Episode 68 falls the day before Friday the 13th and this spooky day is intertwined throughout the show.
It begins with a somewhat creepy tale, though more sad and unfortunate. The West Barnstable Brick Company was a giant of Cape Cod business for more than half a century. Today all that remains are the bricks themselves which are collector's items, an overgrown area hiding bits of the old factory, and the story of what happened.
The town of Hull, Massachusetts is a crown jewel of the South Shore. Though small in actual size there is so much packed in to every bit of it. Beaches, old forts, carousels, high-class hotels, beautiful ocean views, delicious food and so much more. Find out all about it on this week's Road Trip.
The Friday the 13th franchise has been scaring audiences for more than forty years. There has been a dozen films and Jason Voorhees has become a horror icon. However did you know that in the 1980's there was an early attempt at a Friday the 13th video game? Made for the Nintendo this game promised to bring the slasher series to the video game medium. We go Back in the Day to see if it lived up to the hype.
There have been many larger than life bands from the Grunge and Alternative genre in the 1990's. There have also been some that burst on to the scene and then faded away. This week's Top 5 looks back at some of those lesser known bands and the music they created.
There's also a new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the eradication of smallpox.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 67 here.
Episode 68 falls the day before Friday the 13th and this spooky day is intertwined throughout the show.
It begins with a somewhat creepy tale, though more sad and unfortunate. The West Barnstable Brick Company was a giant of Cape Cod business for more than half a century. Today all that remains are the bricks themselves which are collector's items, an overgrown area hiding bits of the old factory, and the story of what happened.
The town of Hull, Massachusetts is a crown jewel of the South Shore. Though small in actual size there is so much packed in to every bit of it. Beaches, old forts, carousels, high-class hotels, beautiful ocean views, delicious food and so much more. Find out all about it on this week's Road Trip.
The Friday the 13th franchise has been scaring audiences for more than forty years. There has been a dozen films and Jason Voorhees has become a horror icon. However did you know that in the 1980's there was an early attempt at a Friday the 13th video game? Made for the Nintendo this game promised to bring the slasher series to the video game medium. We go Back in the Day to see if it lived up to the hype.
There have been many larger than life bands from the Grunge and Alternative genre in the 1990's. There have also been some that burst on to the scene and then faded away. This week's Top 5 looks back at some of those lesser known bands and the music they created.
There's also a new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the eradication of smallpox.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 67 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 68. We got a fun show planned for this week. Being that Friday the 13th is tomorrow when this podcast goes live, we're going to share a little creepy stuff starting with the long and winding story of the West Barnstable brick company and the sad demise of a once huge Cape Cod business. We're going to take a road trip to one of the gems of the Massachusetts coastline Hull, Massachusetts on the south shore in honor of Friday the 13th we're going to go way way back in the day as I share my thoughts about the Friday the 13th Nintendo game and what I thought of it what I thought it was supposed to be. We'll have a brand new top five that are the top five, lesser known somewhat forgotten 1990s alternative grunge bands. There'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 68 of the in my footsteps podcast. So like I said, it's Friday the 13th tomorrow once this podcast goes live. So if you're hearing this in the future, then this part won't matter. In an average year, there's typically one or two Friday the 13th a year. So they're fun to I mean, I guess celebrate watch the movies. So if you listen to the podcast, you remember way back in episode 11. I talked about playing manhunt, which was basically hide and seek in the dark at night in our old neighborhood. And I mentioned that I had a hockey mask that I painted up to be just like Jason Voorhees. Well, that hockey mask is still kicking 33 years later, my nephew Landon uses it now to play manhunt with his friends. It's kind of interesting the traditions that get passed down in my family. But as far as celebrating Friday the 13th, there's not much you can do, watch the movies, wear the Jason mask and go out and scare people. In my 40s. I don't do that kind of stuff. Hopefully, the weather will be nice, and you all can get outside and enjoy it. We're in the throes of spring, everything's blooming, the weather's getting nice offs. My favorite time of year is right before tourist season. And right after that comes from spending my life growing up on Cape Cod. And of course, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been tuning into the podcast, I really appreciate it now as we're getting on towards 70 episodes. More than a year and a half, I've been doing these and I still have a blast making these, doing the research, and coming up with things that I think will be fun for you to hear about from me. When I get more information about any of my three books that I've been working on, I will let you know, with me I've learned in the writing department, it's a lot of hurry up and wait. You spend many months writing and working on a book and then once you hand in the manuscript, it's a lot of waiting for the publisher, the editor to kind of get back to you. But the news will be coming on the front with all three of those books, my photography book, the revised version of my first travel guide. And of course my lady of the dunes True Crime book over the summer. I'm sure there'll be a lot for me to share with you. So stay tuned for that. But right now let's just dive right into Episode 68. So this is kind of a creepy story. I guess. Not really. It's more of a sad tragic one. The West Barnstable brick company was one of the true giants of Cape Cod business at the dawn of the 20th century. So what happened to it what led to its demise and why is it now just a crumbling facade buried deep in the woods near Sandy Neck beach? Well, here comes the story right now. The Life and Times of the West Barnstable brick company coming up right now on episode 68 of the in my footsteps podcast.
