Cellarer

St. Joseph's Monastery of Spencer, MA is not unlike most Trappist monasteries in the nation, or for that matter the world, but they recently became the first Trappist Monastery in the nation, and the ninth in the world to produce a product rather ubiquitous to us in Wisconsin, although in their own unique way.  A few weeks ago they started selling a beer that is certified as authentic by the International Trappist Association. What, you ask, makes a beer produced by a bunch of monks unique?  Perhaps this post will add some insight.

The Cellarer, in a common depiction

In the first half of the 6th century, Benedict of Nursia wrote the Rule for Benedictine Monasteries at the great Monte Cassino Monastery in Italy.  It is a guide to religious communal living that survives 1500 years later, and in that respect owes a great deal to the practicality of its author.  Regarding alcoholic beverages, Benedict says the following:

We read that monks should not drink wine at all, but some monks of our day cannot be convinced of this, let us at least agree to drink moderately and not to the point of excess [Chapter 40].

To the Rule, moderation is key to things not sinful.  With a monastery located in Italy, how could a monk not wish to drink wine?

St. Benedict of Nursia

Monasteries were vital to travelers in the difficult times during, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire up and through the middle ages.  Not only did they serve as the inns of these eras, but they provided a clean, safe haven as well.  The walls were not built to keep monks in.   Food and drink are essential parts of daily living and were of more importance to a traveler in the early middle ages than to us today.  After all, there was no McDonald's, Chili's or other fast or casual dining place so common in the big box areas ever present along main travel corridors and at interchanges.  Monasteries served as the wayside, and Inn.  Monasteries at this time were often self-sufficient, and what they could not make they would trade for.  St John's Abby in central Minnesota was near self-sustaining until the 1960's.  Given the level of self-sufficiency, the position of Cellarer was often considered second to the abbot in importance.  It was this position that made sure there was ample provisions for monks and guest, not only in terms of food, but also the tools necessary to produce the food and the physical goods essential to human sustenance and well being.

Monte Cassino after Allied Bombing during
WWII

Wine and beer were more important than to simply satisfy an urge for alcohol.  Water was not necessarily pure, and carried a variety of diseases and illnesses, for which their was not Cipro or other anti-biotics. Making wine and brewing beer sanitized the water supply, and beer in particular provided nutrients critical to hard-working laborers. The life of a monk, particularly in Trappist orders and continuing to today, involves work and prayer.  While we can buy our pre-butchered chickens, beef and pigs, in the middle ages the monks would grow and slaughter their own animals.  This was not easy work and vital nutrients were important to keep the population healthy.

Monte Cassino following reconstruction

450 years after Benedict promulgated his rule, a group of monks decided that the Benedictines were not living the Rule as prescribed by their founder.  They desired a more strict interpretation of the rule, and thus came the founding of the Cistercian order, named after the community in France where the break-away monks formed their first community.  In a strict interpretation of the Rule, they would live a life of prayer and live by their labors.  As with the Benedictine's the Cistercian order became powerful in Europe, although the Protestant Reformation and the later rise of Napoleon would almost lead to their extinction.  Trappists formed in 1664 when a group of Cistercians felt that the order had drifted and were not living the rule as strict as it should. Every 500 or so years a correction was required.  With upheaval in France, monks made their way to the more friendly confines of Belgium.  But unlike the French Trappists, those in Belgium found it difficult for vineyards to produce a sufficient crop so they turned to the another option--beer.  Beer would produce not only nutrients for themselves and their guests, but its sale would help support the community.

Spencer Ale Label

Monasteries, however, produced beer long before the Trappists did so in Belgium.  The template for monastery brewing came from St. Gall. Direct family members of this writer will note that the one completed chapter of the Hovel family history notes that the surname is from the Bohemian version of St. Gall.  Thus, our family surname pays not only tribute to St. Gall, but also to the founder of the monastic method of brewing.  I am not sure their is a better reason to like beer. St. Gall, provided for three breweries, one for the travelers and guests, one for the monks and a third to supply the poor.  Recall the nutrients and carbohydrates which beer provides.the quality of the beer differed, with the first group receiving the highest quality and the last the lowest.  Similar to the gospel story with Christ changing water to wine, the water and grains changed to beer, the best was used for the guests.   Hospitality is another tenant of the Rule, and continues to this day.

