Time Passes…

As I was writing today, I listened to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. While I like all of them, No. 6 stands out. Reason being was that it was played at the beginning of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion as they were affiliated with Minnesota Public Radio. But that is only part of the story.

To me, a Saturday wasn’t complete if I didn’t listen to Car Talk (Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi) in the morning and A Prairie Home Companion in the late afternoon.

Being a car and motorsports person since childhood, Car Talk was always great fun for me. Brothers Tom and Ray had a very relaxed, off beat and spontaneous sense of humor between them. It was just sheer fun to listen to them, and as time went on, my diagnostic skills improved. Sadly, the show ended in 2012 when Tom passed away from Alzheimer’s. Thanks Tom and Ray for many great and thought provoking Saturday mornings. You are missed.

My liking for A Prairie Home Companion was entirely different. It introduced me to music and performers that I didn’t know, but the real drawing card was Keillor’s “News From Lake Wobegone” segment. I didn’t grow up in a small town in Minnesota. I grew up in a medium size city in Ohio. But what I enjoyed was how he weaved the peculiarities of the residents, their lives, their histories, their activities with the backdrop of this strange little town. I marveled at how he could put together stories that brought out the good and odd things in them, and us. Some of the bits and pieces that I still remember, and bring a smile, are Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery, The Sidetrack Tap, Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Catholic Church and Powdermilk Biscuits. What struck me was not only the humor and irony in these segments, but also that he did So Many! Sadly the show ended in 2016 after allegations of sexual harassment by Keillor. But, that isn’t the end of the story. I did get to see Keillor live in concert a few years ago in Palm Desert. I’m glad that I went, but the show wasn’t what I expected. I suppose, in a way, he had moved on.

What led me to write this was the contrast with my Saturdays in the 80’s into the 2000’s to what they are now. I miss those shows and those times, but they have been replaced by the Internet, grinding coffee beans and making coffee, checking TGH and CDH and commenting, checking the times for the weekend’s motorsports events and resting up between my Friday and Sunday shifts at the Air Museum. Purposefully, I try not to dwell in the past, but there are some memories that will never go away.