Lake Wobegon

I didn’t fly on my first airplane flight until I was 20 years old. The flight was pre-paid by Kodak and I was going for an interview in Rochester NY and flying from Kansas City Missouri. I remember the exhilaration of the take off and the awe of being above the clouds for the first time.

I sat next to a lady on the flight who noticed my excited anxiety. She began to talk to me, asking me numerous questions about my short life. “Minnesota?” she asked. “That’s where Lake Wobegon is located right?”.

I had heard of neither Garrison Keillor, nor his famous radio program A prairie home companion. But, I had heard of Wobegon!

“Sure!” I said. “It was just over the border in Wisconsin, close to Duluth”. We use to go there to by 3.2 beer because the drinking age was 18, the driving age was 16, and if you could get there, they would allow you to buy crappy beer. See, the Wobegon I knew only had a bar in the town. Like everything else in that area, it was out in the woods. To me, Wobegon was only a bar. And maybe a gas station.

“Sure, I know it. Been there many times.” I said, thinking that the place surely had a lake. In the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”, everyplace had a lake didn’t it?

The flight ended and I never saw that lady again. I got the job, moved to Rochester NY and only later became familiar with the famous Garrison Keillor. And with his fictitious Lake Wobegon.

I always felt guilt for my grandiose assumption. She must have thought me a fool. But Wobegon still brings back fond memories and I’m still convinced there is a lake nearby.