Route 48
By Sarah Behrens
ENGL 343: Travel Writing
I’d like to nominate Sarah’s radio essay, “Route 48,” from Travel Writing. The assignment was to produce a radio essay of no more than seven minutes featuring either a profile of a compelling person or an issue-driven story with at least two competing perspectives. Strong radio essays develop excellent complexity in the profile subject, establish a universal theme, balance interview clips with narration, and layer music and sound effects over the spoken word to create a “theatre of the mind” effect. Sarah’s grandmother is an unforgettable character with her crackly voice and laughter. Sarah also weaves music and sound effects (like the wooden xylophone from her grandmother’s childhood) seamlessly throughout the story to keep us entranced. The result is a story that warms our hearts by engaging the universal themes of music and family through old recordings and a voice that echoes in our imaginations long after the story is over. I suspect that you’ll want to listen to this story more than once, and that you’ll be just as delighted by it every time.
– Joshua Dolezal
Listen to “Route 48” above. The text transcript of this radio essay is printed below.
Hallie Taets, copper
[“In The Mood” playing in background]
Sarah: My grandma was part of a band her brother put together, and this is actually a recording of them performing. This is a song that is popular in big band or dance band scenes, and is called “In The Mood”. So how do two siblings from rural southwest Iowa put together a dance band? Well, it all started when she was younger. When did you first start getting interested in music?
Grandma: Oh, probably 4 years old. Grandma played the piano. She liked to have me sing for her, and she gave me piano lessons when I was 5.
Sarah: But piano and singing weren’t her only talents.
Grandma: When I was in the second grade, we had a music program every year. Well, I can’t remember the song, [Xylophone noises] but my music teacher had a little wooden xylophone. She had me play the xylophone. And I could take it home and practice on it and everything. That was quite an honor.
Sarah: She then went on to tell me about a musical they did called Sonny of Sunnyside when she was in the third grade. It’s a story about a little girl who lives in an orphanage. She got the star role as the little girl, and even shared the solo she sang. The solo was supposed to be to her mother who had died.
Grandma: [Singing] “Mother are you looking down from heavens window high? Can you hear your little girl oh can you hear me cry?” I don’t remember the rest of it. [Chuckling] And they said there were people in the audience that were crying. [Chuckles] Because it was so bad I imagine! [Roaring laughter]
Sarah: So she obviously had some natural talent. Then she got introduced to band in the fifth grade.
Grandma: I wanted to be in band, and I looked through the catalog and I looked at the cheapest things. You know there were Mandolins and stuff like that. There was this tenor sax advertised in the paper. [Saxophone playing in background] And my dad didn’t have that much money, so he went to our landlord and borrowed the 35 dollars to buy the saxophone.
Sarah: Her dad never asked to borrow for anything.
Grandma: I had to stick with it, you know, there was no question. He wouldn’t even borrow for his own mother. So, I had to make good on it.
Sarah: Then her younger brother got to the age where he could participate in band. With the combined power of her and her mom, they taught him how to play the saxophone. He played the alto, and by the time they got to high school, they bought a new alto for her brother, and gave her the choice to fix hers or get a new one. She still has her original tenor, and high school would be the first time they were a part of a dance band.
Grandma: [“You Go To My Head” playing in background] We all played with Chrysinger, he had this little dance band. Uh grandma played piano. Fred Chrysinger he played sax, too. And then BJ and I were both in there. We were all high school kids. Playing for dances. And Fred looked out for us, you know, people would offer us alcohol to us, and he wouldn’t allow anybody to buy anything for us.
Sarah: Not letting you kids get too crazy. And then the third sibling got involved. My grandma was 14 years old when her sister was born. She told a story of how her little sister had a toy saxophone and sat next to her mom on the piano bench and would sing into it during their practices. And Route 48 was born. [“Five Foot Two” fades in]
Grandma: Uncle Bill started Route 48 and managed it and did all the bookings. He took care of the business end of it, and the scheduling and everything. We played pretty well for a small town band. That came about because Highway 48 runs from Elliot up to Griswold, and we all, most of us, lived along 48 within a couple miles, so that was a good name for it.
Sarah: She couldn’t remember when, but she thought the group was created in the 80’s. The CD that I have was recorded in 2001. So there’s a pretty good chance that there were plenty of memories made.
Grandma: It was so much fun. I just loved being with them and playing with them. It didn’t matter to me, you know, I enjoyed going to rehearsals. [Laughter] Because they were ornery bunch. The rehearsals were more fun than the jobs were. But it always helped if you had an audience that appreciated your efforts. I always enjoyed playing with Route 48 and with Chrysinger too. It was a good, respectable job.
Sarah: I couldn’t imagine life without music in it, and neither could she.
Grandma: No I can’t, because I’ve always had the radio and stuff. [“Stardust” fades in] Well I didn’t have a record player so I didn’t buy a lot of records or anything, but I always listened to the radio and I knew all the popular songs and stuff. Yea it was my favorite hobby. And grandma was always there to accompany me, so I didn’t have to play by myself. [Laughter] That really encouraged us. She was a good piano player.
Sarah: She always enjoyed playing with Bj, her brother, and their mom in a small group. He always got the melody, since he played the alto, so she was required to play the harmony. Even in Route 48 she got the harmony. She revealed something I never knew before. I never knew she wanted to go to college. She always just talked about how Uncle Bill, or BJ, went to school to become a doctor and worked all the time.
Grandma: If I had had the money, when I graduated I would have gone to Drake and studied music. But I didn’t feel like I had the drive or the ability to be, I would have been more interested in doing arranging. And I would have enjoyed studying that. But I went to work as a secretary instead. [“In The Mood” fades in]
Sarah: I am proud to have the family history in music that we have. It made holiday gatherings like Thanksgiving that much more interesting. Not everyone can say they had a family band jam session with four generations, but my grandma can.