Category: Driving

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1990

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 18, 2020

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday December 16TH 1990:

“You’re Amazing” – Robert Palmer
“Disappear” – INXS
“Love Will Never Do Without You” – Janet Jackson
“After The Rain” – Nelson
“Impulsive” – Wilson Phillips

What a solid Top 5 chart that was exactly 30 years ago this weekend !

Robert Palmer scored a # 1 smash with his very underrated single “You’re Amazing”. It’s my 2ND-favorite song from him – 2ND to “Simply Irresistible” – which this song sounds a lot like. I’d love to purchase it online, but it is a rarity apparently. It’s not even on iTunes.

INXS and Janet Jackson held down the # 2 and # 3 spots with my favorite songs from each artist. I still love to hear them today. Nelson’s “After The Rain” is currently in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles that I listen to at the workplace. I hear it almost every day.

30 years ago this past week I drove from Homestead AFB Florida (where I still work today) to McLean Virginia (my parents’ home at the time and my home as a teenager). I departed the airbase at 3:35 AM on Sunday December 16TH 1990, and I arrived at my pitstop for the night – South Of The Border (along the North / South Carolina border) – at 3:37 PM. I drove 724.7 miles that day – averaging 60.2 MPH. I departed South Of The Border the next morning at 4:58 AM on Monday December 17TH 1990. I arrived at my parents’ home at 11:17 AM. I drove 378.3 miles that day – averaging 59.9 MPH. My 1,103-mile trek up the U.S. East Coast was complete, and I spent 10 days at home with my Mom, Dad, Brother, and Cats.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to December 1985. It was my first Christmas away from home in a foreign land …

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1990, Music, Radio

Blogging Driving Travel

1,000 Miles

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 10, 2020

♫ But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door ♫

No. I have not walked 1,000 miles this year. I’ve walked over 700 miles though. In 2019 (a “normal” year) I walked about 900 miles. Same for 2018.

This past Monday I hit 1,000 on my odometer of my new car – in my 116TH day of driving it. That’s an average of less than 9 miles per day. It was a tough 1,000 miles. I get the feeling that the next 1,000 miles won’t take another 116 days to do so. Looking back to earlier this year I actually drove 1,175 miles in June and 1,227 miles in July – mostly in a road-trip between South Florida and South Alabama. I don’t have any long road-trips like that one planned anytime soon; although, I am planning a trip over to Southwest Florida towards the end of March. By then I expect to be over 2,000 on my odometer.

Now that the weather is cooler, dryer, and nicer here in South Florida I plan to get out more, and drive around to various tourist attractions near me. I may even drive down U.S. 1 into the Florida Keys. The “18-Mile Stretch” is what we call the stretch of U.S. 1 between Florida City (mainland) and Key Largo (top of the Keys). I live about 3 miles from the north-end of the stretch.

I haven’t driven down to the Keys in about 6 years. (I was last in Key West not quite 3 years ago via cruise ship.)

I think that an ideal trip would be to drive southward into the Keys on a Monday or a Tuesday, spend a couple of nights in Marathon or Key West at a hotel, and then return northward on a Wednesday or a Thursday (avoiding all weekend traffic during this “high season”). Of course I’d have a list of fun places along the way that I’d want to visit.

Yeah let me get started on that list and that road-trip planning. I got excited just writing about it !

1980s Blogging Career Driving Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 27, 2020

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday December 01ST 1985:

“We Built This City” – Starship
“Separate Lives” – Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin
“Part Time Lover” – Stevie Wonder
“Say You, Say Me” – Lionel Richie
“Never” – Heart

It all started right here with this chart. What was a hobby for almost a decade prior became official, as I sat down with paper, pen, and pencil, and I wrote down my Top 20 favourite songs of the week. (And since I was living in the south of England at the time I had to learn to adapt to their proper spelling and pronunciation of certain words, so it was “favourite” – not “favorite”.)

During the peak of this hobby in the United Kingdom I was producing on paper a Top 50 hit music chart twice per week ! YES – I really got into it. I eventually scaled back to a standard Top 40 chart once per week, and that continued for almost 7 years until I took a 3-year hiatus from 1992 to 1995.

Starship’s “We Built This City” was my favorite song at the time. It was actually spending its 3RD week at # 1 when my very first chart was written down. It was also my favorite song as I drove 700 miles from Chanute AFB Illinois to McLean Virginia at the end of October 1985. It was the perfect driving song for what was my longest road-trip (with me driving) of my life at the time. After I flew to my new home in England it reminded me of America as I discovered a brand new country for the first time in my life.

During those early days in England I listened to the hottest hits in my military dormitory room on GWR (97.2 FM out of Swindon Wiltshire) and BBC Radio 1 (1053 & 1089 AM).

Every 4TH Friday of the month for the next 2 years I’ll share my life and music with you, as I look back at those fun times across the sea as a late-teenager.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to December 2005.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1985, England, Music, Radio

1980s Blogging Career Driving Life Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 30, 2020

Every 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH Friday of the month I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, or 30 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 5TH Friday of the month, so it’s a special. Back in 1985 I was an 18-year-old USAF Airman Basic living in a dorm at Chanute AFB near Rantoul Illinois. I was there for technical training related to my future job. During those last days of October of 1985 I was still there, but I shouldn’t have been. You see I was held-back. While my 3 classmates moved on to their next destination I was still there with my instructor. I failed the final exam (barely). I didn’t study hard enough for it. Perhaps I partied just a little bit too much during the days and nights leading-up to the final exam.

So my instructor summarized the material of the past 12 weeks, quizzed me on it over and over again, and prepared me to take the final exam again. I passed it on the redo, and I was soon on my way out of that dorm, off the base, and on the road in my 1980 Chevy Citation. I drove 700 miles eastward across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and into Northern Virginia (my home-of-record at the time).

These were the hottest hits in the land during that memorable 700-mile drive – exactly 35 years ago this weekend – for the week ending Sunday October 27TH 1985:

“Saving All My Love For You” – Whitney Houston
“Part-Time Lover” – Stevie Wonder
“Take On Me” – A-Ha
“Miami Vice Theme” – Jan Hammer
“Head Over Heels” – Tears For Fears

That was the longest solo road-trip of my life (up to that point). That was in my very first car that I didn’t get to keep long enough, as I would soon be on my way overseas to The United Kingdom. (That car would eventually be sold by my Dad.)

Big changes are coming to RETRO starting next Friday. I’ll be removing 20 years ago from the monthly rotation, and I’ll be adding 25 years ago and 35 years ago. My hit music chart began 35 years ago next month in England, and 25 years ago this month it was resurrected after a 3-year hiatus. The beginnings of both of these distinct eras are intriguing, and I’m looking forward to looking back at these music memories of my life.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !