May, 1963

We listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" almost every weekend... I got hooked on the show in college back in the 1980s, then sort of lost track of it. When I re-discovered it in the new millenium, I found that Garrison Keillor had lost none of his edge, and if anything was funnier, and more subtle, than ever. My favorite part of the show is always the second hour, when Keillor tells a story about "Lake Wobegon, my hometown."

The Lake Wobegon stories are always best around the holidays. This weekend's show is a repeat from 2003, but Keillor's Easter story was possibly my favorite "Prairie Home Companion" moment yet. A 14 year old girl plays "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring" on piano in church for the Easter service, and sends her aunt, sitting in audience, back to her wedding day in 1963. What I love about this story is how effortlessly Keillor moves through time... he puts you in the mind of that one woman sitting in church as she drifts from the present to the past and back again.

You can hear the story in question here(it's about 15 minutes long, RealPlayer format).