The Day the Music Died - Buddy Holly - Clear Lake Iowa


Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake Iowa - 
Still Being Used For shows

About 5 miles out a dirt road -
you run into the glasses

Groundhog Day in 1959 - Buddy Holly was cruising the Midwest in a bus full of lower grade rock and roll stars. His stardom was rising - but he would not be playing this night with Elvis or the Every Brothers. Even his own musical group The Crickets were sitting out winter back home in Texas. Buddy needed the money - his wife was having a baby - so the Winter Dance Party had to go on. 

It was below zero that night in Clear Lake - Iowa. The Surf Ballroom in this summer resort town still is used for traveling music shows. On this night - Richie Valens and The Big Bopper were on stage with Buddy Holly - Charles Hardin was his real name. The show ended before midnight - the bus was broken down and the heater was not working. They had a long trip to Fargo - North Dakota. They decided to rent a plane at Mason City Airport - the headliners would fly ahead - rest - and do some laundry. The bus with the other players and the instruments would drive thru the snow. 

About an hour past midnight - their Beechcraft Bonanza took off and crashed into the dark rich soil of an Iowa cornfield. AM Radio was the hot media at the time. Sadly - we all listened to the terrible news. These young men were gone. 

Buddy wrote his own stuff. Many other groups were influenced by him. To me - he made it okay to wear glasses and be a rock star. I had to have glasses just like him. 

I drove out to the crash site. It was out a dirt farm road about 5 miles from town. Soon you come up on a giant pair of glasses set in concrete. I walked another ½ mile out into a black muddy corn field that was plowed under. Normally in the summer - this "grave" marker is surrounded by high corn stalks. It was covered with pairs of glasses - coins - memorials - flowers - and some stainless steel nameplates. After the long walk through 30 mile per hour wind gusts - my eyes were watering pretty badly. Then you read the names - and the tears flow. 

I was 200 miles away from our hotel in Iowa City. So I got a hotel in Clear Lake - and watched the Iowa  girls play LSU at a pub - The Other Place. Iowa fans welcomed me - one fella even tried to save me. Next day - I would be driving to the Capitol in Des Moines. I slept well. 


In my Best Western Hotel Lobby -
the front page of the local paper



Surf Ballroom - build in 1948 - 
all brick - high arched ceiling

No one was there so I did not go inside

Surf Ballroom coming attractions

Surf Ballroom Historic Marker


Just like the Victoria -
ticket booth




x

½ miles beyond that sign - 
in the muddy black soil he crashed


People leave trinkets - money - 
glasses







The pilot died too




My rental Malibu -
Don McLean parking lot

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