The Brewery at St Joseph's Abbey

While monks tend to be frugal some say it was a Jesuit who came up with the idea of using the grains more than once in the brewing process. Beer from the same grains dropped in quality and alcohol content.  Leave it to the Jesuits to squeeze out every last drop.  I suspect Pope Francis would be proud of that frugality. Although the Jesuit order is a rather new compared to Benedictine's so I would not be surprised in this discovery was not had earlier.

So why the big deal of Trappist beer?  Well, to that we owe much to the Belgians.  Belgium produces some great beers, there is even a restaurant in Wauwatosa that serves only imported Belgium made beer.  Of those good Belgian beers, one in particular has made notoriety as, by some standards, the best beer in the world.  The Westveleteren 12, produced by St Sixtus monastery in Belgium had six packs sold in the United States for almost $100.  The abbey does no marketing, and its production is by what the monks choose to do.

St Sixtus Abbey, Westvletern, Belgium

Belgian Trappist beer has an interesting history.  In the early 20th century cheap, lesser alcohol content from foreign sources made their way into the Belgian market, undercutting the home grown beers.  Like many an American, apparently some Belgians went for quantity over quality.  The imports apparently caused many local brewers to go out of business.  Being counter-cultural as they are, the Trappists saw a business opportunity with a niche market--brew high quality beer with a high alcohol content.  There efforts were indirectly aided by the government when in 1919 Belgium banned liquor sales at restaurants which allowed the high alcohol content beer made by the Trappists popular with diners.  Counter to their conservative image, the monasteries studied and adopted new techniques and equipment to obtain the best quality product possible.  Making beer in God's name they thought should not be but the best product.

Imitators led the Trappist monasteries to band together to form the International Trappist Association and create the Authentic Trappist label used not just on beer, but other products they produce.  To obtain the Authentic Trappist label, the product must meet four criteria:
1. The beer (or product) must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery by or having the production supervised by the monks.
2,  The brewery must be of secondary importance and be subject to business practices commensurate with that of a monastic life.
3.  The brewery is not for making a profit.  The money is to be used to pay for the upkeep of the manstery and its monks.  Any excess money is to be for the monastery's charitable ventures.
4.The quality of beers are subject to quality monitoring.

Label for Authentic Trappist Product

St Joseph's Spencer beer, named for the town in Massachusetts in which the abbey is located, just like the St Sixtus abbey beer Westvleteren, was the ninth being so recognized, the others are in Europe, where Belgium has six, and one each in the Netherlands and Germany.  While the fellow monks in Belgium had some reluctance in passing on trade secrets to the upstart Americans, two monks from St Joseph's abbey spent several months in Belgium learning tricks of the trade.  Keeping with the values of the monks, when asked what to do to be successful the Belgians noted to buy the very best equipment you can find, and then "a bit more."

The Westvleteren 12 was not to have been sold in the United States.  Their product is clearly labeled as "Not for Resale," yet it has occurred.  Particular about producing the best beer, the Monks at St Sixtus noted that they do not have an international license to sell overseas, and anyway the beer is sensitive to changes in light and temperature.  The abbey said that the sale of their product in the US goes against the Benedictine values under the monks work.  In fact, they did a news interview not to promote the product, but to make Americans aware that the beer arrived in the US in ways they did not approve. In fact, they asked that American's not to ask for Westvlerteren, as it would not support the Trappist cause. Perhaps they did not hear the Hollywood mantra, that any press in good press.  If you want a Trappist beer, they suggested purchasing one properly available in the US. In any event they do not participate in tastings or such level of product promotion as counter to the level of humility to be expressed by their order.

The bottle says it all

The Cellarer position has perhaps morphed to that of Brewmaster, and the Benedictine-Trappist tradition of labor and prayer continues after 1500 years.  But what makes the beer unique is not the fact that is made by monks, but by the values of hard work, humility, and charity which are important to their lifestyle.  Who would know that we would owe so much to some Belgian monks for best methods of brewing?  Drink up!  

(A note of thanks to my spouse for making me aware of the existence of the Spencer Ale, and suggesting I do a post.)

