re: #83 wheat-dogg, raker of forests, master of steam

And Richie and the Big Bopper had survived. Richie was the first Hispanic pop star to cross over to the mainstream pop music world, for example. He could have inspired more Latinx influence earlier in American music than has happened.

Fun story about Ritchie Valens. I was working on a textbook/video project and one of the short stories was “La Bamba” written by Gary Soto. We got contact info for one or Ritchie Valens’ aunts and we asked her if she had any photos or other stuff she could take pics of and send us to use in the video. She sent a gigantic carton of original photos, letters, and all kinds of memorabilia. We shot it and sent it all back, but we were amazed at what a trusting soul she was to send us all that original stuff. I can’t find the video right now, but it was quite an experience.