Episode 57 falls during Valentine's week. So naturally it begins with the story of Cape Cod blowing up a lighthouse. Bishop and Clerks Lighthouse sat off of the coast of Cape Cod for nearly a century. It helped to guide vessels safely into various harbors. Why was it then exploded in 1952?
For more than 20 episodes we've been following my epic 2,100-mile 2019 road trip. This week is the finale of that trip and also a retrospective on what it was like doing so much traveling and what might be the next road trip.
In honor of Valentine's Day we go way Back In the Day as I share some of my first celebrity crushes. Late 1980's to early 1990's, some of these might tug at the heart strings of guys my age, it's definitely a fun trip back in time.
What do you think of when you think of the 1990's? This week's Top 5 focuses on Symbols of the 1990's. These are some of the trends, fads, and pop culture events that defined my teenage decade. Do you remember any of them?
There's a new This Week In History and Time Capsule surrounding the birthday of Michael Jordan!
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 56 here.
Episode 57 falls during Valentine's week. So naturally it begins with the story of Cape Cod blowing up a lighthouse. Bishop and Clerks Lighthouse sat off of the coast of Cape Cod for nearly a century. It helped to guide vessels safely into various harbors. Why was it then exploded in 1952?
For more than 20 episodes we've been following my epic 2,100-mile 2019 road trip. This week is the finale of that trip and also a retrospective on what it was like doing so much traveling and what might be the next road trip.
In honor of Valentine's Day we go way Back In the Day as I share some of my first celebrity crushes. Late 1980's to early 1990's, some of these might tug at the heart strings of guys my age, it's definitely a fun trip back in time.
What do you think of when you think of the 1990's? This week's Top 5 focuses on Symbols of the 1990's. These are some of the trends, fads, and pop culture events that defined my teenage decade. Do you remember any of them?
There's a new This Week In History and Time Capsule surrounding the birthday of Michael Jordan!
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 56 here.
Intro
Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 57. There are a lot of fun and interesting topics to be covered on this week's podcast. We're going to start off with the story of Bishop and Clerk's lighthouse, a lighthouse on Cape Cod that was exploded. So that story is interesting. We're going to finish off my 2019 road trip with the final day, the drive home, and a little retrospective about it. Being Valentine's week, we're going to go way, way back in the day and I'll embarrass myself with stories of some of my first celebrity crushes, there's going to be a brand new top five that are the top five symbols of the 1990s. What you think of when you think of the 90s is going to be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule as well. All coming up right now in Episode 57 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome, everybody. Hope you all had a happy Valentine's week. If you celebrate, if you're like me, and you don't like it too much. It's just another week and winter. As you look forward to spring. There were definitely many years that I celebrated Valentine's Day, even years when I didn't have a significant other. And I would just do things I would call it sharing the love and I would share writings that I used to do love poems and such with others maybe inspiration and things I would do that on social media. But now in my 40s Forget it. It's just another day. Thank you so much to everybody who has been listening to the podcast as we go along here 57th episode right now, that's a lot of different topics, a lot of research, but it's a lot of fun, and I get a lot of great interaction with you. And I appreciate it. And obviously, I'm gonna keep on going I got plenty more topics to come. Don't forget coming up this Saturday, February 19 at 4:30pm the book launch event for KeeKee’s Cape Cod kitchen, at the loft restaurant at the cove in West Yarmouth. 4:30pm be there, it's going to be a lot of fun. And it's going to be a lot of fun going to someone else's book event, rather than being the one under pressure doing my own events. I know all too well about what it's like to be on the other end. I mean, it's a lot of fun, but there's a lot of pressure to have the events be a success. That's the big thing. So it's a little hard to relax, I'm going to try my best to help crystal relax and just have fun. I don't think you'll notice it at all with this podcast. But interestingly, my microphone I have a Samsung cue to you. It's a great microphone. I've had it since the beginning. But my microphone stand broke last week. I've tried to fix it. But right now what I'm doing is holding it like I'm giving a speech at the Oscars where I've got the mic in my hand. It shouldn't be too bad. I've got a lot of good editing software. But I just am laughing because I'm feeling like I'm speaking to a crowd on stage. And I'm trying my best to keep the microphone not right at my face because throughout the winter, so we're going on two and a half months or so now I've been growing my beard out. So my beard sometimes will rustle against the microphone. I'm trying my best not to do that. These are the behind-the-scenes issues that I have. But like I said, this is going to be a really fun show. And I've got an interesting main story to talk about. This was one I didn't even think about sharing. But anytime you've got a story that includes an exploding lighthouse, I figured it would be one that would gather interest on the podcast. So let's dive into it right now. This is the story of Bishop and clerks lighthouse, which was located off the coast of Cape Cod right now on episode 57 of the in my footsteps podcast.
