Category: Life

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Saturday Night Retro

This week on the ‘Retro’ I’m remembering the Summer of 2005. It’s a Summer in which I was generally not a happy person. I was miserable at my workplace at the time, and I dreaded each new work day. I didn’t like my job, and I didn’t like the people that I worked with. I was full of hatred. Life away from work wasn’t much happier either. I had very few friends, and little to no social life. I had a cat that was showing significant signs of dying. My life was dying. It was a forgettable summer. I wondered why I even existed at the time.

I can think of two reasons why I managed to stay stable enough to not do anything dreadful – my cat Boots at home and my brother Danny over a thousand miles away. Boots totally depended on me. He carried my personality in a feline body. If I had gone away forever he would have died as well. My brother Danny is my best friend in the entire world. He’s known me longer than anyone else (aside from other family members), and he knows more about me than anyone else. He is the funniest person that I know, and he knows what makes us laugh out loud. If I had done something regrettable during that lost summer then he would have been devastated for the rest of his life. Luckily that summer was not the end for me. The following summer (of 2006) was the end for me – and the start of something brand new and miraculous – a rebirthing.

Back during that Summer of 2005 this song captured my mood, my feelings, and my life at the time. It’s in the lyrics – but it was not a ‘Fantastic Journey’.  

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Career Driving History Home Life Music People Radio

Saturday Night Retro

Every 4 weeks here on the ‘Retro’ I flashback to the 1980s – the decade in which I went from 12-years-old to 22-years-old. It’s when I attended and graduated from high school. It’s when I learned how to drive. It’s when I left home to join the Air Force. It’s when I lived overseas in the U.K. for two years, and then returned back home stateside to move to Homestead Florida – my home of the past 22+ years.

1988 was my first full year here in Homestead. I had no car back then, but my buddies did – so any driving around the local area was courtesy of my good buddies at the time. Within the air base I rode around on my 10-speed bicycle. It was very cost efficient, but the rain and the wind could be quite troublesome at times. I put an end to that misery by purchasing my first new car in January of the following year (1989).

During much of 1988 HOT-105 was the radio station to listen to here in South Florida for mainstream TOP 40 music without deejays during the day. They played it all – pop, dance, freestyle – even power rock and heavy metal !

They even played this COLOSSAL hip hop smash from The Fat Boys. It’s a modern Summer of 1988 update of Chubby Checker‘s “The Twist” – with Chubby himself providing guest vocals on it. CHECK IT !

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Saturday Night Retro

This weekend I’m flashing back 18 years ago to the Spring of 1992. Back then “The Silence Of The Lambs” won Best Picture honours at the Oscars, Microsoft Windows 3.1 was released – quickly becoming the most successful and most utilized computer software platform in the world, Disneyland opened in Paris France, and six days of riots overtook L.A. following the Rodney King verdict.

Back home in Homestead Florida a nearly 25-year-old USAF SGT Chris M. Day (that’s me) was enjoying the final year of his active duty military career – living and playing in Dormitory Building 675 on the original Homestead Air Force Base and working as a Computer Database Manager in a building just off the active flightline and famed Bikini Boulevard. Just a few months later the beautiful base would be destroyed by the wrath of Hurricane Andrew.

On the radio The KLF were rockin’ the acid house nation with their unique brand of European HI-NRG dance music. In 1991 they scored a long-running TOP 5 megasmash here stateside with “3 A.M. Eternal”. They followed that up with the sleeper hit “What Time Is Love ?” – and then came this GINORMOUS smash featuring country music legend Tammy Wynette. This past week marked the 12TH anniversary of her passing. Here she is – standing by the jams.

This is NOT the end of the blogging week, as I return to blogging on Sundays starting tomorrow. Join me as I bring “My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics” over to its new day from it’s longtime Wed. night spot. You won’t regret it pal.

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Saturday Night Retro

I was a TOP 40 radio music fanatic for over 30 years through the entirety of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I invested a lot of time in it as a hobby, and it built a once popular web site that eventually evolved into this blog.

As I look back at the past decade – the first decade of the new millennium – I look back at how I strayed from the mainstream TOP 40 music genre. For two years from the start of 2002 through the start of 2004 I was heavily into the ‘pure dance’ scene (European-style trance, techno, and house music). It was all about the beats-per-minute and going faster. Following a 2½-year stint back with my TOP 40 roots from the Spring of 2004 until the Summer of 2006 I discovered another fringe genre of music – Christian Rock. It coincides with my continuing (and everlasting) 43½-month fantastic journey thus far. This music is all about my Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ.

But I’m not listening to the Christian Rock music 24-7. Over the past year or so I’ve really taken this ‘Retro’ concept to the extreme. I’m now a 1970s music fanatic. I listen to ‘70s On 7‘ exclusively on Sirius | XM at home, and I’ve also been known to crank-up my car stereo as loud as can be to South Florida’s Majic-102.7 and Big-105.9. I’ve really developed quite a liking for the music that I grew up to as a 2-year-old toddler to a 12-year-old pre-teenager. It is the music of my life, and it brings back memories of a much more simpler time of my life. While I had a lot of fun during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s my most vivid memories (good and bad) remain with the 1970s. The music of the times help me to look back at where I came from – and compare it to where I am today.

I’m really developing a fresh new appreciation for some of the greatest artists and acts of the 1970s including some that I didn’t really care too much for back then as a kid. One such act is the Electric Light Orchestra. They were a hit music producing machine back in the day, and they are frequently played on the aforementioned ’70s On 7′. Here’s one of their hits from 1976 that sounds so awesome 34 years later that it’s on my iPod Shuffle that I play daily in the background at work. It’s “Livin’ Thing”, and it could possibly be a song that celebrates Life – particularly Life in the mother’s womb. It’s unborn to the world, but it’s a livin’ thing. It’s a terrible thing to lose.

This concludes another week of blogging for me. I’m taking the next couple of days off, but you can always follow me on Twitter. I’ll be back on Tuesday night with an all-new edition of my weekly ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. Until then my friends – keep your feet on the ground – and keep reaching for the stars. (Thank You Casey Kasem for all of your contributions through the years.)