Mom's birthday is July 19th. She died just 6 weeks after I was discharged from the Army. We were living at Canon Air Force Base, Clovis New Mexico. Shortly after her death, my father retired from the Air Force and moved home to Delano California. I lived there with him for a while before moving to Torrance, California.

While I was in Clovis, New Mexico, I became friends with a local disc jockey. His rock station broadcast from the recording studio once owned by Norman Petty. Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico, is where Buddy Holly and his band adopted the name the Crickets and formed their unique style. It was 1957 and Holly's upbeat, pop sound became the transition between the raw rockabilly of Sun Records and the sophisticated pop rock music that would follow in the decades to come.

The studio was pretty badly worn and no longer being used when I saw it years later, but the acoustics of the sound room were still excellent. I've often thought that it should have become a museum.

Like my mom, Buddy died way too young.