It’s a Beautiful Day

“It’s a beautiful day in Three Lakes, Wisconsin.” That’s how the broadcast from the town near us invariably started. “It’s a beautiful day in Three Lakes, Wisconsin.” Might have been sunny and 75°.  Might have been 30 below with a wind chill making it feel like 50 below and the snow piled to the rooftops. No matter. It was always a beautiful day in Three Lakes, Wisconsin to George Mickey. There were a lot of Germans in far northern Wisconsin and I never saw his last name written but I imagine it might very well  have had a ‘ue’ in the middle but ‘Mickey’ was the way it was pronounced. George was a Three Lakes small business owner who had a radio studio set up in the back of his store. Every weekday morning for five or ten minutes he sent a short remote broadcast to the station in my hometown, ten miles away. The goings-on in his town of 500. Or as many goings-on as were appropriate for early morning airwaves. Kind of a 1950’s short version of Lake Woebegone is how I remember it. In those years I hated local radio anyway. I was disdainful of anything other than WLS or WCFL, the stations I could beam in  from Chicago on clear winter nights. I thought George Mickey was corny but my mother looked forward to his broadcasts. I don’t recall any specific stories but I know everything had a positive spin, with a little local humor thrown in. I wouldn’t mind hearing that now.

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