Midnight in the Garden of Lawrence Welk

I don't know how many people enjoyed a strong familiarity with The LW Show. In my family, it was required viewing. That show seemed among our most memorable family rituals, like the Walton's or Disney or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, The innocence of LW Show was must see TV. Like it or not, and as I grew older it was mostly not, I learned the standards representing my grandparents and my parents generation. Versions of the big band classics, and "Up, Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon" stand out as familiar renditions frequently heard on the show.


Lawrence Welk and ABC's Wide World of Sports Figure Skating segments became early sources of inspiration for my brother and sister. I mean seriously, Lawrence Welk had a very intense stair fetish going on. My brother and sister chased glamour and talent as they faithfully borrowed from countless performances routines, displaying breathtaking precision on stairways, fireplace mantles, and on roller skates in our two car garage. Bobby and Sissie had nothing on my siblings stunning interpretation of dance, song, and pre-adolescent body contortions. At least that's how my grandparents saw it.

Today, those golden days of the Lawrence Welk Show lives on via Public Television, and echo on Saturday and Sunday nights in nursing homes and convalescence centers across America. Nothing has captured the mood of that generation quite like Lawrence Welk.

The music of that era brings back many memories. I am reminded of my grandparents and a time of cultural innocence that seems incredibly naive in this day and age. Even I can admit I don't hate the show like I used to. I sometime wonder if Soul Train and American Bandstand, will represent my generations golden era, and if these classics will one day play in rest homes all across the heartland, as those who watch reclaim a long lost certain gleam in their eye.

These days, as my mother is up painting in her studio, she will TiVo the Lawrence Welk Show and let the music accompany her as she paints. My father sleeps alongside her, as brush strokes and creativity fill the room. If nothing else, there is a serenity permeating mom's art studio, and the time weathered longevity of my parent's decades standing relationship seems to mirror many of the values Lawrence Welk once communicated on his weekly television shows. While it's not really my history, I can appreciate the era it represents.

Now if only my brother and sister would also just fess up to how important that music was in their artistic development., If they would only allow the full telling of the many stories associated with their childhood Lawrence Welk obsessions, I'd certainly have a most interesting new interpretation to narrate on the flip side of all things Lawrence Welk. Sadly, I can't afford the attorney fees required to tell such stories, especially without their full authorization. Let's just hope, for the sake of good literature, that I outlive them. At least long enough to get those classic stories on the record.