A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

William Tell Brown gets the last word
By Dodd Brown
November 13, 2007

My family is small but my wife's family is huge, and in years past we have enjoyed going to the Cronkhite Family Reunion held every August in a park down in Rossville, Illinois. It was at one of those reunions that I heard the following story about my wife's grandfather, William Tell Brown.

Tell was a young man and just married when he went to one of the Cronkhite Reunions. And just like every year, on a back table there were platters piled high with fried chicken; pans filled with ham, meat loaf and pasta; bowls of mashed potatoes, potato salad (two kinds), peas, beans and corn; and over in the corner even more chicken. There were Big Boy tomatoes from someone's garden, sliced on a plate, that tasted so good you regretted that you had ever bought a tomato from a store and you promised yourself that you would never do it again. There were dozens of homemade cakes, pies, and cookies, as well as the cake that Great-Grandmother Cronkhite used to make and her daughter Myrtle still made and brought every year.
So that year's president of the reunion got up and thanked everyone for coming. Then he made an announcement. Then he made another announcement. Then he read a four-page letter from someone who wasn't at the reunion, explaining why he and his family couldn't make it but they'd be sure to be there next year. Then he made another announcement.
By this time people were starting to get edgy. They had left for the reunion right after church and while the majority of Cronkhites lived within a thirty-mile radius of Rossville, there were a few families that lived farther away and had spent more than an hour on the road. People were hungry, and when the breeze shifted just a little they could smell the food on the table behind them. Finally the president finished and he turned to Tell to lead them all in prayer. Everyone bowed their heads, and while half the people there were thinking about the many blessings they had received, the other half were trying to remember the last time Tell gave the prayer and whether he was long-winded or not. Tell stood up in front of his entire family and said, "Good bread, good meat. Good LORD, let's eat."

About the author:
I spent 32 years in the law publishing business and now I am trying to carve out a new career for myself as a freelance writer. I've submitted a grade school reader to educational publishers. (So far, no luck.) It highlights the accomplishments and achievements of ALL Americans, both male and female, who come from many different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds. People like Maya Lin, who gave us the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; Irving Berlin, who gave us "God Bless America;" Harland Sanders, who started life as a poor farm boy and then built a fast-food empire; and Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, a World War II Navy pilot who gave his name to a major airport. I even have a write-up on Ruth Graves Wakefield, who gave us the first chocolate chip cookies. It is a fun read and I will be glad to send a copy if you care to read it.

I live in Chicago with my wife, who after 30 years of marriage somehow still likes me, my three almost-grown children, who think I am as dumb as a rock, and I love them all very much..