When Cape Cod Blew Up A Lighthouse
Nantucket sound is a body of water, bordered by the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and also the southern coast of Cape Cod. It's more than 570 square miles in size, is relatively shallow, and has some hazardous rocky coastlines. And those of you that live on the cape know the rocky coast if you're a boater, it is due to these factors plus the fact that it's a busy route for vessels that Nantucket sound is home to seven currently active lighthouses and still contains the deactivated towers of 2 others. These beacons help to guide ships safely into their respective ports. However, did you know that in addition to lighthouses that adorn the coastline, at one time, there was another beacon located several miles out in the sound at the southern tip of great Island and West Yarmouth, which is one of the most secure places on Cape Cod. Out on great Island though. Stay So the deactivated point gammon lighthouse. I spoke a lot more in-depth about point game and lighthouse and great island on episode 11. So this will be a little brief overview, but you can go check that one out if you want more info. Anyway, point game and lighthouse was put in place in 1816 to help guide vessels safely around the dangerous boulders located in the waters offshore of great Island. Despite the new lighthouse, there were still numerous shipwrecks in the decades that followed. This was due in part to the fact that the lantern at point gammon was not powerful enough to be seen far out in the sound, and it was also thanks to a pair of rock ledges located approximately three miles off of grade Island. Legend has it that there was once an island five miles in circumference, which stood in Nantucket sound. It was covered in green grass during the summer, but over time it eroded, leaving behind only rock ledges. There were two of these ledges Bishop ledge which was the larger one and clerks ledge which was the smaller one. These two rock ledges were continuing to wreak havoc on shipping lanes between Cape Cod and the Islands in the 19th century. To try to rectify this. Initially, a lightship was stationed just west of the ledges before it was decided in 1856. To build a lighthouse out there. $20,000 was put aside by Congress for a tower that's about $656,000 in 2022. The 68 foot tall Bishop and clerks Lighthouse would be constructed in the image of mine knots ledge lighthouse, which is located off the coast of Cohasset that had opened a year earlier in 1855. And it still stands if you go up there you can see it way off the coast. The stone tower was illuminated for the first time in October 1858, though it would not be fully completed until early the following year. At first even with the creation of Bishop and clerks Lighthouse Point game and lighthouse was still active. It just had its lantern reduced in power to help mariners distinguish it from the new lighthouse. But eventually, they just deactivated it all together. So point gammon Lighthouse has been sitting at the tip of great island for 150 years deactivated. The two lighthouses were kind of connected though, as the first lighthouse keeper at Bishop and clerks was a man named John peak, and his father Samuel was actually the keeper at point gammon Lighthouse 40 years earlier, though, it reduced the number of shipwrecks the new bishop and clerks Lighthouse did not completely put an end to them. A large unknown vessel was lost in the area around Bishop and clerks during a raging storm in April 1879. And another well-publicized wreck occurred in January 1881. Bishop and clerks Lighthouse stood stoically three miles off of the Cape Cod coast for decades, well into the 20th century. But as you who live on Cape Cod are you who live in New England in general, you know what the ocean can do more than just erosion of the sand. I mean, we're looking at the home and tomorrow on Ballston beach that is having to be moved because it's going to fall off onto the dunes. So much like today, back then the merciless ocean began to take its toll on the stone beacon. Constant battering from the waves began to knock stones out from the base of the tower, as well as began to tip the tower slowly to the left. So like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, this made the lighthouse more dangerous to be in as far as being a lighthouse keeper and a lighthouse that slowly tipping over. So in 1923, it became automated and then five years later, in 1928, they deactivated it, Bishop and clerks Lighthouse sat out in Nantucket sound for more than 20 years continuing the slow deterioration and slowly tipping over. By early 1952, it has become apparent that the lighthouse was now a liability at risk of collapse, and repairing the beacon was deemed to be way too expensive. It was determined that bishop and clerks Lighthouse should be completely removed. The question then came down to how do you remove a lighthouse? Especially one that's sitting way out in the water? I mean, we've had on Cape Cod in my lifetime, Highland lighthouse and Truro and Nauset lighthouse in Eastham have been moved back from the eroding bluffs, but they haven't been removed. Well, it was a different time 70 years ago, but in September 1952 It was decided they would load up. So in September 1950 to 200 pounds of dynamite was strategically loaded into the deteriorating shell of the lighthouse. The hope was that the blast would not launch debris very far. And then afterward, they could salvage some of the stone of the