Friends

If you're a fan of National Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion that aires every Saturday at 5 PM, then you might like seeing Garrison Keillor and the gang. On Saturday, April 17, 1999, the show was hosted LIVE from the Peoria Civic Center, and we had 2nd row center seats...so here's what it looked like: (I know none of these people are FAMILY - but as close as we were sitting, we can certainly call them FRIENDS. Pictures of our REAL FRIENDS come further down this page)...

	Here's the All Star Shoe Band (the Stage Band) for the show. .
	Here's the host and star, Garrison Keillor, fashionably dressed in a suit and CAT HAT singing a song.
	Garrison's true talent is STORY TELLING - and his books are well known to millions of people.
	Here he's singing a "torch song"...he really gets into whatever he's doing.
	We were there for the 5th annual Talent from towns under 2000 contest, and here's the first contestant: the Groveton Marimba band from Groveton, Texas.
	They won 2nd place...what a great bunch of enthusiastic people...kids and adults!
	This young lady is 16 year old Nikki Matteson from Lakeland Minnesota playing a Janis Joplin Blues number. She was very good, and won the award voted on by the stage crew.
	This is a band called Uncle Henry's Favorites from White Hall, Virginia. They didn't win anything, but were good bluegrass players.
	Here's the Prairie Home Companion CAST: Sound Man Tom Keith, actor/actress Tim Russell and Sue Scott, and Garrison Keillor - during their Lives of the Cowboys sketch.
	This is Jill Jones and the Lone Star Chorale. Their name is a little misleading - they sang cowboy songs, nor choral music, but wow, could she ever YODEL!
	This 17 year old is Bobby Arnell from Hardwick, Vermont playing Bach's Toccata and Fuge in D Minor on the electric guitar. His fingerwork was phenominal - I would liked to have seen him win, but he didn't.
	Here's the winner, 17 year old Jason Moody from Dover Idaho. Without a doubt, this was the best "musician" of the group - terrific talent on such a difficult instrument. He got a $1000 prize AND a silver Water Tower trophy.
	Last Year's winners were also at the show, the Virtual Consort from New England. They played unique arrangements of classical music on home-made instruments - very nice, and DIFFERENT, as they say in Minnesota.

Here's Jan, Roger, and Megan Hasler. Jan grew up with me, and went to church and college with Pep. Roger went to Bradley with Don, met Jan at OUR wedding (they were both in our wedding party) and got married 23 months later. Megan (16 years old in May 1998), is their daughter, and our God-daughter

Here's the Hasler house brightly lit for Christmas. Roger had over 8000 lights, some of which are out of view because they were in the back of the house.

Megan (on the right) graduated from Limestone High this May - Class of 2000. She was in the TOP 10% and a member of the National Honor Society, and she's OUR God-daughter!..Here she's hugging one of her good friends.

Here's Rev. Mark, Mary (Don's cousin), and Rika and Lydia Boorsma scanned in from their 1999 Christmas Card

Here's Rika, taken when the Boorsmas visited us this May. She's got that "You JUST HAVE to take a picture of me" look - doesn't she?

And here's Mary and their newest addition to the family, Lydia, born Christmas night, 1999..

Here's Jeff and Sophia Hibbard. Jeff and I went to Bradley together in the early 70's (see HIS PAGE using the link below).