I was born on July 28, 1965 in Roswell, New Mexcico and I remember listening to Buddy Holly as early as 4 years old in 1969. My parents divorced when I was nearly three and my mother, and sister, 18 months older than me, were living with my step grandmother and her teenage daughter and son in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I started singing to family members when I was four years old and they encouraged me. My mother, sister and I all slept in the same room and late at night, while I was lying on my cot, my mother put in an ear piece plugged in to her radio but I could still hear it. I had insomnia all my life and would often stay up late listening to music but would not make a sound for fear that they might know I was still awake. She picked up a station in California and I heard all the early greats of rock n' roll: Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Brenda Lee, Glen Campbell, Janice Joplin and some really cool surfin' music of the Beach Boys. Does anyone remember Bobby Gentry (sp)? I was always singing outside our house while playing in the yard or in my room while playing with dolls, to the radio. Songs would get stuck in my head and singing them over and over again even if I just hummed the tune and only remembered the main chorus part of he lyrics usually helped.

My mother remarried when I was 5 and we moved to a large ranch then various other places in the states. In the early 70's I remember my first radio was a transistor and I hid it under my pillow at night when I lived in Juneau, Alaska. I was trying to find that California radio station my mother listened to when we lived in Tucumcari and I found two California stations but could only get a signal late at night. Wolfman Jack was the radio host on one of them. Remember him?

I wanted to learn to play the piano so bad since I was young but my step father wouldn't let me because it cost money and probably his time. They started laughing at the way I sang but it didn't stop me. They may have killed my pride and dignity but they could not break my spirit. I would sing every where I went where I knew poeple couldn't hear me and laugh. I would take my dog for long walks every day and found a very accoustic place in the woods and sing there nearly every day, taking only my transistor. I looked for Buddy Holly on every station and would try to mimic his style as well as Karen Carpenter, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and a few others. Moving around so much and being raised in an athiest (step father and sister) /christian (mother and me) as well as very strict and household while growning kept me from forming tight friendships and my insomnia kept me awake a lot and Rock and Christian music filled my soul at night and comforted me through many trials in my life and lifted my spirits and my heart.

We eventually moved to Logan, New Mexico when I was in the 9th grade. I took Chorus all through high school so that was the only education in singing I ever had. I remember my first time on stage with over 100 people in the audience there to watch our high school choir do their semi annual concert. I had practiced a different version of "Away In A Manger" for weeks with a piano player who I was referred to that I was told "sang like a nighting gale. They recorded the entire concert and it was the first time I had ever heard my voice or saw myself on stage. I was wearing a dress I had made in home economics class. I watched myself and thought, wow I don't sound half bad. I wondered what artists thought the first time they heard themselves sing.

I was forced to blow the whistle on my parents when I was 15 by my high school guidance councelor after an choking incident by my step father as well as child labor law never imposed on him. He didn't pay me half the time to work in his restaurant as a dishwasher into the late hours and I was failing in high school. He was jailed and paid a hefty bond to get out.

I met my estranged father when I was 15 and though living with him lifted many restrictions, wasn't much better due to his alcoholism. Even though I was asked if I wanted to live with him and his wife and his step daughther, he claimed I showed up on his doorstep in Tucumcari, New Mexico. But the man never paid any child support or cared for my well being and he distanced himself from me again after I finished high school and after my first marriage ended and claimed that his job was done.


I watched "The Buddy Holly Story" with Gary Busy and "La Bamba" with Lou Diamond Phillips some time after my second marriage ended and was deeply touched by their lives. I realize they are only partially true, but I grew up on their music and they gave me more insight into the men behind the music who's music lifted my spirits through the years.

I moved to Portales, New Mexico in the 90's to go to college and started singing karaoke. It was the first time I had sang in public since high school. I remember my voice, how it sounded coming through the speakers. I sang a lot of songs I had heard over the years and some new ones. It was a fun way for college students to get together on a thursday night since they closed the movie theatre in town and there was nothing else to do. People danced when I sang. When I was younger I only dreamed of having a fantastic voice that people would sing and dance to. I only have an average voice but people loved it. I would get requests to sing songs for them. I started taping my voice and felt it didn't sound half bad! I was singing songs by Cheryl Crow and Shania Twain a lot and taping them. People told me I sounded a lot like something they would hear on the radio. Listening to my voice, I felt that it was more of a "country voice" than a "rock voice" I don't know if I just didn't have the drive to follow my dream as Buddy Holly did or what held me back. Maybe something was missing in my song. With millions wishing for the same dream, I am just a small voice. When I sang in Clovis a lot, during the time I felt if I was going to be discovered, that would have been the time. There were talent searchers at some of the places I sang at. So maybe it just wasn't meant to be. The memories of people dancing and laughing and singing with me will last a lifetime. I remember thinking, "wow so this is a small taste of what it was like for the fathers of rock n' roll." So, I didn't get "discovered," however it will not stop the music in my soul or me from singing. And the music from all of the artists like Buddy Holly and so many others will live in my heart untill the day it stops beating.

I'm 40 years old and still jammin' to Buddy. I found this website after doing a lot of research all over the internet, finding the "real story" behind Buddy Holley. I just wanted to share with everyone what an impact music has on my life.

The only think now I wish I could find is a high school picture of Echo McGuire, Buddy's high school girlfriend but there doesn't seem to be any. I did order a couple of books about Buddy's life that were recommended on other posts on this website and I can't wait till they get here.

Welcome to the boards, wow that was an intro and a half, I'll have to go and make mine a little better lol.
I can't sing for toffee and thankfully nobody has ever asked me to.

Welcome, Rhonda.

quote:

Originally posted by Rhonda:
Wolfman Jack was the radio host on one of them. Remember him?
The only think now I wish I could find is a high school picture of Echo McGuire, Buddy's high school girlfriend but there doesn't seem to be any.

There is a radio clip of Wolfman Jack introducing That'll Be the Day by saying "That'll Be The Day-the late, great Buddy Holly on the Wolfman Jack show."
https://www.buddyhollyband.com/groupee_files/photo_albums/5...5A3239160C1D5616.jpg
^Echo McGuire....there are more pictures of her in the Real Buddy Holly story, and then of course she herself is in the documentary.

that introduction by Wolfman Jack is actually from the movie soundtrack of "American Graffiti".

Thanks for the welcomes It's a real pleasure to be on this website among other Buddy Holly fans! I read a lot of this website and it's also to see that there are fans as young as 15 on here. His music will truly never die.

And oh Thank You Buddy_blue for that photo of Echo McGuire and Buddy Holly.

I'm finding this site very intertaining, love the differents insights into his music. I'll come back here often. Thank you for providing this site for everyone to gather and talk about Buddy Holly.

Rhonda,

I'm pretty sure there's a picture of Buddy with Echo in the biography "Rave On" by Phillip Norman. Hopefully that's one of the books you sent for. It's a good one. (* see below)

Welcome to the boards, and thanks for sharing so much about your life! I almost felt like I was reading a screenplay or something - I could totally see the little girl lying perfectly still in the darkness so she could keep listening to the music! You have a talent for writing!

(PS: I replied before checking the picture link above. That's the picture I was talking about! So as Gilda Radner would have said...never mind!)

From one newbie to another, welcome....and Rave On Rhonda! hi_d_ho_holly_o says BUDDY HOLLY LIVES!