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Saturday Night Retro

I had advance-planned a totally different edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ for this weekend to commemorate the 23RD anniversary of my very first LIVE concert event that I attended in my life, but due to the sudden deaths this past week of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson I decided to back-up, regroup, and try something different here that wasn’t so planned.

I haven’t decided yet how I wish to handle the great Ed McMahon, and I’ll address Michael Jackson on a very special edition of the ‘Monday Night Countdown’ in just a couple of days.

As for Farrah Fawcett I found something very unique over on the You Tube. It’s one of my favourite songs while growing up as a kid, and it’s set to the opening credits and various clips of the “Charlie’s Angels” television show of the late-1970s (featuring Farrah Fawcett). The song itself is from Alan O’Day (no relation to me), and it’s his U.S. # 1 gold pop radio smash from exactly 32 years ago –  right around the 4TH of July weekend in 1977.  It’s a memorable singalong pop nugget that reminds me of our family’s frequent summertime road trips from Suburban Washington D.C. across the MAMMOTH Chesapeake Bay Bridge and over onto the quaint beach resorts and long boardwalks of Ocean City Maryland.

FARRAH FAWCETT – 1947-2009

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Career Driving History Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

I’m coming up on the 6TH anniversary of my current car – a 2003 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe 3. It’s all paid off now (as of a year ago), and it’s the first time that I’ve actually paid off a car of mine in over 15 years. I’ve owned this 3RD Saturn of mine almost as long as I owned my first two Saturns combined during the immediate 6 years and 2 months before I bought this current Saturn.

–> 6 years ago this June the average cost per gallon of gas was less than $1.50.

A lot has occurred and evolved in my life over the past 6 years. Back in June of 2003 I was working in a job that I didn’t really like with people that I didn’t really care for. All I really wanted was a way out of that bad situation, but I kept getting offered more money to stay.

I was heavily into the European trance, techno, and house music scene. If you couldn’t find me on a random Friday or Saturday night at home then perhaps I was 260 miles away up in the Orlando area partying on the dancefloors with crowds of fellow touristas. 6 years ago this June I was still more than 3 years away from the light of the day that God led me to. God knew me, but I didn’t know Him yet.

–> 6 years ago in 2003 my favourite radio station was WPYM Party-93.1 Miami.

Here’s one of the European trance jams that I was dancing in the dark to back then. It’s DJ Valentin and Vocalist Kristine Hendricks – better known collectively as the duo of QED. This is their # 1 club dance smash from exactly 6 years ago – a modern remake of Def Leppard‘s 1988 power-rock ballad “Love Bites”. Enjoy:

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History Home Music Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

TODAY – the 13TH of June – marks my 14TH anniversary of living right here in my current home in South Central Homestead Florida 33034. At 168 months this is by far the longest tenure for me in any home in my entire life. This surpasses the 69 months that I lived in Lanham Maryland (1975-1980), the 55 months that I lived in McLean Virginia (1980-1985), and the 57 months that I lived on the original Homestead Air Force Base (1987-1992).

It’s hard to believe that when I first moved here in my current home (from my previous home in nearby Naranja) the rest of my family was still living up in McLean Virginia for the 15TH year (out of 16). Since then my Mom and Dad and Brother have moved nearly a dozen times combined – halfway across the U.S.A. !

Back in 1993 after I got out of the Active Duty USAF (and before I started working back with the USAF again as a Civilian) I lived in a tiny studio efficiency of a couple hundred square feet in what could best be described as ‘a rundown apartment complex in a rough neighbourhood in the heart of Melbourne Florida’. I paid less than $200 per month in rent for that place, and that was pretty much what it was worth back then. Although I made some good friends there it was the closest that I’ve ever come to living in a crack den. 😯

Here’s a jam that was totally HOT on the radio and on the dance floors 16 years ago in 1993 while I was unemployed and trying hard to stay out of trouble in that rough ‘hood of Melbourne. It’s the U.S. # 1 platinum smash from Snow – and it’s all about that “Informer”. I present it to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review:

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History Life Music Television

Saturday Night Retro

June 06TH 1985
June 06TH 1985

That’s me and my little brother standing outside our McLean Virginia house exactly 24 years ago today on the 06TH of June in 1985. It’s the date of my high school graduation, and it was just one day after my 18TH birthday. My high school graduation was held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. There were about 500 in my graduating ‘Class Of 1985’.

6 days after this momentous event I left home and proceeded to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas for Air Force Basic Military Training. (I had no real Summer that year.) 

And now my friends – a real treat. I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review this long lost gem. It’s legendary jazz and blues singer and guitarist Leon Redbone performing the full-length opening theme song of one of the greatest prime time network television sitcoms of the mid-1980s – “Mr. Belvedere”. ENJOY !