Posts Tagged ‘Cannon Falls’

Doo Wop And Cannon Falls

by Peter Molenaar The luckier members of my generation were again able to watch public television”'s annual review of the Doo Wop Pop Rock music emergence (late ”˜50s””early ”˜60s). As always, it was an awesome emotional head swoon. Moreover, let us self-reflect, the splendid performances of so many popular Black artists served to educate and humanize millions of white Americans Note: I was born August 26, 1950”¦ How is it that these tunes are lodged in my brain and subject to recall? Probably it is owing to the daily school bus rides into the town of Cannon Falls. The good bus driver had the radio on all those years. Yet the town remained white, with just a touch of Dakota blood mixed in. Any outside person of color was sure to incite such internal red flags as: Get a grip, be nice but do not touch. It was from elsewhere, moved by the music, that some white folks went South to confront the terror regime there. The news trickled in. We learned [...]