Category: History

Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 1, 2008

Exactly 22 years ago in October and November of 1986 I was a young and crazy 19-year-old USAF Airman serving my country overseas in a foreign country. I was in the United Kingdom, and I was having the time of my life back then – livin’ it up in the London and Oxford pop music concert scene. During one particular 3-month time-span from October 1986 through January 1987 I attended 7 LIVE concerts featuring such diverse acts as Huey Lewis And The News, Bruce Hornsby And The Range, Ultravox, The Communards, The Eurythmics, The Human League, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Berlin.

Oh yeah – I missed one – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD). They are one of my all-time favourite music acts in history, and their 1986 album “The Pacific Age” is one of the greatest ever made as far as I’m concerned.

"The Pacific Age" - OMD (1986)

I saw OMD LIVE in concert at the Oxford Apollo on the night of the 28TH of October in 1986. Check out their big hit below – “We Love You” – from the album above from exactly 22 years ago in November of 1986. The concert that I attended – it looked just like this:

See if you can find me. I’m the one that’s dancing new wave style like a zombie.

Saturday Night Retro

Flashback with me – won’t you ? – to 1984. Some of you weren’t even born back then, and the rest of us were 24 years younger. I was 16-years-old coming in to 1984, and 17-years-old at the halfway point. This Junior became a Senior in ’84 !

I was the only one in the family that knew how to program our Sony Betamax VCR. I recorded Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and “Saturday Night Live !” on a regular basis, and we watched those shows together as a family. My ‘home computer’ at the time consisted of a giant keyboard, a cassette tape drive, and as a monitor – our living den’s television set tuned in to VHF Channel 3. My favourite hour of television occurred on Sunday nights from 9 PM to 10 PM on CBS-TV when it was “The Jeffersons” followed by “Alice”. Both shows were nearing the end of their respective long runs, and they just got better and better as they got older and older. I also enjoyed watching “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes” on Monday nights at 8 PM on NBC-TV with Dick Clark and Ed McMahon.

In 1984 I had two jobs – both as a newspaper carrier. I delivered the world-famous “Washington Post” early every morning in the dark, and then in the afternoon during the week I delivered the newer “Washington Times“. I made lots of money on my own doing this, and I had plenty of it to buy my very first car – a beige 1980 Chevy Citation. I didn’t own that car for very long because I eventually moved overseas to the U.K. courtesy of the United States Air Force.

1984 was a cool year in my young life. I looked cool like this:

… And my final Junior year report card looked like this:

Would you believe that I actually made the Honor Roll during my Senior year in High School (1984-1985) with all As and Bs ?

History Home Life Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Last Saturday night we flashed back 35 years ago to 1973. This week I’m taking you even further back – on a trip to 1969.

As the year began I was 18 months old and beginning to walk alone – without braces (apparently due to pigeon toe / curved feet). I started the year in Selma Alabama (where I was born), but then we moved to Greenbelt Maryland (very near NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center). We lived in the brand new Chelsea Wood rental apartment complex on Greenbelt Road. 40 years later that apartment complex still stands, but they are now condominiums (privately owned). It looks exactly the same today (at least on the outside) as it did all of those years ago.

We lived in a first-floor unit, and I remember an early birthday party for me with a bunch of the local toddlers that was held right out front of our apartment building in the lush grassy area.

One of my lifelong wishes before it’s too late is to return to the Prince Georges County Maryland region of the Washington D.C. area for a few days. I’d like to spend some quality time retracing the early years of my life through the various neighbourhoods and communities that I lived in and spent a lot of time in for 11 years in Greenbelt, Bowie, Glenn Dale, Lanham, Seabrook, New Carrollton, and Riverdale. After all it was there where the trunk of my life was developed.

I’ve stated before that my childhood was for the most part forgettable and downright miserable; however, it wasn’t all a blur, and it wasn’t all bad either. There were a lot of good times that I experienced during those early years of my life, and I remember much of them to this day. Perhaps it was the good times that I have purposely chosen to remember after all of these years.

As a curious two-year-old toddler living in my apartment with my Mom and Dad I remember getting bathed in the kitchen sink. I also remember watching and enjoying “Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In” every Monday night at 8 PM on NBC-TV. That was family night in front of the tube. The entire nation was watching.

Animals History Music Television

Saturday Night Retro

The year was 1973, and you were there (unless of course you weren’t born yet). I was a 6-year-old kid living with my Mom and Dad in the Washington D.C. suburb of Bowie Maryland on Peach Walker Drive. In September I began attending Catholic school 5 days a week as a first-grader at Saint Matthias The Apostle in Lanham Maryland near my grandparents’ house.

I had two dogs at the time – Brandy – a German Shepherd – and Girlie – a miniature sheepdog. Brandy barked a lot and dug holes out in the backyard. I didn’t really like him very much. In fact I was scared of him. We wouldn’t have him for very long. Girlie lasted a few years longer. She was lovable and squeezeable with an adorable personality. She had a tiny bony tail.

On Saturday nights America stayed home and watched this amazing lineup of TV shows on CBS – “All in the Family” (8 PM), “M*A*S*H” (8:30 PM), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (9 PM), “The Bob Newhart Show” (9:30 PM), and “The Carol Burnett Show” (10 PM). It may just be the greatest primetime lineup on a single night – on a single network – in television history.

A few hours before that three-hour block of Emmy-award-winning laughs on Saturday nights this hot music and dance show was breaking new ground on the tube, and I was paying attention to it – even as a 6-year-old. It was seen locally at the time on WTTG Channel 5 out of Washington D.C. It lasted for an incredible 35 years in first-run syndication nationwide, but this was clearly its hey day.

Ladies and Gentlemen – I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review – some LOVE, PEACE, and SOUL ! GET DOWN & BOOGIE !

Did anyone spot their young parents (or even grandparents) in that vintage clip ?