Sunrise

I usually arrive at work at 7:00 am, and while I have noticed the morning is coming earlier the last few weeks, the early arrival of sunrise will be offset by the movement to Daylight Savings Time (DST) in less than a month.  According to charts from the US Naval Observatory, today, February 12, 2014 marks the first time since November that the sun will arise at or before 7 am.  As my luck would have it, it was a cloudy morning boding of snow, mitigating the affect, to me anyway, of a critical juncture in the movement to spring. Latitude wise, Madison is slightly north of Milwaukee, but because Milwaukee is further east it saw a 7:00 am sunrise five days earlier.  I should be glad that I am not in the vicinity of St Joseph, MN, or central MN, where the sunrise today will be at 7:24 am.  St Joseph's will not see a sunrise on or before 7 am until February 27.  St Joseph's latitude would place it about 171 miles north of Madison, but they are almost 5 degrees (d) further west than Madison.  Because longitude has varying distances apart as they move toward a convergence at the poles of the earth, I will leave it to mathematically minded individuals to calculate its distance west of Madison, at least in terms of longitude.  New Orleans, by contrast, at least based on standard time, will not see a sun rise later than 6:56 am this year.  Of course, because of the upcoming correction to DST, residents of that city will see days where the sunrise will be after 7 am.

Google images

If March 9, the start of  DST, were still according to standard time, the sunrise on that day would have been 6:20 am for Madison, a rather remarkable almost forty minute increase in less than four weeks.  But, with the hour change, DST will push back sunrise to 7:20 am on that day.  New Orleans, by contrast, will see a sunrise on that date of 7:17 am, only a few minutes ahead of Madison, but due to its lower latitude it will take until March 24 before the sun will (according to DST) before 7 am.  New Orleans, is at N29d 58' latitude, compared to Madison's N43d 05'.  Each degree latitude is about 69 miles in distance.  Unlike longitude, latitude is constant.

On the day of the summer solstice, with DST, Madison will see a 5:18 sunrise, while New Orleans will see one at 6:00 am.  Of course, if you want length of day, you need to take sunset into account.  On June 21, Madison will see a sunset of 8:41 pm, New Orleans at 7:50 pm, and St Joseph, MN at a nice long 9:10 pm.  Due to its location about 6 d north of the Tropic of Cancer, New Orleans has a more even length of day over the course of the year than we in the upper Midwest, particularly those living near St Joseph.  One notices that as Fireworks on the fourth of July begin at 9:15 pm here in Madison, but in Superior, WI they begin at 10:00 pm.  The Tropic of Cancer is set on maps at 23.5 d north, but in actuality, it marks the northern most level of the sun during the summer in the northern hemisphere.  This movement is variable, and this year the sun will be at 23 d 26' (and for the anal among us, add a suffix of 14.675").  As the summer and winter solstices denotes the start of the summer and winter seasons, the vernal (spring) and autumnal equinoxes are the start of spring and fall.

Stone Henge (source: Google images)

This year the spring equinox is March 20.  This then leads us to the furry rodent that Sun Prairie celebrates. If this groundhog sees it's shadow, than the prediction is for six more weeks of winter, if not it is an early spring.  As most technical observers will note, since groundhog's day falls within a day or so of the mid point of the calendar winter season, there is of course six more weeks of winter.  But what the calendar says and the way the weather actually is or feels are two different things.  What or how we feel the weather, is more important than what the calendar says it is to be.  In spring of 2010 we had 80 degree days in March, while last year we had a long, cold, and wet spring--almost to the point where we wondered if we actually had a spring.  The handlers of the fuzzy, hibernating rodent, claim a high success rate for the rodent's predictions, which begs the question of how one (or they) measure an early spring or a late winter.  Do we take a certain factor of allowed variation of the average daily highs for a week?   Perhaps the best portend we had for this winter was not the rodent, but the cold spring of last year. This winter we have had temperature lows, while not setting records, have not been seen for 20- 30 years.  Frost depths are reported in some areas to be seven feet deep, and many communities are asking water customers to run a pencil width of water all day long to avoid laterals from freezing.  Perhaps what this proves is that no one can predict the weather, not a rodent and some would say, certainly not a meteorologist.

