(GK: Garrison Keillor; SS: Sue Scott; TR: Tim Russell; TK: Tom Keith; PD: Pat Donohue)
(GUITAR UNDER----)
TR: So ---- what do you say? You want to stay here by the river
or you want to
keep heading west across that dusty flat God-forsaken prairie with nothing
between here and Seattle except duststorms, wild carnivores, treacherous
mountain roads, Indians waiting to cut off your hair, and thieving lying
desperadoes and rattlesnakes and mosquitoes. .
SS: Well, when you put it that way ----
GK: I was hoping to see the ocean.
TR: You can see it in books.
TK: Yeah.
TR: What do you want to call this place? How about---- River View? Or Riverside? There's trees and grass, we could call it Wood Lawn. Or Forest View. Riverford.
GK: How about St. Wendel? Name it for a saint.
TK: Yeah.
TR: Naw. Teams'd be nicknamed the Wendies. We don't need that.
SS: I was thinking of calling it St. Cloud.
GK: St. what?
SS: Cloud.
TR: St. Cloud?
TK: Yeah.
GK: Why not St. Sky? St. Horizon?
TR: St. Cloud? ----What made you think of that?
SS: Guess.
TR: You saw a cloud?
SS: A cloud that looked like a saint. It was all white and ---- I could sort of make out the eyes and mouth and everything-----
TR: Where?
SS: Up there. But it's gone now. It was there just a minute ago.
GK: You had a vision?
SS: You could call it that.
GK: Did you hear voices?
TK: Yeah.
GK: You hear voices?
TK: Yeah.
GK: Coming from the cloud?
TK: Yeah.
GK: What did they say?
TK: They said, "From up here, you people look like little tiny ants."
GK: That's what they said? They said---
TK: Yeah. They said, "From up here, you people look like little tiny ants."
GK: Well, looks like we call it St. Cloud.
TR: Okay by me.
SS: Is that okay with you?
TK: Yeah, if that's what everybody wants----
TR: Is that what you want?
GK: St. Cloud? Sure. I don't care. Doesn't make much difference to me.
SS: Same here. If that's what the rest of you think, I can go along with that.
TK: Sure.
TR: Okay, but let's keep that story about the vision ---- let's keep that under our hats, okay?
SS: My lips are sealed.
TR: I don't think that's anything we want to get around, okay?
TK: Yeah.
GK: (PIANO COMES IN) And that's how the city got its name, from its unique cloud formations, and even today, you sometimes see clouds that look so much like somebody's face, with lips and eyes and a nose and white hair, and the clouds sometimes speak to people and they say:
TK: Take what you want but eat what you take. Don't fill up your plate and throw it in the garbage like you did last time. What's the matter with you?
SS: Who does she think she is that she needs something like that ---- kind of spendy, if you ask me ----
TR: You go right home now and don't stop on the way.
GK: It's the city of the talking clouds. They drift to the south and east and as they cross the river, their lips seem to move ----
TR: You get right to work on that first thing in the morning and after you get some of it done it won't look like such a big job like it does now.
GK: People leave here for other parts of the country, and the clouds look different, out there the clouds say----
PD & GK (SING, EVERLYS): Dream----.dream, dream, dream.
GK: And here, the cloud says----
TR: I wouldn't trust those people any farther than I could throw them.
GK: You drive through town on a cloudy day and you'll often see people standing by their cars and looking up at the sky. And that's what they're looking for. St. Cloud. The one that talks.
SS: Well, I can't live your life for you and I know you're going to go and do what you want to do regardless of what I say, but believe you me, you move to Minneapolis and it's not going to be like what you think, you're going to come up against a lot more than you ever imagined, and when you do, don't come crying to me, that's all I can say.
TR: You go right home now and don't stop on the way.
GK: It comes right down out of the sky----here in St. Cloud. (MUSIC UP AND OUT)
© Garrison Keillor 2003