lighthouse. Unfortunately, for people that lived on Cape Cod, the lighthouse was three miles offshore. I'm sure they might have heard it, but I think seeing it blow up was probably not an option. Judging today, if you were to go and look for where it would have been, you would have had to have gone to places like Keyes beach and Hyannis or Craigsville, beach and Centerville and just look out into the water. That being said, Bishop and clerks lighthouse was blown up under the watchful eye of the Coast Guard, and it left a pile of rubble and part of the doorway left on the platform. If you go to the Barnstable Patriot online archives for Cape cutters, and if you're not sure of online newspaper archives, go to the Sturgis Library website and find them. If you go back to the newspaper archives. For September 10 1952. You'll hear about the explosion of the lighthouse or the impending explosion of it and go to New England lighthouses.net Jeremy detriments site that is the most thorough four lighthouses that I've ever seen. And there are actual pictures of the moment of impact, you can see photos of Bishop and clerks Lighthouse blowing up. But after it blew up and fell into the water, the platform was cleared off. And now a simple red and white striped buoy is on top of it. So technically, Bishop and clerks is still there. It's not the lighthouse though. It's a small buoy, and there are several other buoys in the vicinity of the rock legends as a warning. I find it fascinating though, to imagine being alive back then and watching a lighthouse get blown up out in the water. It's for Cape Cod, especially Cape Cod in the 50s. That must have been huge news. But that is the story of Bishop and clerks lighthouse, a lesser-known lighthouse that used to exist off the coast of Cape Cod, and how it met its end thanks to the harsh New England ocean and 200 pounds of dynamite.
Road Trip: 2019 Road Trip Conclusion
it is road trip time again. And this is a special road trip as we are concluding my epic 2100 mile six-day road trip from 2019. I began talking about this on the podcast way back in August in Episode 31 of the podcast so this has been going on for a while. That should tell you how epic This trip was being actually out on the road. Since then, we've gone out through Massachusetts through the Berkshires through New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina. I've said many times that it felt at points that I didn't have enough time to actually enjoy what I was seeing. And that was the point of my camera. The videos and the photos would be my memories that in the moment it was just drive drive drive and enjoy it all later. When we left off in Episode 56 I was on Assateague island with their wild horses. This week's road trip we're basically picking up right from where I left off because on that day that I went to Assateague Island, it was early in the morning, and I was there an hour and a half maybe. So when I left, I had briefly debated going somewhere else. I don't know where it would have been. But eventually I settled on the idea of just driving home and getting home by the end of that day. That was easier said than done though. If you look on a map, Assateague Island down in Maryland, that is a long way from Cape Cod. It is about 500 miles. And you can do the math in your head and imagine how many hours that would take to drive 500 miles. And that's in perfect conditions, not counting any traffic or any detours or stopping to use the bathroom or stopping to get food. So I essentially put on Google Maps, I just typed in home and got the GPS and the voice coming up to say how long it would take and it was a bit overwhelming. So I needed to have other places to go and see though instead of just driving straight through. And surprisingly I did actually have somewhere that I wanted to go see that was right on the way home. And if you've listened to the podcast, literally the last segment I talked about a lighthouse. So what I wanted to stop and see was another lighthouse, reedy Island range rear lighthouse. That is what I went to go see. It's in a place called Townsend Delaware. And I'll be honest, I don't remember how I found out about it unless I just started looking up lighthouses that were near the road trip back. If you look it up if you're familiar with New England lighthouses Marblehead Lighthouse has this beautiful skeleton tower. And that's what reedy Island Lighthouse looks like it's painted black, the one in Marblehead is more of a burnt orange color. But it's the same idea. The lighthouse itself was first built in 1839. And it's 110 feet tall, which is the standard for lighthouses. But the thing that made this one unique is that it's really not near any water. It's like in a rural area, not really a residential neighborhood, but close enough. If you're looking at a map, the lighthouse is about two and a half miles west of the Delaware River. So it's really not that close to water. Like I don't know if it was moved. I don't know what the purpose was of it being there. It was neat, though, to drive up upon it and get a couple of photos of this lighthouse just in a field. I couldn't stick around long though, because like I said it wasn't a residential neighborhood. But it was close enough that I didn't want to go wandering around properties. So I drove from Assateague Island to Reedy Island range lighthouse and stayed there for a minute, then it was back on the road to drive some more. One of the big positives of the road trip in general, and this day that I'm