Sun Prairie's Jimmy the Ground Hog (center), (source:groundhogcentral)

 Sunrise and sunset is an interplay of our geography, the position of place in relation to latitude and longitude.  The fact of nature is that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west.  According to natural low, the sun has a high point in the north near the Tropic of Cancer.  In the end, after a cold winter, and last year's nasty spring, most of us are hoping for a nice spring in 2014, regardless of when we see the sunrise.  It is nice, however, having day light, when I arrive to work.

Departing Springfield

It was on this date, February 11, 1861, that a tall, gangling man boarded a train in Illinois to head east. His spouse, an woman ever desirous of the current fashion, was shopping in St Louis, MO most likely to obtain new outfits to wear during their time out east.  She would meet up with him in Indiana. He had personally packed the belongings of his family as they prepared to leave the city in which his children were born and, as he says, he grew old. His luggage would bear a simple handwritten tag reading, "A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C." The family would take up residence in a city that was, at the time, rather unforgiving and still in a pioneer stage, as most of its buildings were destroyed less than 60 years earlier during the war of 1812. By most accounts. it was a poor excuse for a capital city, to European diplomats they may well have been sent to Siberia. By his own account, and that of most historians, this man would face a task greater than that of Washington, or any other occupant of the office to which he was elected.

Lincoln Home, Springfield, IL (2003 photo)

Three months earlier, on November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln would win the election to the nation's highest office, besting three other candidates although earning less than 40% of the vote, but having obtained 180 electoral votes from seventeen states. Although it is speculated that if the three opponents had been combined into one, he likely would still have won the electoral college vote. The weather conditions not only well recognized the state of a disintegrating union, but it also would portend much in the circumstances of his presidency.  A sculptor who went to see Lincoln off, Thomas Jones, would say of the weather on that mid-winter morning  "It was a dark, gloomy, misty morning, boding rain." Lincoln would depart his Springfield home at 7:30 that morning, and head the three blocks to the Great Western Railroad Depot in Springfield, IL. Here he would board a two car train, whose locomotive was, curiously, named after a slave owner from Charleston, SC, L.M. Wiley. One of the two cars was for passengers, the other for baggage. Known as the Presidential Special, this train would carry the President-elect, a self-educated lawyer from the prairies, through six states. Due to the trials of the times, and a bounty on his head, he would leave the Presidential Special in Philadelphia and board a different train which would take him to Washington, DC on February 23. After leaving Springfield, its first stop for more fuel would be in Decauter, IL It is here where Lincoln earned the nickname "Railsplitter," given to him by the Republican state convention.

Building which housed Herndon and Lincoln Law Office,
Springfield, IL (2003 Photo)

We all know the basics of the civil war, and the states in rebellion. By the time of Lincoln's boarding the train to take him to his new position, seven states would have proclaimed secession from the United States of America. The first, of course would be South Carolina, ever beholden to its concept of a oligarchy of slave owners and the primacy of the individual state seceded in December 1860. By June of 1861 four more states would follow the first seven. What few know is that the first of three assassination attempts over the course of this journey was faced in his home state of Illinois, just a mile west of the Indiana border. If not located by an engineer a device on the track would likely have caused the train to derail, and Lincoln may have not seen the White House. History would have been changed as the politician from Maine, Hannibal Hamlin, the elected Vice President, would have ascended to the presidency.

But, back in Springfield on this gloomy morning, Lincoln made his way to the Depot, where, as his secretary John Hay would note, were "over a thousand persons of all classes." Lincoln was leaving the comfort zone of a small city in the prairies of Illinois. It was an emotional moment for the small town lawyer from the flat lands. He was visibly moved by the persons turning out to render a good bye, and as he shook the hands of friends and others, he was pale "quivered with emotion so deep as to render him almost unable to utter a single word." A local newspaper at the time reported that at five minutes before eight Lincoln would rise from a room in the station. Let us pick up the eloquence of the reporter for the Springfield Daily State Journal:

Mr. Lincoln, slowly made his way from his room in the station, through the expectant masses which respectfully parted right and left at his approach to the car provided for his use. At each step of his progress towards the car, friendly hands were extended for a last greeting. On reaching the platform of the car, Mr. Lincoln turned toward the people, removed his hat, paused for several seconds, till he could control his emotions, and then slowly, impressively and with profound emotion uttered the following words [here the reporter inserted his version of the address].

