I’m breaking into my weekend social media and message board fast to comment on the exceptional circumstance of just having heard the final Garrison Keillor Prairie Home Companion.
I was expecting wistfulness, and a certain elegiac quality. I was not expecting to be this wrecked over an hour after it ended. I sobbed uncontrollably for at least a half hour, and then started up again after listening to this Scott Simon reflection on the show. Some of my Minnesota peeps will understand. Maybe even some of my non-Minnesota peeps will understand as well.
My parents used to listen to this on Saturdays when I was a kid, and I kind of rolled my eyes at their boring grown-up show. Then as I got into my twenties, I started listening to it on my own. So it’s been 35 years that I’ve listened to it under one condition or another, and 20 years that I was into it voluntarily as an adult. (I would say “enthusiastically”, but I took it for granted for so long–as I’m now realizing.)
The show will technically still continue, but without not only the voice of Garrison but without any of the memorable characters he wrote: Guy Noir; the cowboys; Powdermilk Biscuits; the Ketchup Council; the Society of English Majors; Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian; Duane, the frustrated writer with the passive-aggressive guilt-tripping mom and taciturn dad; and most of all, without Lake Wobegon itself and its complement of colorful characters. I may still listen, but I won’t pretend it’s remotely the same program.
Just wanted to say that’s a really good idea. Maybe an After Midnight Curfew, too.
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I’ve been listening and going to PHC shows for ages, and will miss it terribly (the phrase “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon…” keeps running through my head).
The wife and I both noticed that Keillor didn’t say much about it being his last show. And zero acknowledgement of the show continuing; no “Keep listening” or “Here’s a little number by the new guy” or anything.
With just this to go by, I’m assuming he’s not wild about the next incarnation of the show, and just wanted to get out. Anyone got the Unkinky Dope on that?
Damn - sorry I missed this. As is so often the case, I think I liked PHC so much, but it lasted so long, that I took it for granted and assumed it would always be there.
The one silver lining, tho, is that I understand he wished to concentrate more on hie writing. His op-eds in my local paper have become much more frequent of late, and are an extremely welcome voice. As much as I enjoyed PHC, I was not as regular of a listener as I could have been. Was comforting, tho, just knowing that it was there, whether I listened or not.
Keillor always said his favorite thing was singing duets with female partners, so he got a healthy dose of that for the final show. Plus a call from The President.
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, my local station is dropping the show as of the last Keillor installment.
