. He and his wife Carrie lived in a big house next to the funeral home. The Upsala Area Historical Society asked me to approach Axel about willing his house to the society so that a museum could be established. We had Axel and Carrie over for supper and I brought up the idea. Axel responded in a surprising way. He said that rather than wait until they were gone, he and Carrie would build a new house across from the bank and they would simply give the old house to the historical society. They were in their nineties.
In 1989, Axel was 101 years old and I met him on Main Street in Upsala as he was walking home from the cafe. I asked him, “Axel, what is the secret to living a long life?”
He responded, “When you think that you are going to die, brace up.”
In 1875 William Ernest Henley wrote a poem that was titled “Invictus”, (Latin for undefeated). The last two lines are, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self mastery. In the 2009 movie “Invictus”, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, the poem is referenced several times. It becomes the central inspirational gift from Mandela to Springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar in advance of the post-apartheid Rugby World Cup hosted in 1995 by South Africa and won by the underdog Springboks.
This video is a 12 minute message about another who would not be defeated, a woman who will be 107 years old next month. Take a break and be inspired.
The show this week is live from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Special guests include modern bluegrass pioneer Ricky Skaggs with Kentucky Thunder and New York singer and song-maker Heather Masse. Enjoy the show.
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” William Ernest Henley
October 23rd, 2010 by admin
MEA weekend is a special time of the year. Many a father/son combo head for the woods or ponds to bring home the “bacon” in the form of a grouse or a duck. Larry, a friend of mine who died way too young from heart problems, knew that I had never taken up hunting, but he wanted my son and myself to experience a weekend of grouse hunting up north at “the shack”. He invited our friend Ron and his son Matt who happened to be my son’s best friend. Larry’s son Dan was a few years older than my son Erik and so there were three men and three sons along with one black lab named “Bear” that came from a litter of pups that my family had raised. We formed two teams and I was the non-shooter “bird dog” on the men’s team. Bear went with the boys. I had to borrow a sleeping bag, since I my idea of roughing it was a motel without a pool. We had a wonderful first day of hunting, bringing in about 15 grouse. I can still picture my son Erik learning the rather barbaric way of “cleaning grouse”. Larry fixed a meal of wild rice and grouse with cream of mushroom soup in the giant iron skillet that hung from a nail in “the shack” It was one of the most memorable feasts of my life. I trust that you are doing something special with your family this MEA weekend.
The show this week is a rebroadcast of last night’s Cinecast from the Fitzgerald Theater. It was seen on about 500 movie screens across the country. We were at The State Theater to hear David Sedaris read some of his stories but there is an encore performance at The Parkwood Theater in Waite Park on Monday night that I plan to attend. Special guests include Old Crow Medicine Show, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek and honky-tonk performer Joe Ely. Garrison will do some soulful duets with singer-songwriter Andra Suchy. Enjoy the show.
“Do all you can, with what you have, in the time that you have, in the place where you are.” Okosi Johnson, 13 old aids patient in South Africa.
October 19th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
This two week stretch of weather has been hard to believe. The forecast is for more sunny days with a few cooler nights than we have had. Great football weather. Maybe it would be a good time to do the windows.
On Monday my son and I went to the cabin to cut down a couple of dead trees that were close to the area where the visitors park. He was sure that if he did not take them down, that Nature would be sure to have one land on his pickup truck. Due to the tornado that ripped through Wadena in June, he had purchased a Huskavarna and we had all the tools that we needed except the “log roller”.
I strapped on the black belt to support the aging back muscles and the splint for the wrist and we managed to make quite a nice pile of wood to use for the outdoor fire ring next summer. (see attached photo) It was a perfect day to make wood. Brother Brian and his wife Jean Marie have been so generous with their cabin, so the least we can do is to pile up the wood.