Great Western Railroad Depot, Springfield, IL (2003 photo)

It is then, as rain added to the tears of both Lincoln and the assembled crowd,  that he removed his hat and asked for silence.  He then gave a 150 word address that was short even by Lincoln's standards. While spoken extemporaneously, Lincoln had obviously given thought as to what he would say to the assemblage. And so this man given a set of circumstances unlike any other in the relatively brief history of this nation, stated a few words hereafter to be known as his Farewell Address.

My friends -- No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe every thing. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you and be every where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

Farewell address written by Lincoln while on the train. 
Note the wobbly writing due to the movement of the train.
(Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc05107x.jpg)

The above version was the one hand written by Lincoln after completing the speech, and is the one most reported. Looking closely one can see the wobbly nature of the handwriting, related more to the movement of the train than any nervousness on his part.  Like his more famous Gettysburg Address, there is variation in recordings, including the one given by the news reporter. The news report would conclude with the following:

It was an impressive scene. We have known Mr. Lincoln for many years; we have heard him speak upon a hundred different occasions; but we never saw him so profoundly affected, nor did he ever utter an address, which seemed to us as full of simple and touching eloquence, so exactly adopted to the occasion, so worthy of the man and the hour. Although it was raining fast when he began to speak, every hat was lifted and every head bent forward to catch the last words of the departing chief. -- When he said, with the earnestness of a sudden inspiration of feeling, that with God's help he should not fail, there was an uncontrollable burst of applause.
At precisely eight o'clock, city time, the train moved off, bearing our honored townsman, our noble chief, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, to the scenes of his future labors, and as we firmly believe of his glorious triumph. God bless honest ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

As eloquent, heartfelt and deserving to Springfield as was this speech, it would also show the start of a Lincoln style. Ted Widmer, a Brown University librarian and former Clinton speechwriter notes that "the speech was so much more than that. Already, he was showing the odd cadences that separate his speeches from nearly all others: the poetic repetition of the same word (“here”) to start sentences, the perfect comma-pauses, the balance between opposites like “with” and “without.”

No President has had the weight thrust upon as did Lincoln. On March 4, 1861 Lincoln would take an oath as prescribed by the United States Constitution. War would start within 60 days of this farewell address. Paradoxically, a war to preserve the union would leave scars which are still present in our social, moral and geographic landscape. But, without Lincoln, would a Hannibal Hamlin have had the character and strength to persevere, to express the moral clarity, and to provide the undivided purpose to put down a rebellion?  Or would the nation have remained fractured?  If the nation had remained fractured, could Florida State claim to be national collegiate football champion?  Could Alabama, or the schools of the SEC?  

It has often been said that history gives a person a chance for greatness, and it is how one handles the happenstance of history as to whether or not the person meets the challenge posed. Most poignantly, however, is that in this address Lincoln portended his own fate, as he would never see Springfield again. John Hay, would record in his notes, a line which now seems haunting-- “As he turned to enter the car three cheers were given, and a few seconds afterwards the train moved slowly out of the sight of the silent gathering.” After a roaring good bye, the crowd had become silent as the train pulled out of the station.  It is if they almost understood they had seen their friend, neighbor, for the last time.  One historian has noted, at the end of civil war, and Lincoln's death, the nation became known as "The United States," rather than its previous "These United States." A small but significant distinction in the life of a country where it changed from being collection of states which formed a nation to a nation formed of states. The civil ware would alter the course of US History, lead to the early end of the life of a humble man, change Washington DC, end slavery, and forever alter the relationship between the federal and state governments.

What was Revealed the Day the Music Died?

In the early morning hour of February 3, 1959, 55 years ago, a small one engine aircraft carrying three young musicians departed the Mason City airport for North Dakota.  This group was composed of three of four headliners playing in the "Winter Dance Party" tour of the upper Midwest during those cold, dark winters seemingly unique to the nation's upper Midwest.  Don McLean wrote a famous song commemorating the outcome of that event, and titled it simply American Pie. McLean, who wrote the song in 1971, would first learn of the death of these three young musicians while working on his paper route on the morning of February 3, hence the phrase in the song--"February made me shiver/with every paper I'd deliver." This post is not on the song but rather background history leading up to an event that saw three young and budding stars lose their lives, Buddy Holly, Big Bopper (JP Richardson), and Ritchie Valens. There was not room on the four seated plane (the last position occupied by the pilot) for Dion DiMucci, the fourth major headliner on the tour.

