Don McLean and the song "American Pie" - 1971

People used to say it was about a lot of things, but most agreed that 'the day the music died' referred to February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and Richie Valens died in a plane crash.

I was 16 in 1971, and there is a line in the song that I misintepreted for a long time:

"And while Lenin read a book on Marx"

I thought he was saying that John Lennon was reading a book about Groucho Marx.

Whether it was because the song was about music, or because I never learned about Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, I like my intepretation better.

This is a good example of the dumbing down of kids in the public school system and why the government should get out of the education business.

...Or I led a sheltered life as a child.

Given the efforts by the American Atheists and the ACLU to remove the following from Social Studies textbooks, I am guessing the next generation will know who Lenin and Marx are, and that they will be studied as great leaders, as MAO was to Anita Dunn:

· Christmas
· Neil Armstrong
· The Liberty Bell

As for me, I would still rather believe that Don McLean was talking about the Beatles and the man who had the television show, "You Bet Your Life".