The weather in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Groundhog Day of 1959 was bone chillin’. Still, 1,100 enthusiastic young people and their parents crammed into the Surf Ballroom to hear some of rock and roll’s brightest stars perform. Buddy Holly and the Crickets (Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings were the Crickets for this Feb. 2 concert), Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson A.K.A. The Big Bopper and Dion & the Belmonts performed their biggest hits and remained after the concert to sign autographs for adoring fans. Instead of spending another night riding in a rundown tour bus without heat, three stars — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper — chartered a flight in a small Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft piloted by 21-year-old Roger Peterson. Shortly after takeoff the plane crashed into a frozen cornfield. It was early morning on Feb. 3, 1959. Years later, Don McLean referred to that day as “the day the music died.” Truth is that the music didn’t die and 54 years later it lives! For the three stars, their music has become their legacy. What will be our legacy? The patriarch, Abel, was a righteous man of faith. The author of the book of Hebrews wrote of Abel that “by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” Now that is a legacy! What will be ours? Will it be something that we say or something that we sing? Will it be something that we create or invent? Will it simply be the example that we set? Will it be the Christ who lives in us that people will remember? Will we be remembered as the “salt of the earth” or the “light of the world?”Discover your God-given gifts and use them in God’s service to others and there will be plenty who will be singing your song throughout eternity.•Ken Haskins is pastor of First Christian Church in Carson City.