Tour Poster (Source: Google Images)

The Winter Dance Party Tour was organized by the General Artists Corporation (GAC), which was not like the large money promoters we see today, but rather led by a druggist whose major music interest was in selling records in his drugstores and making money as a promoter. When the tour started it was scheduled to have 24 shows over the course of 24 days crisscrossing the Midwest during a winter colder than the one being experienced this year. The tour started during a blizzard, and temperatures would plummet over the next three weeks, rarely reaching above zero. Back then it was referred to simply as a cold snap, but in our technological world today we need a more technical term and so it is now called a polar vortex. Apparently, the druggist did not understand geography because the bookings literally had them traveling from between locations often 300 to 400 miles in one day. The tour began in Milwaukee, WI at Devine's Ballroom on January 23, 1959 where almost 6,000 persons attended. Eleven performances in as many days,would be performed, but it was to have been one more, or 12 in 11 days. They did not travel like the young stars of today, on private airplanes, but mostly using ill-equipped buses with little working heat. Prior to the trip to Duluth, drummer Carl Bunch was already losing feeling in his feet, and Buddy Holly had collapsed a few days prior backstage. Colds and flu spread through the group. Richie Valens did not take the advice of his manager and bail out before the 370 mile trudge from Fort Dodge, IA to Duluth, MN.

Tour Map (Wikipedia)

The tour played at the Duluth, MN Armory on the night of January 31, 1959. It was here that a young man named Robert Zimmerman, of Hibbing, MN, would hear the groups play; he angled near the stage to get a better glimpse of Buddy Holly. Robert Zimmerman would recount this event in 1998 while accepting a Grammy award under the name of Bob Dylan. The rickety old bus, usually used for a Baptist Church group, departed Duluth and headed on a 340 mile journey for east central Wisconsin to perform two gigs on the following day--one in Appleton and one in Green Bay. Just after midnight the bus approached a hill 15 miles south of Hurley, WI, but the extreme cold weather cause the engine to seize and send a piston through the engine wall. Most of the group was born and raised in the warmer climates, many from Texas, Valens from California. Dion was the exception, he was from New York. Dion would comment that the winter weather the group experienced in Wisconsin made the east coast winters seem like Palm Beach. Some members wanted to try to walk to safety, but perhaps it was their being scared of bears (as they reportedly were), or the wind breaking tree limbs like twigs, but they decided to stay in the bus. Dion would come up with the idea of burning newspapers on the floor of the bus to help keep the group warm in temperatures of 35 below zero. A semi-truck driver would approach an hour after the breakdown, and would slow down to avoid hitting the group of men who went in the road to try to flag him down for help, but he would simply bypass the group. It would be two hours later that a sheriff deputy would come upon the group, as the truck driver at least had the decency to let the sheriff know about the stranded travelers when he next stopped. The drummer for Buddy Holly would be hospitalized in Iron River for frostbite. The group would be housed in Hurley's Carnival Club, a strip joint where they were fed breakfast.

Showing a desire for cash over the welfare of the young musicians, the druggist's company would order the men to continue, although the Appleton matinee was canceled. The cancellation was likely more due to the new travel arrangements having them take the train from Hurley to Green Bay. Fortunately for them, 1959 had a mode of intercity transportation we lack today. The train would depart Hurley at 11:30 am. At Green Bay, the tickets for the February 1st performance were 90 cents if purchased in advance, and $1.25 at the door. 2,200 people crowded into the Green Bay's Riverside Ballroom. The day after their Green Bay appearance was to have been a day off, but with a promoter more into cash than caring for a sick and tired group of musicians, he added a venue in north central Iowa, the Surf Ballrooom of Clear Lake. On February 2, 1959 another old re-purposed school bus carrying the band members would depart Green Bay and head down Highway 41, where they would pass by the gate of Austin Strobel Airport. Interestingly, at 2:20 pm on that same day, a North Central Airlines flight would arrive in the cold of the Green Bay airport, dropping off a man who would breathe life into a decrepit team and obtain his own legendary status as head coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers.

