01 July 2009
My very first love had a deep voice. Deep and mellow, a rich croon that was sophisticated and gentle, and no doubt a shock of wavy dark hair, slacks and a loose tie for that confidently casual look.
Tall, dark and handsome he paced the stage of my minds eye, his stories, his bluegrass band, his live audiences' laughter became the soundtrack to you young life. And as I grew, he claimed the gift of perpetual agelessness, joining me every Saturday night, just as he had always been, broadcasting live from the shores of Lake Wobegon--he was NPR's Garrison Keillor, the same steady, warm voice I had always swooned over.
Today I turned on the TV while fixing some re-heated dinner and suddenly I heard his voice. It was like smelling the cologne of your high school sweetheart, and I looked up to see my Garrison Keillor,
"I grew up in a quiet town..."
But I was confused by the man talking on screen-- he was portly with wild gray hair and a plain face with piggy eyes behind unflattering round glasses. There was nothing exceptional about his appearance other than, perhaps, a drab coat which fit him exceptionally ill, and red sneakers exceptionally obvious beneath too-short pants. He could be described as nothing short of dull, but his thin lips moved and out came that voice, that music, that memorizing murmur-- could this really be that man? Could this really be my Garrison Keillor in the flesh?
I closed my eyes and listened for a while, imagining again the handsome stranger that ought to belong to that voice. Then I shut off the TV and finished my dinner in silence.
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3 comments:
Oh Mallory, I feel your pain. When Cindy Lynn & I watched some really strange movie with him in it we were both flabbergasted. Not only with his looks, but with the fact that his voice is perhaps the most animated one we've ever heard, and yet it comes from one of the most un-animated faces we've ever seen....
He looks like a toad!!!
And the movie we watched was the Prairie Home Companion movie, which I recommend never wasting a moment of your life on because it's one of the dumbest I've ever seen!
I spent every family road trip of my youth listening to that voice (Tomato Butt is a personal favorite). It's the voice that makes me fall asleep against the window and the AC vent. We should really be better friends....
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