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Blogging Christian Driving God History Music Radio Travel

My Favorite Music Decade

Greetings my friends. It’s Thursday October 29TH 2020, and it’s the start of another 4-day weekend of blogging – today, tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest. That’s my day with God’s Word. I also don’t blog on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Those are just my days off from this blog. There are a few Tuesdays each year when I do blog for a special occasion. The next one will be in December.

I normally don’t blog about music on Thursdays because I already do so on Fridays and Mondays, but I’ll make an exception this week.

When I was in the Wichita Falls Texas area last month we were listening to 50s On 5 on SiriusXM in my Uncle’s big Ford pick-up truck. He’ll be 90 in a couple of months, so the 1950s were his decade for pop music. He was 18 to 28 back then, so he heard those great hits on some great old-fashioned AM radio stations. Every so often he would hear a song that he wasn’t too fond of, so he would switch it over to 60s On 6. From there he would switch it over to the Love music channel. That wouldn’t last long, as it was soon back to 50s On 5.

My brother is 45. His favorite decades channel is 80s On 8 – followed closely behind by 90s On 9. That’s what we listened to in his SUV while driving around the northeastern suburbs of Dallas Texas. Every so often he’d switch it over to 70s On 7 – knowing that it’s my favorite music decade.

I loved ’70s music back in the ’70s when it was brand new on the radio. I was 2 to 12 during the ’70s. I remember listening to Top 40 radio for almost as long as I’ve been alive. I remember those childhood years in Prince Georges County Maryland with my very first radio – listening to WWDC AM-1260 out of Washington D.C. – and also WPGC AM-1580 (and then later on FM-95.5). Those were the best pop music years of my life !

But then 1980 hit, and I all but abandoned ’70s music for the next 30 years. Top 40 music continued on, and the ’70s seemed so outdated to me. It also brought back some bad memories for me. I wanted to leave those behind forever.

But then something weird happened in 2010. After 3½ years of listening to only Christian pop, rock, hip hop, and dance music from the day of salvation – I started listening to a local South Florida “oldies” station that was playing ’70s music on my coworker’s radio at her desk. I began reminiscing about the decade that I had left behind. I soon went all ’70s all the time, and that lasted nearly 7 years until 2017. It was actually during those 7 years that my weekly hit music chart was on its longest hiatus since its inception 35 years ago.

I still listen to ’70s music today alongside Christian pop music. My two favorite radio stations are both nationwide – K-LOVE and ’70s On 7. My iPod Shuffles that I listen to at work contain 305 (my area code) of my greatest hits of all-time (interchangeable), and almost 40% of them are currently from the ’70s.

The music that used to remind me of the bad times of my childhood now remind me of the good times. There were so many happy days back then, and now I see the light. The memorable music was the soundtrack of my life and times as a toddler, child, and preteen.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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2000s History Movies Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 2005

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 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 15 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday July 10TH 2005:

  1. “Don’t Mess With My Heart” – Black Eyed Peas
  2. “Incomplete” – Backstreet Boys
  3. “Behind These Hazel Eyes” – Kelly Clarkson
  4. “Hollaback Girl” – Gwen Stefani
  5. “Switch” – Will Smith

This was another forgettable week of pop music during a mostly forgettable summer of a mostly forgettable year. A few good songs came out in 2005. I just can’t remember any of them right now.

Let’s check-out the multiplex cinema scene from this month 15 years ago. I saw “War Of The Worlds”, “Rebound”, “Bewitched”, and “Wedding Crashers”. Surprisingly I rated “Rebound” as the only 4-star movie back then. That’s the one that starred Martin Lawrence as a former college basketball coach who got fired because of his bad temper. So he went to coach his former junior high school’s basketball team with great success. Nope. I don’t remember that movie. I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

You know sometimes history is not pretty – especially our own personal history. 2005 was not a good year for me; yet, I choose to look back at it once a month this year. It was a part of me. It existed. You can’t make a better future if you ignore or deny history – if you forget where you came from. Yeah 2005 was a dark year for me, but 2006 was coming, and there was light up ahead.  

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 !

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Animals Christian Church Driving Food God History Military Photography Travel

Fort Morgan

This past Sunday I wrote all about my fun adventures just outside the big city of Mobile Alabama. I praised, worshipped, and celebrated Christ at my friends’ church. I enjoyed a delicious Thai Lunch. I walked a family farm with goats. Sunday was my fun day away from my family on this family vacation.

