by Darren Clarke, May 6, 2017

“Enjoy your mileage.”

Just beyond the top of Burleigh Hill in Thorold, Ontario, at the crossroads of St. Davids Road and Townline, a small cinder block building sits behind a large parking lot and a non-operational Gasco sign.  The building houses an active Avondale corner store and the now the now empty Gasco store front. The gas station has been empty for forever, gas pumps removed long ago. All that remains of Gasco is the sign at the end of the parking lot bearing no price per litre, and the sign on the building itself: “Gasco, Giuseppe Milani.” To my knowledge Giuseppe passed away long ago, but back in the 80’s he was this great old Italian guy who owned the gas station I regularly brought my incredibly empty gas tank to whenever I had the opportunity to use my parents car. Giuseppe was a great, pleasant,  old school Italian out there day and night, in rain, sleet, snow, speaking in broken english. He had a catchphrase he would say after pumping your gas and handing your change, “Enjoy your mileage.”

I liked that.

This is Part One of what will be the three parts that make up the, “Ultimate 80s Playlist.” Part One will deliver the first 200 songs of what will be a 400 song odyssey into the Eighties. This list will be presented via collages I created with an assortment of sometimes random, sometimes related, stuff: a few National Geographics from the Eighties, a Restoration Hardware magazine (rugs edition), some pics of 80s objects and personalities, and stuff from around my house . There will also be links to Part One of Enjoy Your Mileage for Spotify and Apple Tunes at the bottom of the article. I’m here to make your life easier.

Part Two will provide the final 200 songs of the Playlist and Part Three will be a somewhat stream of consciousness breakdown of the songs that shaped so much of the decade of my youth as well as the songs that didn’t but probably should have.

There’s lots of words to come later, but first, here’s the music.

 

Spotify (had to swap out a few tracks due to availability issues, i.e. I replaced Eddy Grant’s, “Electric Avenue,” and Peter Gabriel’s, “Games without Frontiers,” as they aren’t on Spotify… Dear Spotify, Make amends with Eddy Grant!)-

iTunes link-

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/playlist/enjoy-your-mileage-part-1/idpl.21b90fe63aa84ae583e3e19c8fab02ea