Last known photo of Buddy Holly taken in Green Bay, WI
(Source:  Google Images)

Holly would have a short career, only 1 1/2 years, and would not have been on the tour but for needing the cash, in large part to lack of care by his manager. Buddy Holly would move up the charts with songs like Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, and That'll Be the Day. Milwaukee was the largest city in which the group would play, and places like Clear Lake, IA are lucky to be a pin prick on a state map. Justin Bieber, who at 19 is a millionaire, would not understand, much less appreciate the trials and travel schedules the early ground breakers of the rock-n-roll era.

Mason City, IA Newspaper of 2/3/1959.
(Source:  newsarchives)

Buddy Holly had enough of long, cold bus trips in the below zero weather gripping the north central part of the Nation.  Before his performance at the Surf Ballroom, he would decide to fly to the next gig arriving in Fargo, ND for another added performance in Moorhead, MN, rather than travel by bus.  As Dion, the only one of the four major musicians to be on that tour to survive tells it, the plane could only take three passengers.  Buddy was going, and a coin flip determined he (Dion) and Bopper to be the two to join Buddy Holly on what would be an ill-fated plane ride.  However, when Dion found out the cost, $36, for the one way charter, he recognized it as one month's rent, and thinking back to lessons he learned from his frugal mother, would decide the price too steep, and give his seat to Richie Valens. As Dion recalls in an article in St Anthony's Messenger "Only the four of us knew who was getting on the plane when we left the dressing room that night. Of the four who were in that room, I’m the only one who survived beyond February 3, 1959."  The owner of the flight service would watch the tail light of the plane disappear.  With no word from surrounding airports, a search was on, and the plane company owner would locate the plane at 5:30 in the morning in the snow covered fields of north central Iowa.  We have distant family members in this area of Iowa, and my grandfather's cousins formed a band in 1932 first known as the Hovel Bros. Band.  They would play throughout much of north central Iowa, and perhaps at one point played at the Surf.  But these farmers and machinists were not destined for stardom, but would be well known within their parochial area of Iowa.  Their band, albeit with different members, would play on for at least 61 years and last be known the Ponderosa Gang.  Buddy Holly and the Crickets were not as fortunate.

1993 news article on Hovel Bros. Band
(Source:  Carol Ryan)

As Dion DiMucci goes on to say, sometimes cliches sound hollow and other times they are outright cruel, and this was shown by the promoters who exclaimed that the show must go on.  Despite loosing three of their close musicians and friends, Dion would complete the extended tour on February 18.  Returning to New York he would suffer from survivor's guilt, having been the one to give up his seat.  He says he leaned on his wife, and his addictions.  Dion would later recognize the gift of friendship he had with these men.  He would find this to be particularly true during a 2005 pilgrimage to Rome where he had a grace filled experience when seeing the irons in which some of the apostles had once been held.  A young priest noting the experience simply said to him: "Dion, relationships don't end."  It would take years for Dion to reference his involvement in this tragic event, although he made what he terms an "oblique reference to it in a song in the '60's."  However, much more poignantly than what I will ever be able to compose he has this to say in that St Anthony article:

But Don McLean got more notice with his song about “the day the music died.” I prefer to think about it as the day the music was born.  In Buddy Holly and the Crickets, rock music had found its lasting form: two guitars, a bass and drums. The news of Buddy and his “widowed bride” touched a lot of people deep inside, and it made them love their music all the more because they knew the artists were mortal. The songs may last forever, but we singers were trying to outrun the clock.

Years later I read a line about a natural process, and it seemed to provide a good analogy for what happened to us and to rock and roll back in 1959. Jesus told his disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”  (John 12:24).

Richie Valens, The Bopper, and Buddy Holly had their careers cut short by a 21 year old pilot who failed to properly check the weather forecast.  Yet, they have become legends in their own right.  As tragic, and melancholic as it may be to have lost three young talented musicians, Dion is right to think of this not as the day the music died, but as the day the music was born. In his song, Don McLean asks "Do you recall what was was revealed the day the music died?  It is what Dion realized in his grace filled encounter in 2005 the music did not die; relationships are on-going, and more importantly the three men admired most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost did not take the last train for the coast.  Present they are, just wanting to be revealed