Seventy one folks showed up last night at The Radisson Hotel in downtown St. Cloud for “MPR Connects”. Chris Farrell, of Marketplace Money, was the guest speaker. The folks were very engaging and had time allowed, the exchange of ideas would have gone on far into the night. Stay tuned for the next one.
Barby and I had a great time at the show last Saturday. The young men from Bozeman were awesome. “Storyhill” is the name that they use and also the name of their album, which was named Best CD of the Year by Indie Acoustic Project. Check it out.
The show this week is live from the Fitzgerald Theater in beautiful downtown St. Paul. Special guests include the irrepressible Klezmatics and best-selling author of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency Series, Alexander McCall Smith. Also fiddler Peter Ostroushko will join the Royal Academy of Radio Actors. Enjoy the show.
“What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.” H.P. Liddon
October 15th, 2010 by admin
Good afternoon from Collegeville,
Another stunning day of weather in central Minnesota. I am taking tomorrow off to till the garden and attend the homecoming game in Upsala. It is hard to believe that 50 years ago, I was sitting on the sidelines watching the game due to a back injury from a diving accident. The year before I actually did earn a letter as a junior. When I was a freshman, Upsala was a power house. No one scored on the Upsala football team for a whole season. The winning streak was something like 32 games. If my memory serves me correctly, the streak was broken in Royalton. Now Upsala is paired with Swanville and the “Cardinals” have been replaced by “The Patriots”. “The USA Patriots” to be exact. There are no lights on the Upsala football field, so the only game that is played in the afternoon, in Upsala, is the homecoming game. The rest of the games are played in Swanville under the lights. I still recall the smell of turf and sweat. Great times.
John Wooden would have been 100 years old next Thursday. He was college basketball’s most successful coach. His teams at UCLA had 10 national championships. From 1971 to 1974, UCLA won 88 consecutive games, still the NCAA record. If you Google “John Wooden”, you will be able to print out some his many quotes. One of my new favorites is “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”
Why not set aside some time next Thursday to live that quote. Afterwards, you may want to stop by The Radisson Hotel in downtown St. Cloud to attend our “MPR Connects” event with special guest Chris Farrell, MPR’s Chief Economics Correspondent. You can register at www.mpr.org/stcloud. The event is from 5:30 to 7 PM.
The show this week is live from the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. Barby and I will be there to celebrate my ten years of representing Minnesota Public Radio. We hope that you will be able to be there also. Special guests will include acclaimed acoustic folk/pop duo Storyhill, singer songwriter Andra Suchy and keyboard master Butch Thompson. Enjoy the show.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you.” John Wooden
October 1st, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
The trip to Sun Valley and Bozeman was wonderful. I renewed a few sponsorship agreements and signed up some new underwriters. I always enjoy spending time with Aunt Maggie in Bozeman. She is a great story teller. When she was a child her mother did not have time to throw a birthday party one year, so Maggie decided to invite her friends to come on a Saturday afternoon on her own. When her friends started to show up, all dressed up and bearing gifts, her mother told Maggie’s father that he had better go to the store and get some cake and ice cream. That year Maggie got a real good “Birthday Spanking”.
The weather this week in central Minnesota has been great. I took some vacation time yesterday and harvested the garden in Upsala. I did not spend a lot of time keeping up with the weeds this year and so it was necessary to run the riding lawn mower over it after I picked the Acorn Squash and dug out the horse radish. I would like to find someone with a small tractor and a one-bottom plow to turn the dirt and start over, but they are as rare as hen’s teeth. I may have located someone to fix up the ancient Roto-Til tiller that I traded an antique table for and deal with it that way. My back aches a little bit even though I wore the black belt. If you would like to try making horse radish, give me a call.
Tomorrow you have a chance to buy a piece of lakeshore on Lake Superior. Go to www.schultzauctioneers.com
On Tuesday October 14th you can meet MPR’s Chief Economics Correspondent, Chris Farrell at a reception at The Radisson Hotel in St. Cloud. go to www.mpr.org/stcloud to register for this free event.
