StephenWinbaum
Communications Coordinator
/ Moderator
Jan 26, 2010, 1:25 PM
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February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver.
I was a paper boy when I was 12. It was 1964, and I learned the delivery ropes from Hank, a Grade 8 friend. The trick was to bundle all the papers in advance, then deliver them as quickly as possible, get maximum pay for minimum time.
But, every home subscriber to The Windsor Star wanted their paper delivered in a slightly different way. Some were okay with having the paper whipped on the porch, as long as the bundle held together and papers didn't go flying all over the place.
Others were more particular. The paper had to be stuck inside the screen doors, or between the doors, or hand delivered. Usually, the older adults preferred hand delivery. Still, the goal was to get in and out within two hours.
Bad news on the doorstep. I couldn't take one more step.
February 3, 1959 was the 'day the music died' to quote Don McLean's early 70s song - American Pie.
On that wintry day, rock and roll pioneers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson crashed and died in a small aircraft near Clear Lake, IA, bound for a concert in Minnesota. Holly was 22, Valens 17, The Big Bopper, 28.
Holly, Valens and Anderson were early Boomer idols. Their sudden death at a young age shocked a generation that had yet to flex its authority as consumers, trend makers and lifestyle changers.
Something touched me deep inside, the day the music died.
Not me, but older boomers, and teenagers born during World War II. I knew little about Buddy Holly until I was in my mid-twenties and bought a double LP set of his greatest hits. I was amazed at his prolific output, his cutting-edge style...the lovely melodies traced out with rhythm guitar, and the oddly affecting hiccuping voice that was his trademark.
Then in 1978, Gary Busey starred in the lead role of the biopic, The Buddy Holly Story, and my fascination for the black rimmed spectacled rocker was confirmed.
Valens too, the Latin American rock innovator, had a renaissance, with the movie release of La Bamba in 1987, starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
A long, long time ago. I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.
It was a long, long time ago when Boomers were the nation's youth; now precariously perched on the verge of retirement, trying to find new ways to work past 65, and beyond. Boomers are aspiring to reconfigure the meaning of the 'golden years', starting second careers and booting up a spiritual search that seems to be in their DNA. They have access to better health and medical services, and nutrition; many are avid exercisers. Their health is better than their parents. But the aging process is inevitable. Even Baby Boomers will have to hang up their rock and roll shoes.
Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died . . .
All lyrics from American Pie by Don McLean
Stephen Winbaum is the Communications Coordinator of RetirementHomes.com.
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(This post was edited by StephenWinbaum on Jan 26, 2010, 1:34 PM)
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