(PIANO)
GK: It's June, a month when so many people I've known relaxed after a long winter of being cautious ----- and they made a big decision that turned out wrong ---- June was when I got into the radio business. I was living in Minnesota, in my home town, among very taciturn people.
TR: Yeah. Quite the deal.
SS: What's quite the deal?
TR: What you were just saying.
SS: I haven't said a word in the past two hours.
FN: You haven't?
SS: Nope.
TR: Okay.
GK: I did the early morning livestock report on the local station and saved up money to go to Chicago and get into radio and I was picking up extra cash playing poker with dairy farmers at the Sidetrack Tap. (SHUFFLING) .
TR: (DEALING) Two up, two down, and one in the pocket. There you go. Read 'em and weep, boys. Dealer goes. (CARD SLAP) I call man in the hall. (CARD SLAP) And one for your mother. (CARD) Weiners! (SLAP) Buddy---?
GK: I call. (SLAP) One more behind the door. (SLAP) And one in the oven. (SLAP) Gophers in the woodpile. (SLAP)
FN: I'm out.
TR: I'm out.
GK: Pot's mine, thank you, boys. (BRIDGE UNDER) I raked in the dough and I saw her looking at me. Tall woman, cigarette dangling from her lower lip. She was not from Lake Wobegon. You could tell by the way she exhaled. She'd learned that from movies.
HM: Care for a smoke, mister?
GK: I wouldn't say no.
HM: Izzat your '57 Buick out there in the alley? The two-tone gray and gold with the whitewall tires and the spokes? The Buick with the DynaFlow transmission?
GK: That sounds like my car, ma'am.
HM: I never rode in a Buick with DynaFlow before. I hear they're really smooth shifting up through the gears.
GK: You heard right, ma'am.
HM: But they say that for an automatic transmission they've got real power and pick-up.
GK: You could say that.
HM: And I see you got leather seats too. And a stereophonic radio.
GK: Yeah. All that and more.
HM: You wouldn't by any chance happen to be driving down to Chicago, would you?
GK: Purely by chance I was thinking of that very thing not five minutes ago. It's a nice drive. About eleven hours but I can probably make it in eight. You got friends down there?
HM: I've got friends wherever I go, mister. That's just my personality.
GK: Wyler's the name. Carson Wyler.
HM: I'm Francine. Francine DuBois. With the emphasis on the Bois.
GK: I'll keep that in mind. (BRIDGE)
(BIG CAR ACCEL, ROAR OF PIPES, SQUEAL OF TIRES) You need to stop and pick up anything on your way out of town, Francine?
HM: Everything I need, I've got it right here.
GK: Good to know. (BRIDGE) We got out of town, and through Minneapolis and we were crossing the Wisconsin line when she turned on the radio (GUITAR INTRO) ----
HM/GK (SING):
It's here (it's here) the month of June
July (July) will be here soon
With August (August) on the way
Across (across) the U.S.A.
I know (I know) I'll see you there
One day (one day) without a care
And we'll sit down one sweet day,
Have it made in the shade,
You and me, like it ought to be.
GK: You like that song?
HM: Yeah. I heard you play it on the radio once.
GK: You listened to my livestock report?
HM: I did. I loved it when you did the hog prices. Canners and cutters. Barrows and gilts. Sows and boars.
. (BRIDGE)
GK: As she said it, she slid over next to me and put her hand on my knee and (ENGINE MISSING) that was when
the engine started overheating and we stopped at a garage -----
TR (GRAVELLY): You're gonna need a new water pump. Cost ya fifteen bucks.
GK: Fine. Here's a five-spot. Make it snappy. (BRIDGE) Across the highway was a club called the Moonlight Ballroom ---- (SEMI PASSES, AND A CAR) ----
HM: You care to dance?
GK: With the right person I do.
HM: Only one way to find out. (BAND INTRO....)
GK: And we slow danced real close---
HM/GK (SING):
May you grow up to be beautiful
And very rich and slim
May God give you everything you want
Though you don't believe in Him
May you ever be successful
As you follow your own drum
May you stay forever dumb.
