Events ready to roll at Surf

The annual event at Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom will kick off next week. This year fans of Buddy Holly, fifties rock’n roll and Iowa entertainers will pack the Surf Ballroom for a three-night celebration dubbed “Fifties in February.” Owner Kevin Schoeneman says he’s almost old enough to remember the Buddy Holly era, and always enjoys hosting the midwinter event that commemorates his last appearance in Iowa.It’s from Thursday night through Saturday at one A.M. and each day in between. It’s all music from the fifties, and there’s a sock-hop Thursday and live music each night. Iowa bands and groups that played through the Midwest decades ago will be performing live throughout the three-day, three-night event, and Schoeneman says people come from other states and many foreign countries. He says people are looking for “the innocence of their youth,” as they come, reminisce and sometimes remember their youth as being even better than it was. It was 45 years ago Buddy Holly left after a performance in Iowa, and died in a plane crash just a few miles away from the Mason City airport. For ticket information and directions to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, surf to its website, http://www.surfballroom.com/