[pjmorris]

I came to NPR and to Prairie Home Companion in college, after a childhood filled with moves, losses, and failures. I greatly enjoyed the music and the stories, to the point where I once had a Powdermilk Biscuits t-shirt, and still have a PHC tie. However, the dedications they read at intermission really made the show for me; in the notes people wrote to each other celebrating their various graduations, anniversaries, relationships, and communities, I saw a real-world analog to Lake Wobegon's strong women, good looking men and above average children. I think believing something like that was out there, somewhere, helped me reshape my life to transmute the moves, losses, and failures into relationship. community, and hope. I find Lake Wobegon to be sentimental, but in a way that matched my sentimentality. I'm really grateful for the part Mr. Keillor's show has played in my ife.