Category: History

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The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Flashback to the Spring of 1977. I’m 9-years-old – getting ready to turn 10-years-old, and I’m hangin’ out with my friends down by the creek at the bottom end of Red Wing Lane in Lanham Maryland. One side of the creek I ruled. I was in charge. The territory was known as ‘Chris Day Valley’, and it stretched for as far as my imagination would allow. On the other side of the creek my friends ruled, and their territory was known as ‘Wolf Pack State’. Our two territories neighboured each other, and we were friendly nations. See – even back then I was mastering geographic boundaries !

As I was compiling the paragraph above (and wandering around on the web) I believe that I may have discovered two friends of mine (simultaneously) from that neighbourhood and that time period. I’m gonna try to connect with both of them. I see their pictures (avatars) online, and they look very much as I remember them from over 30 years ago. One of them lived in the last house on the street right before the creek and the two ‘territories’. The other lived in a house just behind mine, and he was one of my first good buddy friends.

Playing on the radio back in the old neighbourhood up and down Red Wing Lane was a lot of Disco music. ABBA (from Sweden) weren’t really a Disco act, but they got with the times when they had to. The result was their only # 1 smash stateside and perhaps their most memorable anthem of the era. It’s “Dancing Queen” !  RE-LIVE !

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s get ridiculous.
– This morning at 7:30 AM I already had The Big Cheese on my mind.
– I convinced 5 other coworker dudes to eat Lunch there 4 hours later.
– And so we came, we saw, and we conquered !
– We ordered 2 extra large (16-inch) pizzas for the 6 of us.
– One had pepperoni on it, and the other was full of sausages.
– One dude ate more pizza than all of the others.
– Guilty !
– There were 20 slices in all, and the other 5 dudes ate 3 slices apiece.
– That left 5 slices for moi.
– That was some tasty pizza there !
– I’m lookin’ forward to this upcoming holiday weekend.
– It all starts for me at 11 AM tomorrow (Friday) morning.
– But it starts off with a dental cleaning appointment.
– On Saturday and Sunday I’ll be on the road visiting places.
– It’s sort of like a dry run for a much longer road trip I’m taking in November.
– This blog will go dark for those two days.
– I mean you’ll still be able to access it, but there will be nothing new posted on it.
– Actually I’ll be tweeting, so you’ll be able to see those here on the blog.
– My antiquated cell phone is born again due to its ability to tweet.
– On Monday I’ll blog all about my road trip.
– But before then tomorrow night is Disco night here on the bell-bottom blog.
– I’ve got ABBA with their biggest worldwide smash ever !
– You can dance – You can jive – Having the time of your Life.
– You won’t regret it pal.
– Since there is no ‘Saturday Night Retro’ this weekend I’ve got a treat for you.
– I’ve got Mr. David Hasselhoff with a big hit that he had back in 1997.
– It’s a spirited remake of a very well-known early-1970s pop smash.
– Check out the low-budget production values of this music video:

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The Major’s Tweets

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If you’re not following me on Twitter then have no worries, for I’ve got the best of the best tweets from this past week. They are listed in chronological order:

– I am currently watching “Hell’s Kitchen” – perhaps the single TV show in primetime that I look forward to each week more than any other. [8:20 PM Sep 29th from twitter.com]

– Box Office Fun: I dig screwball comedies and horrifying thrillers. “Zombieland” combines both extremes. I can’t wait to laugh and scream !  [8:52 PM Sep 29th from twitter.com]

– OK everyone quiet – “Survivor: Samoa” is on now. [7:58 PM Oct 1st from twitter.com]

– OK the weekend has FINALLY arrived, and I’m kicking it off in GRANDE style – by doing two loads of laundry. Can I get a what-what ?  [4:08 PM Oct 2nd from twitter.com]

– I can clearly see the house that I lived in from ’72-’75 – front yard and all – on Google. It was new back then. Now it looks 38 years old !  [8:25 PM Oct 2nd from twitter.com]

– I’ve been jammin’ to ’70s On 7′ on Sirius XM since last night. THIS is a quality ’70s station – with legendary TOP 40 DJ Jay Thomas on now. [9:14 AM Oct 3rd from twitter.com]

– I am now enjoying Stuffed Spinach Shells & Garlic Rolls courtesy of my good friends over there at The Big Cheese Of Homestead. You know it !  [11:39 AM Oct 3rd from twitter.com]

– “SNL” got bold last night with their opening skit. It was Fred Armisen as the ‘promise-everything’ / ‘do-nothing’ President Obama. So true. [1:30 PM Oct 4th from twitter.com]

Follow me @majorhitwaves.

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Saturday Night Retro

You can’t schedule Life. Life happens. Some of it you expect. Some of it comes from beyond sight and theory. I had fully expected to continue a previously-scheduled 10-week romp through the decade that was the 1990s here on the ‘Retro’. The goal was to reach 1999 on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That won’t happen because 1992 has been delayed until perhaps next Saturday night. I’m flashing back this week nearly 38 years ago to the start of 1972, and it’s all because of a song.

So there I was on a random day this past week minding my own business working at my desk at work when a song came on a coworker’s radio. I could barely hear it, but during those 3 minutes that it was on it was the loudest thing in my mind. It was as loud as a speeding locomotive. It cut through me and took me back to a mysterious time and era that I had previously forgotten. A time when I was a wondering 4-year-old kid exploring the world around me from inside of a moving car. I was mentally and emotionally transported back to that time.

It’s crazy how a single song can be so powerful as to totally consume you in the moment. It brought tears to my eyes, and even tonight as I post this and hear it again it gives me the chills over and over again.

I often wonder if today’s hit songs on the radio will remind me of the good and the not so good times of my Life today some 10, 25, or 40 years from now. A little over a month ago I was at cruising speed enjoying Life, bragging about it, and planning it out weeks, months, and even years from now. Unfortunately the other end of my Life was suddenly imploding in an irreversible manner. There I was looking too far into the future while I was neglecting the foundation of the Life of the now. Life happened. You can’t schedule Life.