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History Home Life Music Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Last Saturday night on the ‘Retro’ I presented to you for your review the 1996 smash “1979” from The Smashing Pumpkins. This week I take you back to 1979. It was exactly 30 years ago, and it closed out a crazy decade of decadence.

I entered 1979 as an 11½-year-old 6TH grader at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland – located right in the middle of my neighbourhood at the time. Later in the year in September I moved on to Robert H. Goddard Junior High School several miles away. I was also a Boy Scout at the time. We had meetings weekly, and we went on hiking and camping trips monthly – mostly up to the mountains of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. They were ancient history editions of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ !  😀

During my spare time (after school and on weekends) I enjoyed riding my bike up and down Red Wing Lane, Wood Thrush Drive, Nightingale Drive, Kingfisher Lane, Wren Lane, and Brae Brooke Drive. I can see recent images of all of those roads (and my old house of over 5½-years) right now online via the use of Google Street View. My old neighbourhood has aged quite a bit over the past 30 years – and so have I. Back then it was brand new (built from around 1973 to 1975). That’s how I remember it. It doesn’t look like that anymore.

On the hit music radio stations nationwide disco music was still alive and kicking – at least during the first-half of 1979. It started dying out during that Summer. Here’s one of the last big disco hits of the era. It managed to sneak up the Billboard HOT 100 to # 11 in September of 1979. It’s Bonnie Pointer making a LIVE July 1979 appearance on ‘The Midnight Special’ on a Friday night on NBC-TV. Here’s her disco smash “Heaven Must Have Sent You”. Check out the way that we used to control the dance floor back then !

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Food Holidays Home Life Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

If it’s Tuesday night – then you just know what I’m all about:

1.  After one of the coldest Novembers in South Florida in a century we are now experiencing extended summer-like weather conditions in December. Expect mid-afternoon temperatures in the upper-70s to the lower-80s for the unforeseeable future. Season’s Greetings !

2.  Some people do their best work while sitting down, but as far as I’m concerned public toilets are for standing up – not for sitting down. There’s only one place where I sit down – at home !

3.  I’ve already received about a half a dozen Christmas cards in the mail from friends across the free nation. Have no fear, for my Christmas cards will be going out via first class mail (hopefully) this weekend.

4.  I got a haircut today at Woody’s of Homestead. I’ve been going there since I was a kid in my late-20s. I recommend that joint to anyone who’s looking for a no-nonsense barber shop. Simple does it !

5.  Travis introduced me to La Cruzada Taqueria at Lunch today. It’s a cool little Mexican restaurant tucked away in a corner of Olde Historic Downtown Homestead. I delighted in a MASSIVE chimichanga with chicken inside and rice and beans. It was outrageously tasty. It was a MASSIVE Lunch, and in just a few more hours I’ll be partaking in a MASSIVE Dinner at the house of Dr. J.T. & A.J. as we do Food, Fun, and Fellowship with my closest friends in Life. I dig that groove !

Thanks for sharing a small piece of your Tuesday night with me here on my blog.

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Home Music Travel

Saturday Night Retro

I’m back home in Homestead. I landed at FLL a good 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and I took the Miami GO GO Turnpike straight to Homestead. Now I’m relaxing and getting ready for a big day ahead at Life Pointe Church. I can’t wait to see everyone bright and early tomorrow morning. It’ll sort of be like a Reunion – and speaking of ‘Reunion’ – that’s the name of this assembled group of studio musicians that recorded this cool hit song from 1974. You may remember it if you’re old enough. If not then just listen, watch, and enjoy. There’s no way that you can sing along to it !

Ladies & Gentlemen – I present to you for your ‘Retro’ review – “Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)”. It’s one of my favourite songs of all-time !

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Animals Driving Food Health Holidays Home Shopping Television

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  It’s Veterans Day all across the great United States Of America, and it’s the Federal Holiday each year that means the most to me personally. I stopped everything that I was doing at exactly 11:11 AM this morning. I checked out the big three cable news networks – Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC – and not a single one of them had LIVE coverage of any Veterans Day ceremony anywhere. What a shame.

2.  On both Saturday and Sunday I drove more than 80 miles each day. That’s about 4 times my daily average. It was an exhausting first-half of my long holiday weekend, and a more peaceful and quiet second-half (yesterday and today). I actually felt a real subtle hint of a possible 8TH cold in 12 months coming on this morning. I took an extra 500 MG Vitamin C tablet to fight this fight because I don’t have time for another cold this week – or next week.

3.  This morning I went to Publix – where shopping is a pleasure – about 10 minutes after they opened for business shortly after 7 AM. I did my grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. After that I went to McDonald’s to pick-up breakfast. You get faster service when you actually get out of your car, walk in to the joint, and order the food face-to-face to an actual human being (rather than a drive-thru speaker).

4.  I did a little mini ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ this morning. I walked to and from the clubhouse near the main entrance of my neighbourhood. That’s a little more than a half-a-mile round-trip. I had to do my annual vehicle registration there. Prior to last year a lazy me would have driven it. Nowadays I see a mile or two and think ‘Walk-A-Thon’. I saw a new cat during this mini walk. The feline looked at me from afar and sighed to himself or herself, ‘Friend – Not Foe’.

5.  Ford Championship Weekend is just two days away at our Homestead-Miami Speedway, so you just know what that means – tens of thousands of out-of-town tourists and NASCAR fans galore descending on our home turf spending their hard-earned money in our stores and restaurants. Show them respect. Be nice to them. Welcome them to our fine city. Invite them back for more fun.