The West Barnstable Brick Company
Sandy Neck in West Barnstable and sandwich is a hugely popular and important barrier beach and ecosystem on Cape Cod. It is 3800 acres of pristine beauty frequented by countless 1000s of locals and visitors alike year-round. The north side is the well-known beach with the South side being just as important as it is home to West Barnstable is great Marsh which extends all the way down to route 6A it is here close to the old Kings Highway as 6a used to be known where huge blue clay deposits were plentiful. For this reason the southern area of great Marsh would become home to several aspiring businesses, which took advantage of said clay, the most famous of which was the legendary West Barnstable brick company. And this is its story. The history of the West Barnstable brick company dates all the way back to 1876. It was in February of 1876 that Levi Goodspeed purchased 20 acres of land along the Great Marsh, the land was part of the estate of a man named Henry fish. Goodspeed's purchase was bisected by the railroad tracks and just over a mile from the west Barnstable railroad depot. This prime real estate sitting atop large clay deposits was to be used for a new brick-making business. Levi Goodspeed, he was a well-respected man on Cape Cod at the time in the decades leading up to the creation of the West Barnstable brick factory and Company. Goodspeed had been a selectman, a member of the House of Representatives and finally sheriff of Barnstable County. Goodspeed brought aboard Benjamin and Charles Crocker to form the management team of the West Barnstable brick company. Ads for their bricks first began appearing in the local newspapers in July 1878. The company started small, inundating the local newspapers with those advertisements about their product. Slowly they gained a foothold, even being contracted to supply the bricks for a new jail in Barnstable in December 1878. Its first decade saw the fledgling company struggling to make inroads on Cape Cod. The growing pains of the company were only exacerbated by the sudden death of Levi Goodspeed in November 1879. It appeared as though the West parsable brick company might be destined to fail. That changed when the company was bought in 1888 By Abel make peace who was known as the Cape's resident cranberry king. He added more machinery and more workers, many from Portugal and Finland, allowing the production levels to increase. West Barnstable bricks were used to rebuild the Cape Cod Exchange building in Harwich. The new town offices in West Barnstable, the new training school in Hyannis, as well as Our Lady of Hope Church. The actual physical bricks were of the highest quality due to the arduous process of creating them. This included breaking up the clay and removing pebbles and other debris from it. Before shaping the bricks and pouring them into perfectly level molds. The entire factory was essentially self-sustaining. The clay was collected on the property. While the finished bricks were shipped out via the railroad tracks and ran right through the property. The only thing that needed to be shipped in was the wood for the kiln used to dry the bricks. Under the ownership of make peace, the West Barnstable brick company became one of the giants of Cape Cod business. By the 1920s it was reported that the factory could produce more than 100,000 bricks per day and more than 30 million per year. These bricks were widely popular not only on Cape Cod, but throughout the state of Massachusetts, New England and even further. In October 1925. The business changed hands after nearly 40 years when it was purchased by a man named Thomas Arden. He enlarged the factory as well as added electric lights and a telephone. The company received another boost when the one and only automobile king Henry Ford paid a visit as he was interested in the brickmaking process. On October 14 1926, Ford stopped by the factory. He wanted to buy a pair of antique engines, however, Arden gave them to him as a gift despite Ford's objections. Ford eventually set things square by sending a brand new tractor to Arden A short time later. However, as high as the company was writing its demise had actually already been set in motion. Unhappy with the fact that brick sizes were not uniform. Then President Herbert Hoover created a universal size for the creation of bricks in 1928. The problem with this was that West Barnstable bricks were an eighth of an inch too large and so new equipment needed to be bought. This meant that the company needed to raise its prices to cover costs. This was only the beginning of the trouble, the October 1929 Stock Market Crash ushered in the Great Depression. This immediately slowed down the need for new buildings. So higher prices to cover costs, combined with lower demand for the product forced West Barnstable brick to cease operations in the fall of 1930. all was not lost though. Arden the directors and the stockholders were all meeting and trying to figure out just how to get the business back up and running again. Despite that the venerable brick company remained closed throughout 1931. In September 1931, it appeared as though a new day was dawning. All of the surplus West Barnstaple bricks had been sold and new orders were coming in. Arden and his staff cleaned and oiled the machinery, inspected the boilers and prepped the clay pits to resume production. Despite battling bankruptcy at the time, plans were in place for the West Barnstable brick company to rise from the ashes. By 1932. It had been over 50 years since the rich blue clay had been collected to make millions of high-quality bricks. Seeing as how they were just going to reopen. Arden wanted to know just how much clay and therefore how many years West Barnstable brick company had remaining at their current location. Though the exact date is not known, at some point during 1932, a test hole was drilled. This determined that there was roughly 50 years worth of clay remaining for the West Barnstable brick factory. This should have put Arden at ease. Unfortunately, though, the test hole struck water. This created an artisan well that flooded the clay pits, and