Tomorrow night is the Gala at The Paramount Theater in downtown St. Cloud. The Fabulous Armadillo’s are on stage at 7:30. The reception is at 5:30. 259-LINE.
The show this week is live from The Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Special guests include legendary New Orleans night tripper, Dr. John and the Lower Nine Eleven plus Jearlyn Steele and Andra Suchy. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors will present your favorite skits.
“Remember, what you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else, but what you are will be yours forever.” Henry van Dyke
September 17th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
They are predicting frost in parts of Minnesota tonight. You might as well put the swim trunks away for the year. Perhaps you should even sharpen the ice skates and dig out the liner for the leather jacket. Ahh, but there is still the squash. I never know for sure when the squash is ready to be harvested. The stem is supposed to be brown and there should be a hollow sound when you hit it with your knuckle, perhaps.
One year I had only one squash per plant and the largest weighed in at 42 pounds. The other three were over 30 pounds each. Gardening can be very relaxing and it reminds us of what is important. When you think about it, it really is a miracle that you simply dig a hole in the dirt, plant a seed or a slice of potato and if you keep the weeds down and add water once in a while, you end up with fresh and healthy fruit or vegetables. Next month the horse radish will be ready and I will be looking for some folks to accept the raw root if they promise to return a small jar of finished product to me as payment.
Tonight Barby and I are going to the annual barn dance at Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria. It is the kick off of the wine and food festival which includes a grape stomp and a Lucy Look Alike Contest. We hope to see you there. Check it out a www.grapestompfestival.com
This week the show is a remix of past opening shows. The guest lineup this week includes Connie Evingson, Sara Jarosz, Butch Thompson The Old Crow Medicine Show.
Next week is the start of the new season of A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald Theater. Following the live broadcast, Garrison will host the seventh annual Meatloaf Supper and Street Dance on Exchange Street in front of the theater. The supper will cost only $5 and you will be able to try your luck at winning some cash prizes with a variety of contests including The Loudest Child. Come early and listen to the show outside.
Next week I will be traveling to Sun Valley, Idaho to visit my program sponsors and to try and find some new ones. I plan to take a couple of days of vacation and drive over to Bozeman to visit Aunt Maggie. There will not be a note next Friday.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver, from “House of Light”
September 16th, 2010 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
We’ve all heard the expression you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Well, I can confirm that is true. I was recently at my son Erik’s house for a hog roast. And although it was a glorious party, good food and great people, there was something missing…. trees. As you may recall, Wadena was devastated by an EF-4 tornado this summer. In fact, the actual funnel missed my son’s house by a mere block and a half. Even though his house escaped with only some exterior damage, his trees did not fare so well. He used to have beautiful white pines that towered 40 or 50 feet in the air. There was a majestic maple that looked like it had been there for a century. His back yard used to have shade all day long. But not anymore. It’s estimated that Wadena lost over 10,000 trees that day. And now, the wind seems to blow a little harder, the sun seems a little hotter, and the train seems a little louder.
Wadena has done a wonderful job picking up the pieces from the storm. But there is still work that needs to be done. I know I’ve already mentioned this but, there is an organized effort to try and replant some of the trees that were lost in the storm. The group has a goal of raising $100,000 so they can replant 10,000 trees. A lofty goal, but if you think about it, $100,000 could maybe rebuild one house, or it could change the landscape of a community forever.
If you haven’t already, please check out their website @ www.treesforwadena.com Donate if you can, or pass it on to someone else. So far, they’ve raised over $15,000, and it would be great if we could help them along.
The show this week is about and for Lutherans with the St. Olaf Choir singing “The Choral Blues”, VocalEssence singing “Sign Up For Church Work” and a celebration of Elim Lutheran Church’s 150th anniversary plus Dan Newton with the “Lutheran Polka”. The great actor Charles Keating is in a sketch called “Iniquity on the Tundra” Enjoy the show.
“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.” Garrison Keillor
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