Category: History

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Driving God History Music Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

It’s a special Sunday night edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ !

Last night I checked in to my pit stop (on my return trip from the Dallas Texas area) up in the historic Florida panhandle town of Marianna. Within a couple of hours I was sound asleep on my delightfully warm and comfy Hampton Inn ‘Cloud Nine’ bedding (blatant promotion).

After a restful night of sleep I proceeded on the final stretch of the longest road trip of my lifetime – completing 2,764.7 miles from start to finish.

I listened to a lot of great Christian radio during this road trip. My car radio was pretty much locked-in to the non-commercial district of the FM dial (88.1-91.9). I heard some great music on WAY-FM, AIR-1, K-LOVE, and 89.7-POWER-FM north of Dallas Texas (among other great radio stations along the way). I even heard some great sermons and interesting call-in talk shows on various radio stations. I Love My Radio – My Christian Radio !

Here’s 1980s European singer Taffy with her smash from 23 years ago in 1987:

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Driving God History Home Music People Travel

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

It’s just past 1 PM CST here in North Texas as I begin compiling this post, and in just about 9 hours I’ll be heading to bed for the final time here. I’ve got an early wake-up call in the morning of 4:30 AM, and I hope to be on the road no later than 90 minutes after that. I hope to enjoy a peaceful and quiet drive southeastward into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida during the day tomorrow. I’m driving nearly 60% of the way to home tomorrow, and then the remaining 40% of the drive will be on Sunday.

I’m looking forward to returning to my normal routine come Monday morning. It’s always a lot of fun to go on vacation, but I definitely appreciate what I have back at home and at work so much more when I’ve been away for awhile.

This week on my ‘Disco Party’ I’ve got a dude that was born in Glasgow Scotland in 1950, but as a young chap he moved down under to Australia where he’s been ever since. He’s John Paul Young, and back in the early-1970s he played the role of the High Priest Annas in the Australian production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”. In 1978 he scored his only worldwide hit, and it was a memorable Disco smash on the radio, at the nightclubs, and at the roller disco.

Here he is – John Paul Young – with his classic “Love Is In The Air”:

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Driving History Life Music Travel

Saturday Night Retro

This afternoon I completed the first-half of the longest road trip of my lifetime. In addition to the 804 miles that I drove over the course of 12½ hours yesterday (Friday) I drove another 577 miles today (Saturday) over the course of about 9 hours. That’s 1,381 miles of driving on Friday and Saturday, and now it’s time to sit back and let other people do the driving while I do the relaxing.

Although I’ve driven in the great state of Texas before (mostly rental cars out of San Antonio) this is the first time that I’ve driven my own personal car here. It’s also the furthest west that I’ve ever driven in my own car – eclipsing the previous westmost record holder for me – New Orleans about 5 Summers ago.

I’ve now conquered with my own car all of the states with coastlines along the Gulf Of Mexico. I’ve also previously made it about halfway up the Eastern Seaboard – up to Maryland. This Christmas actually marks the 20TH anniversary of the first time that I drove to and from my previous home in Northern Virginia all the way to and from Homestead Florida (about a 2,200 mile round trip). I did that in my new car at the time – a 1989 Geo Spectrum.

When this song first hit the pop radio airwaves during the Summer of 1996 I thought that it was the perfect road trip driving song. It’s bubbly melody and beat totally encouraged me to surge past the posted speed limit at times and get wild and crazy on the highways !

It’s Crush with their MASSIVE dance smash that’s all about that “Jellyhead”:

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Animals Driving History Music People Travel

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

This morning I woke up at 3:45 AM Eastern / 2:45 AM Central. I was on the road an hour later, and after about 12½ hours of driving 804 miles I arrived at my destination tonight safe and sound. I’m in Gulfport Mississippi. I’ve been here before – back in the Summer of 1994 on temporary military duty at nearby Keesler AFB in historic Biloxi.

Tomorrow I’ve got another 590 or so miles of driving from here to Allen Texas (northeast of Dallas). It’s the home of my Mom, Dad, Cat, Brother, Sister-In-Law, Future Nephew, and Dog. I’ll be there for 7 days and 7 nights.

But before all of that it’s time to kick-off the weekly Disco party, and this week I’ve got a crazy dude who called himself ‘Disco Tex’. Back in the mid-1970s he hung out with a band of lunatics known as ‘The Sex-O-Lettes’. Here’s their biggest Disco smash from back in the day – it’s “Get Dancin'”: