Stories Caught in Time: What Travel Teaches Us About Legacy

Beat-up black thick-framed glasses. Lenses long gone. Sitting on a museum’s acrylic shelf, the frames look so small although their presence looms large. That’s because those glasses belonged to Buddy Holly. Everywhere you look in Lubbock, Texas, those glasses aren’t far behind. Just outside the Buddy Holly Center, where the late musician’s frames rest, is a giant sculpture of those glasses. They’re synonymous with Holly’s identity. So too is the city of Lubbock. 

Holly was only 22 when he died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. The crash became known as The Day the Music Died, as Holly died alongside Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson – other iconic American musicians of the time. Despite having only made music for a handful of years, Holly left behind a prolific collection of material that was released by his record company – Coral Records – for a decade after his passing. Considering that he only released three albums during his life, that is an incredible discography. 

Of everything I experienced in Lubbock, seeing Holly throughout the city was an important lesson. Just as Alexander Hamilton posits in Hamilton, a legacy is “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” I’m sure Holly couldn’t have imagined his glasses – an uncommon accessory for stars of his day – or his name being proudly paraded all around his hometown. The notion that someone’s legacy can so profoundly shape a place is something we often forget when we’re traveling. Every single place we visit has been shaped by those who came before — though we may not always know their names. 

It’s these lives that leave a low hum in the air. Almost like a chirp, Holly and the Crickets are Lubbock’s ambient sound. It’s as if That’ll Be The Day – Holly’s most well-known song – became an anthem for the college city. 

“Lubbock and Buddy Holly are forever connected …” Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish told KLBK-TV. “The influence that Buddy Holly had on [the] music industry and the influence that Lubbock had on Buddy Holly was quite unmatched.” Parrish would know; he was part of Civic Lubbock Inc. for years, which oversees the Buddy Holly Center.

If you look, these left behind stories aren’t hard to find. They are part of what makes travel continually exciting — seeking out the legacies, big and small, around every corner. It’s in these moments that we get to know a place beyond its “best of” lists, food staples, or iconic buildings. Not all places can literally frame their legacy with a pair of spectacles, yet the stories are no less worthwhile. 

Perhaps it was Holly’s story, the artsy city vibe, and comfort food that made Lubbock feel so familiar. With 4,600 miles between them, in many ways, it reminded me of Dublin. 

Dublin is another city inextricably tied to some of its artistic legacies. James Joyce and Samuel Beckett were both Dubliners, but so too was one of my creative heroes – Oscar Wilde. Although he was more than twice Holly’s age when he died at 46, his career was also cut tragically short after his arrest for being gay; he never regained the fame he once had. Like Holly, he too was at the height of his fame.

Although Dublin doesn’t memorialize Wilde in the same propensity as Lubbock does Holly, both of these cities show visitors how lasting a legacy can be in a place’s identity. Wilde died 125 years ago, nearly twice as long ago as the death of Holly. Even still, the essence of Wilde permeates places he hasn’t visited in more than a century. You can still grab a pint at The Shelbourne, one of Wilde’s frequented spots; explore Trinity College Dublin where he studied; or say hello to his likeness in Merrion Square. Nearby his childhood home now known as the Oscar Wilde House, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture depicts Wilde in comfortable repose, as if forever staring at the home he lived in for 20 years.

Flashing a smirk and donning a green smoking jacket, Wilde is larger than life. His reputation and artistic genius are still widely known, respected, and loved. Just like Holly, Wilde’s contributions to popular culture are forever connected to the place he called home. With their artistic works in hand, we can get a feel for the locales these artists once visited. Taste the foods they loved. Walk the streets they walked. 

Even as these places grow and change, they will always be preceded by the legacies of those gone before. Whether 10 or 10,000 miles away, we can get to know a place from those who helped shape it.

“Any place you love is the world to you.” – Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince