GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,

I celebrated my tenth birthday on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. My mother along and with her four children were returning from a stint as US Army dependents stationed in Vienna, Austria. My Dad was held over in Vienna and when he arrived in Upsala a few weeks later, Ma along with brother Brian age 2, were in New Ulm visiting her cousin Helen. Dad borrowed a brand new 1954 Chevy from Uncle Duke who owned Hagstrom Chevrolet in Upsala and my brother Bill and I rode with him to New Ulm.

I was napping in the back seat and I woke up when our car was broadsided by a dump truck. I had a broken leg. I still can remember the pain when they were putting me on the X-Ray table at the hospital in Cokato. The cast was from my toes to my crotch. I was in the hospital for a few weeks and when it came time to transport me back to Upsala, Dad took me to Uncle Elmer’s. Uncle Elmer and his wife Ethyl owned the Dokken Funeral Home in Cokato. I had to spend the night on a cot on the main floor of the funeral home. There were coffins in the next room. The next day they hauled me to Upsala in a black Studebaker hearse. That explains a lot, huh!

The APHC show this week is a very special show live from The Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul. Garrison is taking the day off and Chris Thile steps to the center stage mic as the host. Special guests include the Punch Brothers, poet Billy Collins, bluegrass singer Sarah Jarosz and Minneapolis storyteller Tristan Jimerson. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors and the Exchange Street Band fill out the bill. Enjoy the show on the radio or watch/listen on the internet at prairiehome.org

“Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.” Chekhov