FOREVER DUMB, FOREVER DUMB
May you stick your finger in the pie
And always find the plum. (PIANO)
HM: You can always tell from the way a man dances whether he's someone who'd be good to know for a long time or just for a short time.
GK: You're kind of young to know what a long time is.
HM: I've got my ideas. (SFX CAR ACCEL, TIRES SQUEAL)
GK: We drove south through Wisconsin and she lay her head on my lap and slept all the way through and I decided right then and there that when she woke up I'd ask her to marry me. We'd go to City Hall in Chicago, and get a license and marry and we'd go to the Drake Hotel for breakfast and go up to the wedding suite and I'd sell the car and buy a bedroom suite and rent an apartment on the West Side and I'd find a job bartending and I'd run a poker game after hours and in a year we'd have a baby and buy a house in Highland Park, I had it all planned out. (PIANO INTRO)
HM/GK:
In the basement of our house, full of laundry machines
Full of cases of Bordeaux and lots of laundry
(SKIP AHEAD)
I will spend my life fixing all that's come undone.
Pound the nails and paint the walls, and close the cracks and leaks.
When there is no cash to pay, we'll go into debt.
(PIANO)
HM (WAKING UP): Hey. Where are we?
GK: North side of Chicago, babes.
HM: Oh my god.
GK: What?
HM: I fell asleep.
GK: It's okay. You're with me.
HM: I forgot my perfume. I left it in the lady's room at the Sidetrack.
GK: I'll buy you a new bottle.
HM: It's my Prairie Nights perfume. I can't do without it. We gotta go back. Please. Turn around.
GK: Darling, I would fly you to the moon, but I am not going to turn around and drive back to Minnesota for perfume. It is against my principles.
HM: All right, then let me off right here. I am crazy about you but I could never live with a man who wouldn't go against his principles as a favor to a lady..
GK: I knew I was wrong. I could hear a bullfrog say,
FN: Go back and get it, go back and get it.
GK: She got out of the car and she walked away. (FOOTSTEPS) She stood out there on the shoulder, with her thumb out. ----- Come back, Francine!!!!
HM (OFF): That Prairie Nights perfume is who I am, Carson. It's so sweet and mysterious. I can't be me without it.
GK: I'll get a job in radio, Francine, and buy you some Channel No. 5.
HM (OFF): I don't want Channel No. 5 or No. 6 or No. 7. I've got to have what I've got to have.
GK: I I saw the semi coming and he put on his high beams and hit his brakes and he stopped and opened the door and she got in and I swung my car out in front of him (SFX) and blocked his way. (SEMI HORN)
FN: HEY!!! MOVE IT!!!!
GK: I'M TAKING HER BACK TO MINNESOTA.
(FOOTSTEPS ON GRAVEL) (CAR DOOR OPEN)
HM: I knew you wouldn't let go of me.
GK: You wouldn't have gone with him?
HM: Of course not.
GK: I want to believe you.
HM: Then do. (BRIDGE)
GK: And I did. And we headed back to Minnesota and I found a job at WLT, the studio in the oats ---- WLT, with lettuce and tomato ---- and I don't know if it was the right thing or not, but if you need to know, then you're going to have a hard time with romance.
HM/GK:
Oh my love, my darling
I love that Prairie Nights on your wrists, your neck, your elbow,
And just behind your ears.
So sweet.
GK: You ever hear from that truck driver?
HM: What truck driver?
GK: Down in Chicago.
HM: I don't know any truckdrivers in Chicago.
GK: That night you made me turn around and come back for the perfume.
HM: I don't remember that.
GK: How could you not remember that?
HM: When was that?
GK: June.
HM: Really?
GK: June.
HM/GK (SING):
It's here (it's here) the month of June
July (July) will be here soon
With August (August) on the way
Across (across) the U.S.A.
I know (I know) I'll see you there
One day (one day) without a care
And we'll sit down one sweet day,
Have it made in the shade,
You and me, like it ought to be.