speaking about, was getting to eat at places that I wouldn't normally get to eat at on Cape Cod. My two favorite chain restaurant fast food type places are Panda Express and Quiznos subs. And we have neither on Cape Cod. I think the closest Panda Express is in Walpole, which is a little over an hour away. And let's be honest, I'm not driving an hour to get Chinese food. As good as it is. That's a little far. But I did stop at a Panda Express in Delaware and stopped and ate inside. So that was a lot of fun. And eventually, when I was driving home, the nearest Quiznos to Cape Cod is in orange, Connecticut. I mean, jeez, come on, get one we used to have to on Cape Cod when I was younger, that was three hours away. I was lucky though I got there with like 10 minutes to spare before they closed. So lunch and dinner were definitely worth the drive. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I'm a big connoisseur of fine sunsets and sunrises. So driving home, the sky was beautiful. I said there's got to be a spot, I can stop and get a picture of the sunset, which I did, I got a sunset photo of the beautiful New Jersey Turnpike at a rest area. It is not exactly scenery that I would go and seek out. But still it was good colors. The parking lot looked amazing. For those of you that live in the northeast, if you've ever driven through New York City, you know, traffic is legendary there. As I was driving home, I realized that I was going to be passing through there during rush hour, which was a nightmare. I tried my best to type into my GPS to avoid New York City altogether. But when it's a city where there are millions of people driving through it, even when you go to the places that avoid the city itself, you still get stuck in traffic. I will say though, that getting stuck in traffic going through New York was not the most terrifying bit of driving I did I was driving through the 17-mile Chesapeake Bay tunnel after dark, which I mean, it goes above the water under the water above the water. You're driving on it for so long. That at one point I was like, Maybe I'm dead, and this is purgatory, and I'm going to be driving this tunnel for the rest of my life. I woke up from my purgatory though, when I crossed and I had to pay the toll which was $14. But it could be worse. It's $18 During the Maine peak season, so I saved money. I just remember getting home pulling in the driveway and looking at my trip odometer where you can set it and that's where I got the 2100 mile total. It might have been like 2103 or something but you know, whatever. It was only then that I realized how far I had actually gone and how much I'd actually seen. I took the next day to decompress and actually think back on it because I had taken so How much time off from work so I had an extra day, because I was like, I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation. I ended up in total with well over 1000 photos from my trip, and countless stories, you can hear what I've done here on the podcast. More than 20 episodes had been dedicated to this road trip. And I loved every second of it. The ultimate sad irony about not having the time to enjoy everything, and just taking photos and driving and driving. That came the following summer. So the summer of 2020, when my hard drive on my laptop crashed and burned, I was able to save some stuff, but my road trip photos were lost over 1000 of them. So this is like the sad ending of a movie. Luckily for me, as I had been going on the trip, and then in the time, leading up to the crash of my hard drive, I had been sharing a lot of photos on Facebook. So I took that album road trip 2019, almost 300 photos, all the videos on YouTube, so at least I got something out of it. But yeah, all the original photos were lost in my hard drive crash. So what's next, here it is 2022 God willing, the year is gonna get better and Pandemic will end and travel will get back to normal. I don't give a damn about flying. I'm thinking about another driving road trip. And I already have the end game in mind. If you're curious, go look up Split Rock lighthouse. It's in Two Harbors Minnesota right on the coast of Lake Superior. And there's a photo of it up on the rock cliffs from down below. And I saw that photo and I said that's it. That's the next place I need to go. The only problem is from here to get to there. It's 24 hours and that's straight driving. And you know, I'm not going to do that. I will likely need a much longer vacation maybe 10 days, five days out. Couple of days back we'll see. Because from Cape Cod down to Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which was my southern point of this 2019 road trip, I believe it's 14 hours, so we're adding another 10 hours to it. Who knows that lighthouse might be coming up in a podcast in the future episode as I drive out to it. Maybe the podcast will be live from the road trip. I doubt it will be this year. I'm thinking probably 2023. But that's gonna do it for this week's road trip the retrospective on the 2019 trip. Thanks to everyone who's been tuning in. And joining along the way as I reminisced about one of the best experiences of my life doing this road trip, I recommend everybody out there, do some sort of road trip. It doesn't have to be 1000s of miles. But it's so much fun to go beyond the road and experience new things and new places. But as we go on, we're going to come back to New England and I'm going to share a lot of places from the six states because you got to promote your home just as much.
