A Prairie Home Companion: May 7, 2005

Mitchell Script
Saturday, May 7, 2005
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Garrison Keillor: ...after this word from Mitchell, S.D.

Sometimes life presents us with big decisions.

Fred Newman: Marry me, Janice.

Sue Scott: Who? Me?

FN: Why not? I'm nuts about you.

SS: Oh. You do— Well— When?

FN: Tonight. Why should we wait when our hearts are telling us so clearly that we're meant for each other?

SS: Tonight?

FN: I'm crazy about you.

SS: Okay. But I have to go visit my aunt in Mitchell first.

FN: South Dakota?

SS: I'll be back on Tuesday.

GK: Life presents us with some big decisions and it's so hard to make them (PHONE RINGING) in today's busy busy world (TRAFFIC PASSING) which just seems to move faster and faster (TRAFFIC WHIZZING PAST) and there's more and more information (TR NEWS VOICE FAST, SS GIBBERISH) everywhere you turn and everything is coming at you all at once (LOW FLYING PLANE ZOOMS PAST) and you think to yourself — I wish I could get away and (SILENCE) go somewhere where I could hear myself think. (FN ECHOES: "Hear myself think.....)

(WIND, COWS)

GK: Mitchell. It's a place where you can get back in touch with common sense. Go the the Chamber of Commerce and they'll assign you an aunt if you don't have one already.

SS (AUNT): So tell me about him.

SS: He's really very nice.

SS (AUNT): Really very nice?

SS: Yes.

SS (AUNT): Not good enough. Don't marry him.

SS: Okay.

GK: Yes, Mitchell isn't the easiest place to get to. It's way out there in the middle of the country. There isn't a ritzy hotel or a five-star restaurant. But if you need to think things over, go visit your aunt in Mitchell.

SS: My wedding is coming up in two weeks and I'm on the verge of panic.

GK: Don't run away and put everyone to the trouble of a national manhunt, just tell them—

SS: I'm going to Mitchell for a few days.

FN: Oh?

SS: I need to think this whole thing through.

FN: Is everything okay?

SS: I'll tell you after I get to Mitchell.

GK: Mitchell, South Dakota. It's on the Great Plains, where people have been getting a clearer perspective on things for more than a hundred years.