A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media: First Person

Many Years Ago
By Lynnie Gobeille
January 3, 2008

For the record, many years ago, I lived out in Colorado at a place (13,000 feet up in heaven) called St. Mary's glacier (Alice, Colorado) back before they built the ski area, back when Hallmark did Stuby Pringle's Christmas and used the vacant lodge & alot of us "Glacier Folk" as extras.. we had only one working phone line. The people who were fortunate enough to have that line (Hugh Ross & his wife) left their basement door open, had a yellow legal pad, and a clock & pen... You posted the date, time, length of call & charges, and paid them when the bill came in. They were the best human beings on earth the years I lived there. I could make the trek through snow drifts to their home, thaw out, sit awhile & call my mom (who was, of course, worried sick about her crazy mountain living daughter). It was a far cry from Wickford, RI and all the "safety " of the East Coast.. but because of Hugh Ross I could listen to her voice, listen to stories of my baby sister, and feel not so lost and snow bound. I moved to St. Mary's to be with the young man I had fallen in love with.. and did 3 years of that hard scrabble life..... Back in R.I. now, I hear they have phone lines there now, hell, they have cable Tv!! the ski area re-opened & the roads are paved & plowed!!! But for one winter I was blessed to have that warm basement, a family that trusted us to post our phone calls, and a life that forced me to slow down, think, write, and be aware. I do not know what happened to the families that lived there all those years ago, I can tell you tho' we gathered to listen to your radio show... You were much like Hugh Ross was, a voice in our dark night... "I am a lucky man" was what my husband wrote inside the jacket of the book (you wrote it dear sir) that I was given that year... I have it still tho' he and I, and all those wonderful glacier people have moved apart.... Sometimes I drag it out just to remind myself that people can be kind to one another......

About the author:
I have been writing from the time I could string words together. My day job? Medical. But every Sunday I meet w/ a group of incredible Poets (Writers Circle in Warwick Rhode Island) were for 4 or 5 hours I am reminded of the "why" of Poetry. Am blessed to be part of Lisa Starr's (Poet Laureate of R.I ) class as well.