This Week In History
This week in history, we're going back 59 years ago this week, February 17 1963. And the birth of Air Jordan himself the greatest basketball player ever. Michael Jordan, when it comes to sports figures, sports teams, anything like that musicians, movies, it's all subjective. What's the greatest? I can make my case for Michael Jordan, people that are younger, you might say LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, you'd be wrong. But people that are older might say Bill Russell Wilt Chamberlain, and yeah, I'm biased. I grew up in the time with Michael Jordan when he was playing when he was dominating and doing things that we hadn't seen before. He started off with the Chicago Bulls being that young guy that could just score that was it and the team stunk. The Celtics when I was a kid, they would always be the bowls. But eventually, Michael Jordan changed his game up and learn how to actually make people better and all of a sudden the bulls became a dynasty in the 1990s. One of my first memories of sports being a sports fan, was the first-round playoff game April 20 1986 between the bulls and Celtics, where Michael Jordan scored 63 points in the Boston Garden. And it was an amazing performance but the thing is they lost the bulls lost all the things that Jordan did the game parade commercials, the Air Jordan Nike commercials, winning slam dunk competitions, scoring 40, 50, 60 points routinely. It all came down to the fact that back then Michael Jordan wasn't seen as a winner. He was seen as the best basketball player talent-wise. But when it came to actual winners, you had to look at Larry Bird Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas, Dr. J. Julius Erving. Like those guys that were talented, but actually won things. The Bulls won six titles in the 90s. And that includes two years where Jordan retired and went and played baseball, it is highly likely that they would have won eight straight championships. But yeah, getting to watch Michael Jordan actually play where it was routine, or be the bowls are on ESPN, and you get to watch him do his thing in real-time. It's amazing. It was something that I wish people that were younger got to see because you can watch his clips on YouTube. But imagine that being in real-time. The only player I ever saw after Jordan that was close to Him with all that talent and killer instinct was Kobe Bryant. And they actually crossed paths in the NBA because Jordan when he I mean before he retired Kobe had come into the league. But then when he came back with Washington, which we won't talk much about the cross paths then again, but Michael Jordan, his Airness Air Jordan, the greatest athlete I ever got to see play, except for maybe Bo Jackson. He came into this world 59 years ago this week in history. So happy birthday, Michael Jordan. And now it's time for another time capsule. We're going to stick with the Michael Jordan theme here. We're going to go back 32 years ago, Valentine's Day, February 14 1990. What does it have to do with Michael Jordan? Well, this game was the one where Michael Jordan wore a nameless number 12 Jersey because his jersey got stolen. The game was against the Orlando Magic where Jordan scored 49 points, but they lost in overtime. So going back to then, the number one song was opposites attract by Paula Abdul. This was off of her forever Your girl album edit includes the infamous video where she's dancing around with that animated cat like he's her boyfriend. It was number one for three weeks and was the sixth then final single released from that album. But I mean, it's mostly known for the video even 12-year-old me who thought Paula Abdul was pretty hot was like what is this video with the cat that's her boyfriend. The number one TV show was the Cosby Show. I believe that the show has actually been in a time capsule before, but it was on for eight seasons. 201 episodes, the story of the Huxtable family. It was one of the biggest shows of the 1980s. It ran from 1984 to 1992 and was number one for most of the time it was on the air. The number one movie was Driving Miss Daisy. It starred Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman. And it's the story of an elderly Jewish woman who wishes to maintain her independence. But after a car crash ends up having an African American driver, and it's kind of their interaction. It made over $145 million at the box office on a budget of 7.5 million. It has an 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was nominated for nine Academy Awards and one for Best Picture and Best Actress. So I guess it's a pretty highly regarded film. But to bring it back around to Michael Jordan, because it's his birthday. If you were alive back then Valentine's Day 1990. And you loved basketball. You loved Michael Jordan, you know, he's advertising his Air Jordans. The Nike Air Jordans were the status symbol. Well, if you wanted a pair of Nike Air Jordan fives, you could get them for $125 or about $266 today. There is a reason why when I would ask for Air Jordans, my mother would look at me like I was crazy. And looking back at how expensive they were then. It's amazing. But they sold well and they continue to sell. That's going to do it for this week in history. That's going to wrap up another time capsule. I'll be back in two weeks for the next full episode to do another this week in history and time capsule. Who knows what's going to be coming up in that one. But now we're going to stick to the 90s. This is going to be the top five symbols of the 90s. It's going to be part one because I think there's way too many. But this will be a fun top five so get ready to reminisce. What exactly is a symbol of the 90s? It's basically if I say 1990s, what pops in your head most, it's typically going to be pop culture and societal trends, not necessarily world events, because obviously I like my top fives to be fun, random. As we get into this countdown, you'll see what I mean. When the 90s began, I was 12 years old when the 90s ended, I was 22 years old. So this is a lot of my formative years. What made up a lot of what I am today,
