pic of the day - pure entertainment

This past weekend, my parents and I scratched another item off our respective bucket lists. What a treat it was. This particular item has been on my list since college. You see, each year at Christmas, the faculty and staff at Joshnson Bible College would host the Miller-Scott Christmas banquet. They worked hard to prepare a wonderful meal and convert the gymnasium into a beautiful winter wonderland. For dessert, they always lined up, marched in to the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Faries" from the Nutcracker, carrying red velvet cakes with sparklers shooting off the top. Everyone dressed up and it was the event of the semester. During dessert, the faculty and staff would present a little mini theatre production. One year it was s spoof on the Peanuts (Dean Lowe as Charlie Brown is still vivid in my mind). One year when I was on staff it was the show Newhart. I was Stephanie - Funny! One year, it was a JBC version of a radio show called "Prairie Home Companion." I had never heard of the program and assumed it was something from the "olden days" when radio was all that was available for entertainment. I was shocked to learn that the program was a contemporary form of entertainment and could not understand why anyone would listen to a radio program when they could see a movie or watch TV. Ahh, youth! It would be a few more years before I would have the opportunity to hear the program myself, but when I did, I knew exactly why one might listen and then could not understand why everyone didn't stop their activity on Saturday evenings to listen. I have many fond memories of painting down in my friend Larry's woodshop,getting totally lost in the stories of Lake Wobegon, being swept away by the musical talents of The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, fascinated by the sound effects of the Royal Academy of Actors, and being fully entertained by Garrison Keillor. Prairie Home Companion has been a part of my life ever since. I wish I could say it was a Saturday night fixture. I wish life was slow enough to set aside two hours on a Saturday night for such purity. Instead, life is busy, there is alwasy something going on, some place to be, but I do tune in, even if for a minute, every chance I get. This past weekend, we took a just for fun trip to St. Paul Minnesota to be part of the audience for the season opener of Prairie Home Companion, live from the Fitzgerald Theatre. F. Scott Fitzgerald hails from St. Paul, thus the theatre's namesake. Opening night brings it's own traditions with a meatloaf and mashed potato supper on the street after the show followed my live music from the case and street dancing. What an absolute treat it was! As long as Garrison puts on those red shoes, I will continue to tune in when I can, and hold all of those wonderful wonderful memories so dear.