Bye, Bye Miss American Pie

The plane crashed early in the morning of February 3, 1959 in a cornfield in Iowa during a bad snow storm. I awoke to the sad news that three young and famous musicians had died in the crash- Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. I was ready to celebrate my 20th birthday and, as a music lover, this put a cloud over the day and was a sad topic of conversation among my 6th grade students.

At the end of the day I invited a couple of my teacher friends to my house for a small birthday celebration. When the phone rang I thought it would be another birthday wish so I was surprised by a deep male voice I didn’t recognize. He introduced himself and asked if I remembered meeting him at a wedding in December! Yes, I did remember him, especially as my Mom had predicted he’d call me. Here we were, two months later, and he finally called.

We chatted a bit about the sad news of the day, our love of LaBamba by Ritchie Valens and our current “status”. Was I free to go out with him? Would Saturday work? Yes and yes! And the rest is history! I married Jim Weise on August 15, 1959.

Why did he wait 2 months to call me? He lived in Chicago and did not own a car so he needed to buy a car (a 1959 Plymouth Hardtop) AND he needed to dump his girlfriend, Joann! Having accomplished those two things he picked up the phone and called.