Top 5: Symbols of the 1990s
There was a lot of fun, a lot of good, a lot of not-so-good. So we're gonna go into both. Remember, the top fives are always in no particular order as I think my lists, though they're subjective, they get a lot of feedback anyway. Of course, as we always do, we have some honorable mentions on the countdown. These honorable mentions of symbols of the 90s include the Macarena dance, frosted tips for hair, especially boy bands, Beanie Babies, and the Sega Genesis slash Super Nintendo video game consoles. Are you already getting into it? You see where I'm going with symbols of the 90s right there honorable mentions who man some good, some bad. But let's get into the actual countdown. symbols of the 90s number one, torn jeans and flannel, also known as the grunge and alternative music movement, you'll find that some of these on the countdown are multiple things kind of tied up under one umbrella. And that's what this is. The music and the style went together so well. I am a teenager of the grunge alt movement. I embodied that spirit I wore the clothes. My senior photo in high school everyone I've told you about I had torn jeans and flannel on because I liked the look classy. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Allison chains and so many more made up the music side. The flannel shirts and the torn jeans and either vans or airwalk shoes. That was the style. If you liked the music, you usually had the clothing as well. And if you had the music, then we get into number two on symbols of the 90s was the Sony disc man. Nothing was cooler than walking around with your torn jeans and flannel with your cheapo foam headphones with music playing in your disk man with the anti-skip so you could walk and not have it just be skipping constantly. After growing up with the Sony Walkman and making mixtapes It was amazing to have a CD player that you could bring with you. Although I think when it first came out, you couldn't make mix CDs yet. Or if you could, they were very expensive. I remember with my Sony disc man, I had one of those little portable CD holders. I believe it held 20 discs, it had a strap so you could kind of wear it like a purse. I might still have that. But later on after the disc man went out of style, something new came along. And that was number three, which was dial-up internet slash America Online slash gateway computers. That's a lot of slashes. My introduction to the internet was 1996 with a gateway computer with dial-up internet. So God help you if someone needed to use the phone, you need to get off the computer. Imagine that. Some of the websites that were around then I think are still around, but very few. I mean, Google came out I think in 1998. But a lot of the websites looked like things that were made in college dorms. It was like someone's wall. And you had that dial-up noise that would play with the little stick figure man running across and then all the friends would be on the other side. And the voice would come on welcome. And then you got mail. And they had AOL instant messenger who would have thought something that was so brand new then it's now in everyone's home on everyone's phone. But you can't forget about TV. And that leads us to number four on the symbols of the 90s and I combined these Seinfeld and The Simpsons my two favorite shows two of my favorite shows ever, but they define the 90s for me for television for entertainment, Seinfeld, the show about nothing but every sort of app every episode has quotes from it that are still used today. The show is aged very well despite starting more than 30 years ago. And it's making an even bigger resurgence because of it being on Netflix and The Simpsons. What can I say about the Simpsons, growing up as a teenager in the 90s to have an animated show that was more for adults, especially in the early 90s, the first few seasons of The Simpsons, they were everywhere. I had a Bart Simpson t-shirt, I think in seventh grade. For the first 1012 seasons of The Simpsons, it was unbelievable. Every episode was must see. Now it's been on the air for over 30 years. I haven't watched it in several years, because how much can you do when a show goes on for 30 years and they're animated and they don't age they've done everything you could possibly do. But in the 90s, they were amazing. And finally, number five on the top five symbols of the 1990s are boy bands slash girl groups. This was the mid to late 90s. Oh my God, my sisters, all loved Backstreet Boys in sync. Hanson 98 degrees. But don't forget Destiny's Child. Back then I could not stand that music. I still don't think it's great. But I find it ironic now that some of these groups are reuniting and they're my age, you know, they're in their 40s Now, and back then they were the symbol of the rebellious youth. But as much as I did not, like the music of Backstreet Boys are in sync, there was no denying how popular they were. Especially with shows like TRL on MTV, oh, my God, they were everywhere those groups. But that wraps up the countdown top five symbols of the 1990s. I say part one, there will likely be a part two. But do you remember those if you grew up in the 90s? The grunge alternative torn jeans and flannel? Did you have a disc man? Did you use dial-up internet and go on AOL with Gateway computers? Did you watch Seinfeld? Or the Simpsons? Or did you listen to a boy band or girl group? Or is there something else I missed? Either way, come back in two weeks, I'll have a brand new top five have something totally random, totally different from what this is?
