FLASHBACK: December 11th-12th, 1982

The playlist above is for the American Top 40 radio program hosted by Casey Kasem that HERC usually listened to on Saturday mornings. It was four hours long so he'd tune out sometimes to watch TV or do chores. It was usually repeated on Sunday morning so he could catch up on any songs he missed. There is one song from this week's countdown  - and it is a countdown, from #40 to #1 - missing from Spotify's library:

• #39  "Shock The Monkey" - Peter Gabriel

Let's go back and start at the beginning of the weekend...

It's Friday and HERC has just gotten home from school. He rides the city's public transportation with a monthly bus pass he has to pick up at the Principal's Office - he is a Caucasian "minority" in an inner-city high school so they gladly pay to have him bussed in in an effort to meet Federal desegregation mandates. Although it's almost a 20 mile bus ride, it seems much longer due to all the stops along the way but fortunately HERC doesn't have to change buses as the route runs from the school to within a block of his front door. He spends the time reading and listening to mixtapes on his Sony Walkman. His Dad and sister are usually home before he is and his Mom comes home a little later. A snack is had while supper is prepared. After supper, HERC watches The Greatest American Hero with his family before retreating to his room to journal the day, read or listen to music. With The Midnight Special and Fridays cancelled by this time, there isn't much TV to watch late on Friday nights. He usually tunes in at 10:30 after the local newscast to watch reruns of M*A*S*H and then it was music and books until he fell asleep. As the house didn't have cable, MTV wasn't an option. Waking up the next morning, there are only a few cartoons he watches (Speed Buggy and Looney Tunes) while he eats a bowl or two of cereal (Frosted Flakes) before switching on the radio to listen to American Top 40 as noted above. Just before lunchtime, American Bandstand comes on featuring The Gap Band and Billy Idol. The former performs "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" and "Outstanding" as seen below:

While Billy Idol performs "Hot In The City" and "White Wedding" and is also interviewed:

Lunch on Saturdays at HERC's house was traditionally a make your own sandwich or eat some leftovers from meals earlier in the week. Then, as now, HERC preferred a JIF peanut butter sandwich - NO jelly - or a sliced ham and Kraft American Singles cheese with Miracle Whip on Roman Meal. Nowadays, his bread of choice is whole wheat or honey wheat. Cherry Kool-Aid or sugar-sweetened sun tea were his go-to beverages.

After lunch, it was time to watch Soul Train. This week's episode featured Chuck Mangione performing "Steppin' Out" and "Love Notes" as well as Howard Johnson performing "So Fine" and "Keeping Love New". America's Top 10 with Casey Kasem came on next, with Casey Kasem hosting a fast-paced, multi-chart review complete with music videos, trivia, contests and so on - just like his radio show. The rest of the afternoon is filled with chores, more American Top 40 and either an Abbot & Costello, Charlie Chan or a Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes movie on WGN, which followed us from Illinois via cable. Some video gaming probably took place on the Intellivision that had been the big Christmas present of 1981. HERC's favorite game was Astrosmash.

After dinner, the family would once again gather in front of the television and watch Love Boat and Fantasy Island before everyone headed back to their respective bedrooms for the night. After the news, HERC tuned in to watch Saturday Night Live on the small tiny 8" TV in his room. Former castmember Eddie Murphy hosted the episode and Lionel Richie performed two songs from his first solo album: "You Are" and "Truly". After the show HERC would read until he fell asleep, dreading Sunday because that was homework day.

On Sunday mornings, HERC SR. also enjoyed Casey Kasem counting down the hits as he worked around the house. HERC finished up any unfinished chores from the day before and sometimes would get out and ride his bike around the neighborhood. After Noon, the TG&Y store that was literally 200 steps from his back gate would open and HERC would stop in to see what records were on sale. Basically doing anything to keep from doing his homework. Sunday lunch was leftovers or microwave meals but Sunday dinners were usually something special - everyone but HERC usually joined in preparing the Sunday evening meal. HERC usually set up his tape recorder about this time as the local rock radio station usually featured a Sunday Six-Pack where they would play six albums in their entirety, taking commercial breaks and station IDs only between album sides. Although HERC normally used 90 minute cassettes for home taping thereby killing music, he used 60 minute tapes to tape each album of the Six-Pack. He'd check in frequently over the next four hours or so, to change the tape but his auto reverse tape deck usually did a pretty good job of catching each and every album. After dinner, it was family TV time again and Solid Gold was up first. Tonight's episode featured The Gap Band doing "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" and Paul Carrack and Noise To Go performing "I Need You"

Also appearing: Chilliwack performed "Whatcha Gonna Do (When I'm Gone)"; Lionel Richie sang "Truly" (possibly repeated from an earlier episode); Eddie Rabbitt & Crystal Gayle performed "You & I"; Paul Davis performed an older song of his, "I Go Crazy" while co-host Rex Smith sang Chicago's "Love Me Tomorrow".

Ripley's Believe It Or Not! was next up on the family viewing schedule followed by CHiPS. Then once again everyone adjourned to their rooms and preparations were made for the week ahead. For HERC that meant doing his homework and listening to Virgin Vinyl, the radio show that followed the Sunday Six-Pack. HERC kept a blank tape in the cassette deck paused in record mode in case he heard a new song he liked.

And he did his homework.  Finally.