The Day the Music Died

By Richard R. Ujdur Sr.

The day the music died, I was living in the small town, Crockett, California. Population, three thousand. I am now in my middle eighties. When you live in a small town, you don't meet or see many celebrities. Me, my son, and dear friend went to Muhammad Ali's training camp in the Pocono Mountains in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, to get a product endorsement from Muhammad Ali. We were there for three days. We took many pictures with Ali doing what he loved the most: doing magic tricks, especially for children. Also, we took lots pictures around his camp. Ali even chopped down a tree for us, that was on a hill in back of his camp. It's a great picture. I gave that picture to Ali's mother, Odessa Clay, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas the day after the music died. I was there with a lady friend. I spent time not with the greatest fighter, but the greatest loving person that I have ever known. Ask anyone that was in contact with Muhammad Ali. Even the prizefighters that fought Ali in the ring said that being around Ali for any amount of time was an unexplainable supernatural experience of love that they carry around daily. After Holmes beat Ali badly at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he said, he went to his hotel room and cried, because of the love he had for Ali.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644623510

Book preview

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The Day the Music Died

Richard R. Ujdur, Sr.

Copyright © 2019 Richard R. Ujdur, Sr. and Sherri Ann Ujdur-Vendl

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2019

ISBN 978-1-64462-350-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64584-677-2 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64462-351-0 (Digital)

Photos by Richard R. Ujdur, Sr. and Sherri Ann Ujdur-Vendl

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Days before the music died,

I was at Ali’s training camp

In 1972, the great Muhammad Ali began preparing for his biggest fights at a training camp in rural Deer Lake, Pennsylvania called Fighter’s Heaven.

The latest was the greatest, Muhammad Ali—not as the greatest prizefighter but as a person that was given a special gift of supernatural love. That love was passed on to me and all the people in the world that came in contact with Muhammad Ali. When reading this book, you will feel that love and how that love still lingers in the world today.

This book is dedicated to all the people that met Muhammad Ali and were touched by his love and have taken that love into the world to help the needy and, most of all, have taken his nonprejudiced love into the world to help the world.

Richard Ujdur

October 6, 2018

I consider myself very fortunate to have this special time with my Father.

During these past few months publishing our second book has been an

experience of a lifetime. I hope that our readers enjoy hearing of my Fathers

time with Muhamad Ali.

Sherri Ann Ujdur-Vendl

Prologue

I’d like to tell you that I am not a professional writer, but I have been told by professional writers that if I tell this story in my own words and from my heart, the readers will follow me no matter what. This story took place in the late nineteen seventies when I was in my late forties.

Throughout my life, I have met thousands of people, but the one person that stands out to me the most is the late Muhammad Ali. Not as prizefighter, but as a person that was given a special gift, a gift of supernatural love, that he gave back to everyone that he came in contact with.

Anyone that spent time with Ali has been blessed and has walked away bearing that gift. Ali was as gentle as a pussy cat, yet he was as fierce as a lion. When I was in his presence, I kept thinking, This person is so gentle and so kind; how could he go into the boxing ring and destroy his opponent? Also believe me, Ali really loved to do magic tricks. There are many special pictures of him doing magic tricks and more in this book.

If Ali and the President of the United States were walking down the street together and I was on the opposite side of the street, and I yelled out to Ali that I had a magic trick to show him, he would stop walking with the president and run to me. That’s how much Ali loved magic tricks.

Now, let’s get started on that beautiful journey.

The beginning of my idea, the DO-IT bracelet, started that journey years ago. I was slowly jogging on the beach in San Francisco. I had a bad fall. I had multiple injuries, but the worst were my shattered heels. They were agonizing. I was going to the UC Med Center in San Francisco for my physical treatments and rehabilitation. Because of my shattered heels, my doctor suggested that I get some cardiovascular exercise. She suggested the beach in the city; the sand would not hurt my heals much while I was semijogging. While jogging, I could see this big billboard sign, on top of the nearby hill, that had two big words smack in the middle of it that read, DO-IT. Every day, I kept thinking about the billboard sign and how powerful those two words are.

Anyone driving or walking could not help but see that big billboard sign. Then the idea hit me. A bracelet. A DO-IT bracelet. The bracelet would be a daily reminder, to be worn daily to achieve his or her goal, whatever that goal might be. It could be given as a gift from a parent or grandparent to a graduating student, or someone buying the DO-IT bracelet for someone else to achieve their goal. Later, I went to San Francisco to a patent attorney. I paid him to research the DO-IT trademark in the jewelry class. It was available, and it took a while, but the trademark was granted. I was without the