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 Holabird AdvocateProviding all the news we see fit to print since 2002!Saturday, February 02, 2002 VOL. I Issue 2B GROUND HOG DAY ON THE PONDEROSA February 2nd being ground hog day as it is was celebrated on the Ponderosa by eating pork sausage(those Hinkles are funny that way),Mary spent the morning cleaning up the E.E. Hinkle house while he watched her quietly.Jerry Hinkle reports that he didn't see his shadow all morning.Had he been able to see a shadow there would have been four more weeks of winter.As it is,spring will not arrive until the 21st of March.in Puxatanee,Pennsylvania this morning it was reported that 116 year old ground hog Puxatanee Phil did indeed see his shadow.Phil predictions are documented to be 100% correct (about 25% of the time).As far as Jerry Hinkle goes,well how often have you proved him wrong. THE BIG BOPPER GETS NO RESPECT,UNTIL NOW by Jerry Hinkle Special to The Holabird Advocate Tomorrow marks the 43rd anniversary of what a lot of Buddy Holly fans call the day the music died.I became a Buddy Holly fan about 35 years after he died.It was then that I learned that he was on the the same plane that killed Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, who was known as"The Big Bopper". I saw "La Bamba" in 1987 like a lot of other people did,and became a fan of Ritchie Valens.But it all came togther in 1994 when I realized that they were all in the same crash.I even bought "The Buddy Holly Story" on video tape and soon discovered the best portrayal I'd ever seen of The Big Bopper by an actor named Gailard Sartian (before he made it big on "Hee Haw") I listened to Bopper's recording of "Chantilly Lace " on an old 8-track tape of Grandma's when I was a young boy.Grandma also had a 45 record of that song with "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor" on the "B-side"(if you've never heard of 45s and 8-tracks you may have to look for a museum with a 70s exibit).I became a fan of his instantly.As for the tape and the 45 RPM record,they've disappeared,although I may have worn them out by playing them so much. I've learned quite a bit about Bopper since my childhood.The fact that he and his wife were Having a baby,and that Waylon Jennings gave him his seat on the plane that crashed.I found a compact disk that Rhino records put out of his best music and have gained a lot more insight to the man.He was quite the songwritter.He composed "White Lightnin' "for George Jones and "Running Bear" for Johnny Preston.Bopper provided the background "Indian chant" on the latter.It went to #1 on the Billboard chart a year after he died.Of course he wrote all of his own material too.Like all truly great people he had a spiritual side that comes through with one of his lesser known songs "Somone Watching Over You(look for it in the poetry corner in this edition). In 1999 I went to the Buddy Holly Days Celebration in Clear Lake,Iowa.I met the Crickets,Bobby Vee,and Ernie Valens(cousin to Ritchie),but the highlight of that trip for me was to meet Bopper Jr.,the son that was born fatherless.He looked and sounded just like his father.He even wore "Melvin", the coat that his father wore on stage all those years ago.I even got up the courage to ask him for his autograph.Yes, I, your courageous dymamic Publisher who has met Govenors,Senators and assorted T.V. and musical celebraties was compleatly and udderly star struck,and he was even famous.he was just the son of a dead guy.he was nobody and yet there was something about him that was so much like his father.If I had seen the Bopper himself I don't honestly know what I'd have done.Only one other soul does that to me,but I'll probably never see "her" again.At any rate,Buddy Holly had "The Buddy Holly Story", Richie Valens had "La Bamba".Would some great film maker out there make a movie in tribute to the Big Bopper? I don't know.I just hope that If they do, I'm still alive to see it. POETRY CORNER "Ground Hog Day" by Jerry Hinkle It is Ground Hog Day The ground hog comes out of his hole He sees a shadow It is the shadow of a semi-truck's tire There will be six more weeks of winter But not for that ground hog "Someone Watching Over You" by J.P. Richardson If you do your best to do what's right And you don't have trouble sleeping at night And the Devil don't fill your soul with fright Then there's someone who's watching over you tonight If you lend a hand to every needy man And you treat him like he's your friend And your conscience tells you You've done what's right Then there's someone who's watching over you tonight He'll watch over you as you rest your head Angels will be sitting at the foot of your bed If you do you your best to do what's right And you don't have trouble sleeping at night And the Devil don't fill your soul with fright Then there's someone who's watching Someone who's watching Then there's someone who's watching over you tonight
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