Just another irony that tickles my sad

In early February of 1959 I was home from school due to the measles. I remember being extremely itchy and uncomfortable and I was getting ready to turn 13 and it didn't seem fair and of course I blamed it on Sister Mary Margaret of St. Ferdinand's grammar school in San Fernando, Ca.

I blame everything on Sister Mary Margaret and every nun that taught me for eight years was named Sister Mary Margaret.

I'm seriously telling you the truth.  
I can't remember any nun in my life who wasn't named Sister Mary Margaret.

I would describe what she looked like but it might cause me to have some new physical abnormality....like a mini-stroke or another outbreak of the measles.

I assume that I was in the 7th grade.  The previous summer I had played my only year of Little League and was getting ready for Babe Ruth League. The Dodgers had finished 7th in the National League during their first year in LA (I promise that there will be no more Leagues in this story) but 1959 would prove to be a great Dodger year and my loyalty to the boys in blue has never wavered.  Of course I love the sport of baseball but the Dodgers were more than just a baseball team......they were the main thing that got me through the next few years of my life along with Soupy Sales and Elvis.

Obviously there's a side bar story here but this is not the time or place to explain.

Back to that early February morning in 1959.......

We had a nice RCA color television that my mom had won in a church raffle a few years earlier. The  picture seemed large at the time but it was probably only 24 inches.

I recall the interruption of whatever I was watching and the announcer talking about the tragic deaths of three rock and roll stars and especially focusing on 17 year old Richie Valens who was from San Fernando.

Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and young Valens died that day in a plane crash outside of Clear Lake Iowa.

Years later the song  American Pie by Don McClean with the infamous lyric "The Day the Music Died" would forever immortalize that day in rock and roll history.

So much has been written about them and the stories regarding who wasn't on the plane and how the last minute switch of passengers took place.

The fact that anyone got on a small plane in a snow storm with a 22 year old pilot is really one of the big questions....and can probably best be answered by the simple statement.  YOUNG PEOPLE ALWAYS SEEM INDESTRUCTIBLE to themselves and then add the success of their recent records and the great fan response on their current tour and I'm sure sensing tragedy had no place in their minds.

I was watching a documentary on the event last night and within 30 minutes three different people had claimed to have had a coin flip that determined who would and who wouldn't get on that plane.

Dion said he gave up his seat to Richie Valens because Richie was cold and didn't want to ride on the bus.

Waylon Jennings said he flipped a coin and won but then gave his seat up because it seemed like the right thing to do.

A dummer on the tour said he flipped a coin and lost to young Valens.

Dion has a quote that says he is amazed at how many people claim to have flipped a coin at that small airport in Iowa. Someone knows the truth and this might one of the cases where the winner writes the history....winner being anyone who is still alive.

Please note that DION is still alive.

The entire point of this story is actually based on the date of that famous tragedy.

While watching the documentary (and I've watched many different shows related to that plane crash because I think Buddy Holly would have become one of the greatest song writers in rock music history rivaling the Beatles and Bob Dylan) I realized for the first time that the plane crash was actually
on........

FEBRUARY 3RD

February 3rd 1994
is the worst day of my life and it has nothing do with 
Buddy Holly
Richie Valens
or
The Big Bopper.

I share a sad date with each of those family members and friends and I just realized it last night.

For those of you reading this that don't know what happened on 2/3/94.......I'll tell you later.
Maybe

Michael Timothy McAlevey