A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

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GK: I lay in bed at my hotel on the Cuyahoga River (FALLS) and there beyond highway 8 was the old B&O Railroad line (TRAIN HORN) and a long freight train came through , on its way to Akron not far away, home to the first breakfast cereal, Quaker Puffed Oats (GUNSHOT) and Quaker Puffed Rice (GUNSHOT), shot from guns, as you can hear. It was here they developed the first commercial artificial fishing lure, developed by Heddon and Pflueger in the early 1900s. (CAST AND SPLASH) It was the rubber capital of the world (RUBBER), an elastic material, a new concept at the time—it didn't have to fit, you could stretch it (SFX) — you could tuck it in around things to make them snug (SFX) and it absorbed vibration so it could be used to deaden things — (LOUD VIBE) without rubber and (SILENT) with rubber — rubber gloves (SFX)— and of course erasers (SFX). One of the largest interior spaces in the world is here, the Loral Airdock where Goodyear used to build blimps. Twenty-two stories high and the size of four football fields. And here comes a Goodyear blimp right here. (SFX) This was going to be the future of aviation. On a blimp passengers traveled in luxury.Ocean liners in the sky. Couches and chairs. Beds. You could play ping-pong on a blimp. (SFX) Shoot pool. (SFX) Or you could open up your cabin window and troll for fish with a Pflueger lure (CAST, LONG DROP, DISTANT SPLASH)—