The next day – Monday – was supposed to be a fun family visit to the local zoo in Gulf Shores. I had planned on this day for many weeks. I was really looking forward to it. I soon realized that (aside from myself) nobody else was really interested in going to the zoo – not even my two nieces (ages 10 and 7). I was a little bit heartbroken about that.

I decided to simply go to the zoo by myself. As I was looking for a coupon to the zoo in a tourist magazine I stumbled across a full-page color ad for a place I had never heard of before – Fort Morgan. It’s an old war fort at the far-western tip of the barrier island that Orange Beach and Gulf Shores are located on about 30 miles away. It sits at the mouth of Mobile Bay where it meets the Gulf Of Mexico. It’s an Alabama State Historic Site and a U.S. National Historic Landmark. It’s on the U.S. National Register Of Historic Places. The brave soldiers that served at this site protected our nation during the War Of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War 1, and World War 2.

In lieu of the zoo I went to the fort by myself early last Tuesday morning. When I arrived at the entrance gate I was immediately greeted and recognized as a Veteran. I was admitted for free. That was a nice surprise. I spent a couple of hours touring the site. It was bigger and better than I expected. I took 44 photos of the 200+ years of history all around me. I’ve already posted over a dozen of these photos on my Flickr site, and you can also see the last 5 photos posted here on my blog site. Here’s one I haven’t posted yet:

This visit – planned just hours in advance – turned out to be one of the highlights of my recent 9-day / 2-state / 1,690-mile road-trip vacation. I’m glad I discovered it in a tourist magazine. I’ll be talking about this place for years to come.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Animals Bible Bugs Christian Church Driving God History Holidays Military Ministry Music Nature People Photography Scripture Travel Weather

Southwest Florida Road-Trip

This past U.S. holiday weekend I enjoyed a 3-day / 3-county / 360-mile Florida road-trip to and from Fort Myers. It was my first visit to the region since last July. I always enjoy visiting Southwest Florida (Collier and Lee County). Usually I venture over there to see a concert at the Hertz Arena, and this trip was no exception.

My first stop though after crossing the Everglades via the Tamiami Trail was the flagship branch of the multi-site Collier County Museum in East Naples. It was my first visit since June 2012. Back then I thought it was my first visit ever – until I saw some of the exhibits outside – and then I realized that I had been there years earlier.

At the end of my 90-minute visit I picked-up a brochure for a nearby place that I never knew existed – the Naples Museum Of Military History – at the main terminal of the Naples Airport. So I went there, and I immersed myself in all of the awesome displays there. They were overflowing at the seams in the two rooms that they occupy there. They need more space, and hopefully they get it.

After that I took a ride out to the country and into the woods for another first-time visit ever – the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. What a wonderful and beautiful place this was – especially on a sunny and coolish day. I’m sure that it would be a miserable place to be during our 9-month bug season and especially our 5-month rainy season, but that was truly a great day to be outdoors strolling the 2.25-mile elevated boardwalk absorbing nature’s beauty – created by my Almighty God.

By the way all of the above was Day 1 of my road-trip !  Day 2 started in Fort Myers at probably their # 1 tourist attraction – the Edison & Ford Winter Estates. It was my first visit since April 2011. I love this place. I could work and have fun at this place after I retire from my military / civil service career. I took the 1-hour and 15-minute guided tour which was a lot of fun (even though I had done it before). I’d do it again !

On Sunday night I went to the Hertz Arena to see Franklin Graham conclude his recent tour of Florida. He led us in prayer for our nation and our leaders, and then he preached a classic Billy Graham Crusade sermon on Repentance & Salvation. That’s a topic that I’m quite familiar with, as many of my sermons are about the same. Jeremy Camp opened and closed for Franklin, as he performed 7 of his greatest hits. I’ll be seeing Jeremy Camp perform again at this very same arena in 6 weeks, as he opens for MercyMe.

Day 3 of 3 started back in East Naples at the Naples Botanical Garden – yet another first-time visit. I walked well over 3 miles for 2 hours at this fun place on a chilly and overcast morning.

I’ve got over 80 photos of this fun road-trip to and from Southwest Florida – also known as Florida’s Paradise Coast. At least 60 of those 80 photos will probably be uploaded and captioned on my Flickr site over the next few weeks. But I’ll close this blog post with a sneak-peek. It’s a photo of the chalkboard at the start of the boardwalk at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary where visitors can write-down what they’ve seen along their walk on the boardwalk. A little less than 90 minutes later – there were more sightings documented on the chalkboard.

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All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries