The Origins of Lake Wobegon

Garrison discusses his early days in radio and the origins of Lake Wobegon at the launch event for his book 'The Keillor Reader'

[LoveFlatfootin]

I'm an older person living alone, and when I play a Garrison Keillor CD or video, it feels like there's the very best company with me in the house. You've enriched so many lives with your creativity. My favorite story is the one about Bruno the fishing dog which I've listened to so many times and it always makes me laugh out loud! I miss you on the radio, but I'm happy there are so many great recordings online. Thanks so much for sharing your stories with us.

[jamesceraso]

I've been listening to Garrison since I was 13 years old. I am now 70

[c.ranger]

Garrison is brilliant! Thank you for all your stories.

[lynnjudd]

Got turned on to the lake wobegon stories by my mother in law. Since she has passed away in 2012 I still love them.

[onyoutube]

My family gathered together around the radio in the 1990's to listen to the news from Lake Wobegon every Sunday afternoon. It was heartwarming, funny (laughing until tears ran down our cheeks) loving the off-the-wall humor, music, and sound effects.

[philiplane]

Love it. First heard when we lived in Houston in 1996. Now home in Melbourne Australia and loving the stories. Lots of walking and tales from lake woebegone, guy noir and the cowboys on you tube. Thank you so much.

[JGLy]

I think listening to Lake Wobegon is like visiting the town. As you listen to Keillor it’s like remembering the things that he talks about. I would swear I remember going to Evelyn’s funeral at the lake and watching Kyle fly overhead with her ashes in Raoul’s bowling ball. He sometimes forgets to include in the tale the big swans for the Debbie Ditmer’s wedding and the skydiving Elvises. Oh such fun memories!

[acsentu]

His voice is soothing and calms my anxiety.

[marilynlester]

I listen to Lake Wobegon Podcasts now on Tune In Radio. Garrison Keillor brings an art form to this - when he tells the story, you can get a mental picture of these people in your mind and it is so entertaining.

[AEKarnes]

It figures how such a talented and thoughtful man, who is a beacon of sanity in these ridiculous times, can be made into an un-person by a filthy little blackmailer and a complicit society. I grew up on this radio show, it was Formative for me. Lake Wobegon feels more real to me than most of the places I have lived.

[Ed-Mace]

Final Tour of Prairie Home Companion. Seeing Garrison Friday night in RI @PPAC. Can not wait!!! Love him and the program.

[hollymccormick]

I have been listening to the Prairie Home Companion and reading your books and listening to the books on cassette and cds now since we discovered the public radio show. Thank you for touching our hearts, making us laugh til we had tears in our eyes.  And making us think about how we look at those around us with humility and honesty ( my husband passed last yr of Alzheimer's)  His favorite sweatshirt was Our Lady of Perceptual Responsibility, I have kept that one...he was raised in the catholic church.  Thank you

[pollyanne]

Thanks for 35 years of wonderful music, humor and pathos after I first discovered your show on Saturday nights.  It always made me happy to stay home.  And, our local station repeats the show on Sundays at noon, lucky us.  It held me together through a very deep depression, until I got the help I needed.  Thanks for introducing me to Billy Collins, whose books I've now devoured over and over.  I'm so happy that he'll be on our cruise in March.  My only question is:  where has Pat Donohue been for all these weeks?  I miss him awfully.  HIs music and singing is too much!  Please find him wherever he is hiding.  I hope he hasn't abandoned the show.

[Tmrfe]

I was 27 had just stopped drinking and was always a bit anxious early on, his show was on Sundays and I felt he was talking just to me. From NY and never thought I’d relate to such a man. His stories warmed me and still do. I am a dies in the wool republican and am often pigeon holed as someone who NPR and Garrison wouldn’t appeal to. So sad we have such racism in our hearts, determination prior to examination....do not think you know me. And some how he, taught me to do just that. Something I already knew....take people as they are, not as I would have them. Love them as they are, from Lake Wobegon....peace to you and all whom you love.

[thomasromano]

I am a long-time fan of Garrison Keillor. Have listened to his great show for thirty years. That Minnesota Public Radio eliminated all of his shows just over the accusations of someone, and mind you, they were NOT convictions is beyond me to understand. Whether Keillor is guilty or not, does not sanction eliminating all of his shows and just going with Chris Thile because he's the current host. We seem to live in a society that is so quick to condemn and blame. I would have expected more responsible behavior from MPR than this witch-hunting mentality.

[nadinejoyce]

There is no voice as soothing. He just showed up on YouTube and I am so comforted. Rescued.

[ggmsmolly]

Gary, it wasn't 1970 or 1969  when you found out about the transmitter's because i remember the day you came in to the Coffee House Extemp exasperated after you found out you were only talking to yourself  and the engineer.I had just graduated from St Margret's academy It was in the fall and i was working as a bus person at the Extemp  and was waiting to do my overnight shift at Y.E.S (youth emergency service) You were wearing blue jeans, a knit hat, t-shirt with a pocket and a green army jacket. The year was 1972!    

[mistychenoweth]

Such a gifted writer. My generation’s Mark Twain.

[jeffshadow]

Every day I attempt to recite slowly and forcefully as I follow Garrison reading the daily poem. Even though I recently took early retirement, I still need to work on s-l-o-w-i-n-g down. . .

[spacemissing]

As someone who, about five years ago, spontaneously began writing what has become
a massive and continuing multidimensional story,
I want to say that when you "invent" people, places, and things, you have to believe in them ---
they Must be real to you even if they are not real to anyone else.
The quality of Garrison's stories is such that even though he admits to inventing Lake Wobegon and its inhabitants,
those of us who have heard those stories can --- and do --- believe them just as Garrison must in order to tell them.
Somewhere in the middle of Minnesota there is a small patch of undocumented land where the Ingqvists and the Bunsens
and the Krebsbachs and the rest make their way through the trials of life just as we who live elsewhere do ourselves.