Back In the Day: First Celebrity Crushes
All right, fine. It's Valentine's Day week. I always complain about it. And I don't celebrate it. But I don't want to go through the entire month in the podcast and not do something that kind of relates to it. So let's go way back in the day, and I will share with you some of my very first celebrity crushes. This will really date my age. But much like Episode 23, where I talked about my first crushes in my actual life. But I didn't name names. What I'm going to do is stick to the 1980s. So when the 1980s ended, I was 12. So we're talking innocent crushes. But these were some of the celebrities that were the first that kind of got my attention as a young boy/pre-teen. I always tell people, my very first celebrity crush was Belinda Carlisle, who was the singer for the gogos band. I got a crush on her when she went solo. And she did the heaven as a place on Earth Song. So we're talking 1987 88. So I was like 1011 years old. I don't know what I thought I was going to do. Take her to the bowling alley or the video arcade. This was back at a time when I thought everyone was like sweet and innocent. But I mean growing up getting older and learning about the Go Go's and all of their partying ways. Interestingly, Belinda Carlisle was in Playboy in 2001. And it was one of those where she was about my age now. And she obviously looked great, but it was like, well, it's too late now, because it's not I don't have a crush on her anymore. In that same vein, I also one of my first crushes was Janet Jackson, young Janet Jackson, the control album. She's one she's only like 10 or 11 years older than me. But again, she was sweet and innocent. She had the I mean, she could dance, she still can dance, but she had that understated style, where she never was very revealing until she did the Rhythm Nation album. And she had that video for the song black cat and she like rips her shirt open. I remember I was 12 and she did I saw the videos. Oh my god. Janet Jackson and Belinda Carlisle were the only of my celebrity crushes that I'm mentioning here that were false. are older than me. And I mean, they weren't that much older. The others were all my age that seemed like girls that I could see in school. Now, Debbie Gibson, she was not what I thought I could see in school because she was a famous celebrity. But she was 16 or 17 when she came out with her out of the blue album in 1987. And she was cute blonde, she had the hats that she would wear. She was sort of like Britney Spears before Britney Spears, like the generation before, for those of you that are younger, but she still looks great today. She's 51. And I mean, that's not old to me anymore. I was lucky to because obviously my younger sister so first younger sister, she used to listen to Debbie Gibson. Obviously, she listened to New Kids on the Block a lot more. But I was lucky because I'd get to hear Debbie Gibson's music. Just fantasize about her being my girlfriend, although, I mean, she would have been like a junior or senior in high school when I was in third grade. So that would not have worked out. One that I think all well not all but most young boys my age had a crush on was Danica McKellar, or Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years. She's only two years older than me, and she has aged very well. But back then on The Wonder Years, she and Fred Savage, they were basically playing characters that were my age or maybe a year older. So it was very easy to see myself in that situation. And hearkening back to my first crushes segment in real life. There was one of the girls that I mentioned, I'm not going to name names again. But I saw her as my Winnie Cooper. And obviously, on The Wonder Years, weenie and Kevin did not end up together. So it's sort of fitting the same thing. It was fun going through photos of pop culture, music, actresses, stars from that time, the late 80s Is what I'm focusing on, because that's when the mood changed. When I went from you girls are gross to I guess she's cute. And it's fun to look back at some of them and see the ones that other people considered to be like the hottest women going like someone like Samantha Fox, which I guess a little older than me, you would probably remember her. I remember having a crush on Drew Barrymore for years. Because she is basically my age. She got started in EA T and Firestarter when she was a kid. And then as she got older in the early 90s, she was in like poison ivy. And that's when Drew Barrymore became like the bad girl. But it all came back around when she was in the wedding singer. And then I immediately had a crush on her again, one that might have flown under the radar for a lot of people of that time was Danielle Harris, who was in Halloween four and five. She was Michael Myers. Nice Jamie. And she's another one. She's my age. So it was easy to see her as being someone I might bump into in school. I don't know if 11-12 year old me thought about being in the movie and trying to protect her. I remember in Part Five, there's a little boy that I think has kind of a crush on her. But he didn't really get involved with Michael Myers, I probably would have been like, Yeah, let's run away. And then if you trip and fall, I'll just leave. I never ended up sending any fan mail to any of these first crushes or anyone in particular, Daniel Harris was one that I had thought about sending a letter to wherever she would have gotten him like her management. But then she ended up having a stalker, and she had all kinds of issues with it. And I felt bad. I'm like, why don't want to write something saying, you know, anything that might be seen as inconsiderate? Like, I think you're cute and you are great, and Halloween and it's like, so I just didn't even bother. But if any of you listen to the podcast, these celebrities that I've named, just know that 12-year-old me would have written you a letter. It's a pretty good collection of names though. Looking back, Belinda Carlisle, Janet Jackson, Debbie Gibson, Danica McKellar, Drew Barrymore. Danielle Harris, that's pretty good. Who did you have crushes on like your first celebrity crushes? If you're a guy my age, likely some of these names would be on yours. There were other names that I considered putting on here, like Stevie Nicks and Debbie Harry from Blondie, but I couldn't remember if I had a crush on them at that time, or if it was later on. And as I got older into my high school years, my biggest crush was Pamela Anderson, where I mean I told you all about in the It's episode 52 segment about posters and such on a teenager's wall in the 90s. I mentioned my calendar that I had. But yeah, it was different being 12 1314 years old and the celebrity crushes you had and how things change your views on what beauty is and your views on what dates I guess would be when you're young. And it's like holding hands on the playground or going to the arcade, and then later is going to the movies. And then even later, as you get older, these dates for Valentine's Day that have to be so elaborate with the gifts or else you're worried that it's going to be seen that you don't care. But that's my dalliance back into history and a little bit of Valentine's Day as I shared my very first celebrity crushes, what were yours? Shoot me an email Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. And let me know if any of mine were on your list or if yours are totally different from mine. And if you do celebrate it, or you did hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day.
