Category: History

Memorial Day

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 27, 2019

2008 Memorial Day Poster #3.

It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S.A. It’s not appropriate to say “Happy Memorial Day”, for this is a truly solemn holiday. It’s the day each year that we honor our fallen heroes – those military personnel who served their country in a time of war – and who gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep our freedom strong. They gave their life.

This is not a day for those like me who once served in the U.S. Armed Forces, for I am still alive. My day is Veterans Day on November 11TH. It is not a day for those who are currently serving in the military. That day is Armed Forces Day – the 3RD Saturday of May.

On this day I remember our fallen heroes. I will never forget.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

1980s Driving History Music Radio Television

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1989

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 24, 2019

Every Friday night I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 10, 20, or 30 years ago this weekend (rotating each week). Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 28TH 1989:

“Baby Don’t Forget My Number” – Milli Vanilli
“Into The Night” – Benny Mardones
“I’ll Be There For You” – Bon Jovi
“Iko Iko” – The Belle Stars
“The Look” – Roxette

It’s another strong Top 5 chart from exactly 30 years ago this Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S.A. 4 of those 5 hits are in active rotation on my iPod Shuffles at work. The one lone song that’s not – “Into The Night” – has just been added to my Wish List on iTunes. I had to listen to several different versions of that track to pick out the one that I remembered from 1989 (which was actually from 1980). It’s Benny Mardones’ signature song, and he still performs it LIVE in concert. The song has evolved over the years, but it’s the original version that tops them all. Yep – that’s the version that a young almost 22-year-old Chris cranked-up on Y-100 while driving up and down Dade County Florida’s U.S. 1 / South Dixie Highway in his red 1989 Geo Spectrum sedan.

Well it’s the last Friday night of May of 1989, so what’s on TV tonight ? Well obviously I’m watching “Full House” – followed by “Perfect Strangers”- followed by “Mr. Belvedere” (my favorite TV show back then). “Just The Ten Of Us” was on after that, but I didn’t really care for it all that much. Prime Time Television was a whole lot more fun back in 1989 !

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday afternoon, Monday morning, and Tuesday night with 3 more blog posts for this weekend. Until then – enjoy your Saturday. Make memories that’ll make you smile 30 years from now !

Tags 1989

1990s Driving History Life Money Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1999

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 17, 2019

“The Hardest Thing” – 98°
“I Want It That Way” – The Backstreet Boys
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” – Ricky Martin
“Special” – Garbage
“That Don’t Impress Me Much” – Shania Twain

Good solid pop music back then – with Garbage being the anomaly.

I like to do this from time to time. Looking back at my checkbook register is a lot of fun. Back then I wrote a whole lot more checks than I do today. (The only checks I typically write today are my weekly tithes to my church.)

So 20 years ago this week I got paid. I got paid today too. My net pay back then was about 58.6% of what it was today. That’s good progress.

My telephone bill for a month of service 20 years ago was $52.85. Last weekend I paid $78.99. You may be thinking, “Why do you even have a telephone bill ? It’s 2019 !” There are many logical reasons why I still have an “old-school” land-line telephone. I get very few telemarketing calls on my cell phone – because I rarely give out my cell phone number. I give out my longtime land-line number instead. The telemarketers call that number. I also live deep in the heart of hurricane country. During bad storms cell phone towers lose power, get damaged, or topple over. Most of our standard telephone lines are underground and operate continuously during and after hurricanes.

I paid my Chevron bill during this week 20 years ago. Gas was cheap back then – about $1.25 per gallon. It’s more than twice that amount today, but I’m not complaining about $2.70 per gallon. I remember when it was approaching $5 per gallon. I’m planning a road-trip in about 4 months from South Florida to North Texas and back. That’s about 3,000 miles. At $2.70 per gallon and about 42 miles per gallon with my car that’s a little less than $200 in gas. I got this !

You know 1999 was not that good of a year for me – privately and professionally. It was a rather forgettable year, or I’ve just chosen to forget about that year over time. The music of yesteryear brings back those memories – good and bad. As Shania said, “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. I feel the same about 1999.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday afternoon and Monday night with two more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Go make some good memories that you’ll cherish for years to come.

Tags 1999

Animals Astronomy Bible Christian Driving Food God Health History Home Life Ministry Movies Music Nature Scripture Shopping Travel

Home Sweet Homestead

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 9, 2019

I’m back from vacation ! My 6-day / 590-mile / 14-county Florida road-trip has come to a close. My trek started in deep South Miami-Dade County (where my home is), and it continued northward through Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, and Polk Counties, westward into Hillsborough County (Tampa), southward through Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier Counties, and then back into Miami-Dade County. I also came within a few feet of touching (mainland) Monroe County for a second.

It was a fun trip. I saw a couple of current movies, I did a little bit of shopping (didn’t buy anything), I ate a lot of good food, I walked over 60,000 steps (to burn-off that good food), I did a lot of sightseeing, I visited some historical museums and animal-based tourist attractions, I went to two Christian music concerts, and I spent a lot of time at the beach.

I saw and I did things that I had never seen or done before in my life. This was a classic vacation. I get to spend the near future reminiscing about the times I enjoyed via the 140+ photos and 1 video I captured during all of the fun.

The 1 video I captured is a spectacular 3½-minute video of this past Tuesday night’s sunset on Venice Beach Florida. The video captures the 3 minutes leading up to the sun dropping below the horizon at sea as well as the 30 seconds right after that moment. I intended to post that video in its entirety here on my blog, but I realized that I can’t upload videos on here with my current WordPress plan. The video is also about 1:10 too long for Twitter, so I’ll have to figure out how to trim it down to 2:20 for Twitter.

In the meantime here’s Monday night’s sunset at 8:05 PM EDT on Venice Beach.

Sunset