Category: Travel

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 29, 2020

Greetings my friends ! This is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us be thankful for this new day that our God has blessed us with.

It is Sunday November 29TH 2020, and I am back home in South Florida from vacation with my family in North Texas ! I was there for 8 days, and as always it was filled with food and fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas together – known in our family as #ThanksChristmasGiving – a tradition that goes back about 15 years every traditional Thanksgiving Day. I got some great gifts this year !

My return trip back home via American Airlines was quite the bumpy ride. It was also a longer than normal ride. It took a more northerly route than its usual direct flightpath due to severe weather along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. But the ride – even at 35,000 feet above southern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, and northern Alabama – was quite rough – with the A321 Airbus jumping up-and-down and swaying back-and-forth in the ferocious winds along both sides of a strong cold front. A few passengers got sick. I was worried for a few minutes that I was getting sick as well, but luckily I was OK.

Once we got above North Florida the ride suddenly became smooth and trouble-free. It remained that way for the rest of the trek to Miami International Airport.

Well just as I have done for the past 3 years on the Sunday after Thanksgiving or the first Sunday of December – I’m preaching a full sermon to my church family this morning. I got the word late this past Wednesday night in North Texas, and I was actually writing a brand new sermon in-between my family-time. I finished it late yesterday here at home. I’ll be preaching on “Spirit & Truth” today – mostly from the first-half of John Chapter 16.

When the Spirit of truth comes – He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own, but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring Me glory by telling you whatever He receives from Me. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. This is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from Me.’ (John 16:12-15)

Tags Bible, Blog, Christian, Church, God, Minister, Ministry, Scripture, Sermon, Thanksgiving

1980s Blogging Career Driving Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1985

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 27, 2020

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 4TH Friday of the month, so I go back 35 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday December 01ST 1985:

“We Built This City” – Starship
“Separate Lives” – Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin
“Part Time Lover” – Stevie Wonder
“Say You, Say Me” – Lionel Richie
“Never” – Heart

It all started right here with this chart. What was a hobby for almost a decade prior became official, as I sat down with paper, pen, and pencil, and I wrote down my Top 20 favourite songs of the week. (And since I was living in the south of England at the time I had to learn to adapt to their proper spelling and pronunciation of certain words, so it was “favourite” – not “favorite”.)

During the peak of this hobby in the United Kingdom I was producing on paper a Top 50 hit music chart twice per week ! YES – I really got into it. I eventually scaled back to a standard Top 40 chart once per week, and that continued for almost 7 years until I took a 3-year hiatus from 1992 to 1995.

Starship’s “We Built This City” was my favorite song at the time. It was actually spending its 3RD week at # 1 when my very first chart was written down. It was also my favorite song as I drove 700 miles from Chanute AFB Illinois to McLean Virginia at the end of October 1985. It was the perfect driving song for what was my longest road-trip (with me driving) of my life at the time. After I flew to my new home in England it reminded me of America as I discovered a brand new country for the first time in my life.

During those early days in England I listened to the hottest hits in my military dormitory room on GWR (97.2 FM out of Swindon Wiltshire) and BBC Radio 1 (1053 & 1089 AM).

Every 4TH Friday of the month for the next 2 years I’ll share my life and music with you, as I look back at those fun times across the sea as a late-teenager.

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 15 years ago to December 2005.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1985, England, Music, Radio

1990s Blogging Career Military Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1990

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 20, 2020

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 18TH 1990:

“Praying For Time” – George Michael
“So Hard” – Pet Shop Boys
“Something Happened On The Way To Heaven” – Phil Collins
“Something To Believe In” – Poison
“Impulsive” – Wilson Phillips

It was a very British Top 3 on my chart 30 years ago this weekend. That Pet Shop Boys track was brilliant – and very underrated. I loved its breezy orchestral “underground” feel. It was a British and European pop smash, but here in the U.S. (and Canada) it was mostly a hit in the dance clubs. It was a bit too extreme for its time for Top 40 radio which was skewing more towards the safer Hot Adult Contemporary format at the time.

And speaking of Hot A.C. Phil Collins had the perfect track for the format. It’s one of my favorite songs from him. Deborah Cox scored with a HI-NRG dance cover of the track 13 years later in 2003 that peaked at # 4 and spent 32 weeks on my chart !

RAF Fairford

This past week marks 33 years since I’ve been back home stateside following a 2-year military stint working and living in the south of England (RAF Fairford). I vowed to return to the U.K. for a visit back then. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s not over yet. Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back to the very beginning of this weekly hit music chart hobby – 35 years ago to November 1985.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1990, Music, Radio

1990s Blogging Music Radio Travel

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1995

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 13, 2020

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday November 12TH 1995:

“Til I Hear It From You” – Gin Blossoms
“Get Together” – Big Mountain
“Come And Get Your Love” – Real McCoy
“Back For Good” – Take That
“Forever Tonight” – Peter Cetera & Crystal Bernard

A new season of my weekly RETRO feature continues, and this week I debut a brand new look back at 25 years ago. After a 3-year hiatus my weekly hit music chart came back to life in a big way at the end of October of 1995. It would be the start of a run that would last over 14 years. It would also mark the start of the online era of my chart where I got to share it with the whole world via my web site.

Gin Blossoms were one of my favorite pop-rock bands of the mid-1990s. “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You” were fun songs to jam to in my cozy efficiency apartment in Melbourne Florida in 1993 into 1994. They were both big hits on 107.1-A1A – the Top 40 radio station back then (and now) along Florida’s Space Coast.

Back in Homestead (where I live today) “Til I Hear It From You” was the perfect pop song for late-1995 that was my first # 1 smash of the new post-grunge pop era.

And what can I say about Real McCoy. They were a hit-making machine back in the mid-1990s with no less than 7 big pop hits in a row on Top 40 radio in South Florida. They defined the Eurodance phenomenon during the 1990s !

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 30 years ago to November 1990.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1990, Music, Radio