Closing
And that's gonna do it. That's gonna wrap up episode 57 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in. Thanks to everyone who has checked out the live streams Friday at eight on Instagram. They're called without a map. If you hear this before Saturday the 19th Hopefully you'll go to Crystal’s first book event at the loft in West Yarmouth. If you're hearing it after, hopefully, you did go or get the book on Amazon. Make sure to go get on the email list for Wear your wish and Wear your wishes.com I've paused the sponsorship ads as they are restocking and retooling the website. And like I said, I don't want to send you there with the site down with you looking to buy something that I promote and it's not available but it will be back. If you're looking to move better move well have a better mind-body connection come and visit me at Mind Body spine Chiropractic in Brewster right on Route six A, I do training there with Coach KO Kailyn Orr you can get fixed mentally and physically by the great Dr. Mike Singleton. And come and visit with Heather who holds everything together. She is the glue and we see that anytime she's not there. And there are big things coming with that whole operation Cape Kettlebell, keep that in mind come likely April. I'll have way more news on it. As for me right now, you can find me all over social media, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, obviously, go to Christopher setterlund.com. That's my home page created run updated by my oldest friend Barry Menard. It's got links to all my books, links to past podcasts, links to the in my footsteps podcast blog. It's sort of like a one-stop shop. We've only got about a month left until spring, keep your eyes on the spring, summer, fall. There's a lot of stuff coming up with the podcast. But more than that, with my writing, I've got three books I'm working on. One will likely be out later in the fall a Cape Cod photography book. One is a rewrite of my very first book a second edition, that's how old it is, and that will likely be out the beginning of 2023. The third one is a true crime book that I'm deep in the middle of that is going along with a documentary film, I will be interviewing the film director likely next month. And I'll give a lot more information on it then. But keep your eyes peeled. That's a lot of books, a lot of spinning plates I have going on. Sometimes I feel like Stretch Armstrong but you keep going because it's all stuff I enjoy. And that's what it comes down to in life, in general, is doing things you enjoy and following your dreams. Because when you stop following your dreams and you just settle into the daily routine, the block routine, there's not much left to do. So even if it's something small, you're Chasing, keep chasing. Because even the chase can keep you going on days that you feel just like life is awful. And this here recording this podcast, sharing it, getting feedback from all of you. That is one of the things that I really enjoy. And that's why I keep doing it. It is in every way shape and form a passion project where I share things I enjoy, if you like it great. If not, though, it's still things that I like, even if it's an audience of one. I mean it's not but even if it was it's still fun. And speaking of Next week, episode 58 is going to be the special monthly bonus episode a little shorter one diving into one specific topic. I am so thrilled about this one you As I'm going to share the story of the teacher that impacted my life the most and got the seed planted inside my heart and soul to be a writer. So a lot of this that is going on that's gone on in my life the last 10 years or so is because of her teachings. So we're going to get into that next week. But until then, remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and enjoy every moment you can because you never know. And that means a lot. There's been a lot of loss in this world, in my world, but sort of periphery, friends of siblings, folks I used to work with. So it's right there you see it, where people lose their lives and their stories over your story's not over until the final chapter is written. So take advantage because you never know, these people that have passed on recently. It was sudden, and they were too young. So enjoy the moments because you don't always get them. As Buddha said, the famous quote, the trouble is you think you have time. So remember that take advantage of every moment. Thank you all for tuning in. Have a great week, a great weekend, and I will talk to you all again soon.