GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,

Today is Veterans Day, which started as Armistice Day commemorating the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front in Europe, at eleven o’clock am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. In many parts of the world, people observe a two minute moment of silence at 11 am as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the “war to end all wars”.

I plan to visit the grave site of my father and my uncle at the Gethsemane Church Cemetery in Upsala and then I plan to stop to see Bob Holmen Sr. and Aymer Nelson who live in an assisted living facility in Albany. Last year I caught up with them in the dining hall at lunch time. The staff offered me a plate and I joined a woman and two men at another table. The food was great. Pork chop, squash and potatoes. The dinner rolls were very tasty. I visited with Mr. Wolf who used to own the John Deere dealership in Albany. He had once attended A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald and he was bold enough to go up on the stage and visit with Garrison afterwards. His daughter and Garrison had a lengthy conversation backstage.

Before I left I went back to Bob and Aymer and thanked them both. Bob was on a destroyer in the Pacific and Aymer went on the beach at Normandy on D Day. My dad served on a destroyer escort in the Pacific. He was a radar man, spending hour after hour in the bowels of a “tin can” while the fighting raged around him. In one of his journals he wrote: “The two months at Okinawa were hell.” We owe a great deal of thanks to all of those men and women who have fought to protect this country. War is hell, but the warriors are not to blame. When you meet a man or women in uniform, simply offer them your hand and say, “Thank you for serving”.

The show this week is a nostalgic fall rewind show featuring bits and pieces from a few shows that were broadcast last November. Special guests include the Punch Brothers with their song called “Next to the Trash”, the angelic singing and fiddling Quebe Sisters Band, Public Radio’s Paula Poundstone and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Also, Floridian guitarist J.J. Grey and the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as the diva Sally Saltine in an episode of Guy Noir. There will also be a segment devoted to the memory of Tom Keith. Enjoy the show.

“You are not merely here to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” Woodrow Wilson

If you are interested in branding your organization on the air or on-line, let me know. I will email a media kit to you. I currently have program sponsorships available for APHC in central Minnesota.