Lawrence Welk: Ungrateful UberGod of North Dakota

[swag]

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NDSTRwelk.html

Strasburg, North Dakota

Lawrence Welk is North Dakota's favorite son, a local boy who made it big. He was born on the outskirts of Strasburg in a sod house and -- though North Dakotans may deny it -- hated the place. He hated farming, hated his parents, and for all we know hated North Dakota. The sixth of nine children, he essentially sold himself into paternal slavery to pay back $400 he borrowed to buy his first accordion. He left home for good on his 21st birthday and never looked back, playing weddings and radio barn dances until, in 1955, he finally debuted on national TV. His parents weren't around to appreciate it; they had been dead for 15 years.

. . .

It's hard to believe that several thousand people come here every year. The place is deserted. We made the mistake of mentioning that to Edna, and added that some of the buildings must get dusty, unused as they are, over the course of a summer. "You don't think they're clean?" she cried, her face horrorstruck. "We always try to keep the place clean." "No, no," we quickly replied. "It's clean. It's very clean." We had forgotten the North Dakotan obsession with tidiness.

It's tempting to speculate that the emptiness at the Welk Farmstead means something: a passing of the torch to a new generation of livelier musicians, a sign that old mega-celebrities do indeed fade away. But no. It has always been empty here. . .

[MarianJack]

1. Lawrence Welk!

Music to make you want to shoot yourself by!

I wonder if they'll make jeff gannon listen to some before he puts himself out of their misery?

[frogbison]

2. Now. that's just depressing.

And I say that as one whose childhood was spent on the Minnesota /South Dakota border.

But I certainly understand it.

There are lessons for us all here: make the most of what you are given. Appreciate your blessings. Take care of others that have less than you. Tell those you love how much they mean to you NOW! ...because tomorrow may not come.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Never mind....

[Swede]

3. Awunnerful, awunnerful.

nt

[Aristus]

4. "T'ank you , Myron fer dat a-lovely accordian music!

Les' dance until de dawn! A-one-anna-two!"