Everyday

Today is not "everyday." February 3, 2009 is a significant date for those of us over the age of fifty-five. It was fifty years ago today that the music world lost three big names. Rock and roll was in its earliest stage - kids loved it, parents hated it - and these three young men were in the middle of it all.
Even you youngsters (any of you under 50) have heard their names - Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson (the Big Bopper) - you have heard their music and you most certainly have heard others who were strongly influenced by what they wrote and sang.
I was nine at the time but I was already humming "Everyday," "Peggy Sue" "Chantilly Lace," and "Donna."
One of the great mysteries of life is how things would be different "if only..." Think just of the music industry: how would it be different if Harry Chapin (age, 38) hadn't died in a car crash; if Jim Croce (age, 30) hadn't also died in a plane crash; if Marvin Gaye hadn't died at 44; or if Janis Joplin didn't leave us at the age of 27?
We'll never know the answer to what might have been. Still, for today, let's remember what was.