January 27, 2024
“A long, long time ago,” the song begins. I still remember how much that music made me smile. “
Don McLean immortalized that bloodless evening in February 1959 in his mythical “American Pie,” but there are still Fort Dodge natives who actually lived that evening. The music of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens didn’t just put a generation on a smile, they gave themselves and danced. The 3 stars who lost their lives on “The Day Music Died” will be remembered for the joy their short lives brought to so many.
It was the opportunity to dance and be with friends that prompted Roger Kinseth and his best friend, Gary Crouse, to shell out $1. 50 to see the rising stars of the Winter Dance Party at the Laramar Ballroom in downtown Fort Dodge on Friday, Jan. 1. , 1959.
Kinseth and Crouse were 17 years old, valedictorian of their school in Fort Dodge, and enjoyed nothing more wonderful than an evening with friends in Laramar. “Shagging the Drag” down Central Avenue to the plaza was also a wonderful time, but it’s hard to beat the laughter that teenagers and women can have in combination on the dance floor, and Laramar is just the location for that.
“You take your dates to Laramar on Friday and Saturday nights,” Crouse said. “That’s precisely what you did. We had so many popular bands coming to Laramar back then.
The two friends were so inspired by Holly and all the stars of the Winter Dance Party that when they learned the exhibit would be on the level of the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake 3 nights later, they saw it again. After all, who knew? When would those rising stars return to the region?
“We’ll just take a few dates and move on to The Surf and see the exhibit again,” Kinseth said. “We’ve been able to see two of his last four exhibitions. “
This leaves the two former Fort Dodgers with little company. To have noticed Holly once is incredible, however, to have attended two rooms of the Winter Dance Party playing hopscotch can simply put them in the record books.
Both men, now retired in the early 1980s, have the glory of growing up in Fort Dodge.
“I’ve talked about it with a lot of my classmates,” Kinseth said. “We’ve had a very fun life in Fort Dodge. “
Kinseth, a retired engineer and Navy veteran who now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, described it as one of innocence, integrity and natural fun.
“We always danced to the music,” he said. “You weren’t just sitting there listening to them, we got up and danced.”
In Laramar there is a culture known as “trap” that required couples to combine on the dance floor, transfer partners by wrapping them in a “trap” and thus meet many people.
The Laramar’s dance floor was reserved for teens only on the night of the Winter Dance Party. Adults could pay $1 for admission to the balcony to watch the show.
Crouse, who now lives in Crown Point, Indiana, can’t forget their date three nights later, when the quartet traveled to Clear Lake for the final, fateful concert. He doesn’t forget that he had to borrow a chal. de her to avoid freezing the long journey through the snow.
The two couples had taken a Chevrolet to the lake, a 1953 Bel Air traversing two-lane roads for the long drive back to Fort Dodge.
“We went home in the middle of a snowstorm,” Crouse said. “It was terrible. Back then, cars had suction-actuated windshield wipers and couldn’t stay awake in the snow, so I had to stick my head out the window to see. I borrowed my date’s shawl so my ears wouldn’t freeze.
A few years later, he married the former Linda Witcraft, who was him for a year in the FDSH. She was too young to move on to the dances that year of the Winter Dance Party, but the couple would make up for it in the years that followed. Come here. They are reportedly raising two young men and enjoying 58 years of marriage before she passes away a few years later.
“Together we were smart dancers,” he said.
While Crouse and Kinseth obviously enjoyed watching Holly, all the stars who came to Laramar, and even all the ten small bands that had been abandoned for a long time, gave an entire generation dancing on the dance floor and having a wonderful time.
“Back then, you weren’t just in the crowd,” Crouse said. “You danced. “
Now, 65 years later, Kinseth and Crouse still shake their heads at the thought of a small plane taking off in the snow that piled up on that bloodless afternoon in Clear Lake. Pilot Roger Peterson, 21, had consulted weather reports three times, according to investigations into the twist of fate, he had yet to win the most recent report on worsening conditions.
Holly, who rose to fame at the age of 22, couldn’t spend another evening on the excursion bus that never seemed to have the heating on. Their drummer had already abandoned the tour, hospitalized for frostbite due to the cold situations on the bus. . JP Richardson, 28, better known as the Big Bopper, had the flu and a kind-hearted Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the plane to the ailing singer. Jennings would be tormented throughout the night for the rest of his life. . Valens thought he had “won” the lottery to get a seat on the plane, but it was a lottery that would end his life at just 17 years old.
The shattered wreckage of the plane was found the next morning in a farm field only a few miles north of Clear Lake. At least four inches of new snow was on the ground. The three rising stars and their pilot were all reported to have died instantly upon impact. Peterson’s body was trapped in the wreckage, while Holly, Richardson and Valens were thrown clear. The site is marked today with large, Buddy Holly glasses, and tourists flock to it throughout the year, even on cold winter nights.
The men who lost their lives that night are revered with a memorial near the front door of The Surf, which also has a connection to Fort Dodge. The granite marker made at the Kallin-Johnson Monuments in Fort Dodge and designed through the Fort Dodge location. Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen, former lifestyle and entertainment editor at The Messenger.
Strengthening musical ties, Stratmoen, who now lives in Riverton, Wyoming, is the daughter of the late Ralph Drollinger, a well-known Fort Dodge musician who led the Ralph Leslie Band and played in many of the wonderful bands of Guy Lombardo, Sammy Jensen. To Welsh and more. Stratmoen’s musical ability can be discovered on YouTube with a heartbreaking performance of “Precious Child,” in honor of her son.
Were you there?
For Kinseth and Crouse, this is a time worth remembering. This begs the question: who else still remembers those days and who else could have attended that memorable concert in Laramar in the winter of 1959?With this generation that is now over 80 years old. , it’s time to collect and maintain those stories.
An effort to accomplish this would possibly come from an unexpected place. Sevan Garabedian first heard Holly’s music in the 1980s and 1990s in Montreal, Canada. Garabedian has attended the annual reunion concert at The Surf several times and is now embarking on a journey. all the venues included in the original Winter Dance Party.
What this Canadian appreciates so much about the Clear Lake reunion is that, far from being a sad event of mourning for lost lives, it is truly jubilant and celebrates the wonderful effect that young rock stars have had in such a short time. .
Garabedian has been working for decades to collect and record the memories of the excursion from those who saw it firsthand. Some of his work can be seen on Facebook and YouTube. He hopes that locals can contribute to efforts to maintain this vital piece. of local history at the crossroads of rock and roll legends.
Garabedian asks with photographs, souvenirs or souvenirs of the Winter Dance Party to contact him at sevan1@sympatico. ca or by calling 514-970-1959.
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