these flooded clay pits were the death knell of the company. West Barnstable brick company did not immediately close though, attempts were made to figure out a way to keep going, the remainder of 1932 and into 1933 was a holding pattern. However, the Great Depression did not relent, and the West Barnstable brick factory was no more in the spring of 1933. The company was sold at auction to the First National Bank of Yarmouth in the years after the factory was stripped with parts sold off to other Cape businesses, while the remaining brick load was used up. It took more than 30 years for a new business to open on the former West Barnstable brick property. Florence Ungermann opened the wind ship shop in July 1967. Right on Route 6A so it wasn't backed by the railroad tracks it was closer to the road. The area of the property north of the tracks though remained untouched and has remained untouched for nearly 90 years since the brick factory closed down. And that being said, nature has reclaimed what was not removed. Today The Orenda Wildlife Trust owns the former West Barnstable brick company property, it's part of conservation land. The factory remains are overgrown and highly difficult to get to. The Artisan well created a pond in addition to flooding the clay pits. There are nature trails leading behind The Orenda property. But a trip to the brick factory remains is not advised. I've gone out there a couple of times I have shot 4k video I will post a link in the description of the podcast for you to see. It is definitely highly inadvisable to go out there. There is no pathway to get to the remains of the brick factory. It's a piece of brick wall kind of a corner piece. There's water all around it because the clay pits got flooded. You have to bushwhack your way to get out there. The land is uneven, it's often flooded and damp. There are thorns in the summer, there are tons of mosquitoes and green head flies. It's right on the railroad tracks so trains will pass and it's dangerous. The video that I shot is the first and only one ever that I've posted a warning saying not to go there. Because I don't want anyone to get an idea to go out there and get hurt saying that I recommended it so I'm kind of washing my hands of it. I know that I cannot stop people from trying to get out there. But hopefully you will watch my video. You'll listen to this podcast and you will think twice about it. For more than half a century the West Barnstable brick company was truly a giant among Cape Cod businesses. It bridged the gap from manpower to steam power to electric power and its legacy can still be felt today as authentic bricks created by the company are collector's items. And many of the buildings which use the bricks still stand. Go on eBay. Look at how much mint condition West Barnstable bricks go for. You're looking at $50 or more for a brick. But that's the story of the West Barnstable brick company. Its huge rise and sad ending.
Road Trip: Hull, MA
This week's road trip takes us to one of the crown jewels of the Massachusetts South Shore as we visit the town of Hull. Along with neighboring towns like Scituate and Cohasset, Hull is one of those beautiful seaside towns, it's got amazing views of the Boston skyline, amazing beaches, and historical spots. This will be an easy sell for anyone to go to visit Hull. It's a small town. As of 2020, the population was 10,072. Naturally though, that population really explodes in the summer with the influx of tourists. Hull is the fourth smallest town in Massachusetts based on land area, but yet its population density makes it one of the top 30 towns in the state as far as population density goes. It's just an interesting thing where they pack a lot of people in a small area. I would think most people when they go to visit Hull would want to start off at Nantasket Beach, which is on beach Avenue. This is kind of the centerpiece of Hull and it's one of the busiest beaches in the state. Considering that people can come from Boston to go there. Boston is 25 miles to the north of haul, which is interesting because if you were to go straight across the water across Boston Harbor, it's only about five miles. So you kind of have to wind around Boston and through towns like Weymouth and Hingham. But have no fear. If you go to Nantasket beach and you see that the parking lot is full and you think that there's nowhere to go. The beach itself is about three miles in length. So if you find anywhere to park along those three miles, you can find a good spot of beach to call your own. When it comes to me and going to Hull. The place that I usually frequent first is Fort Revere, which is located at 60 Farina road Fort revere Park, in general, sits on top of Telegraph Hill is eight acres in total. There's a huge water tower on the property with an observation deck. But I've never been up in the top of it. I don't know if they do tours up in there, especially not in the last few years. But that's something you could look up. There are amazing views of Hull looking south, and there are picnic tables where you can watch the boats coming into Boston Harbor in front of you. For me going there. The main attraction is the namesake fort Revere. This fort was actually in service from the late 1890s to the late 1940s. It's now really broken down and it's decaying. And of course losers have spray painted all inside of it. But it gives a great cool kind of creepy vibe. The photos there are amazing I've never gone there after dark to do any long-exposure photography, but that's something I want to do. If you go to Fort Revere, and you wander around in the catacombs of the fort, just watch your step because naturally, places like that are havens for you know jerks and losers that go in and smash bottles and stuff. So just watch your step. It's been I've never had an incident but I don't want to have someone go and step on a broken bottle that was in there. So just be careful. One of the other underrated things about Fort revere is the views you can get of the nearby Boston lighthouse and graves lighthouse. From Fort Revere. Boston light is about a mile and a half to the north. And graves lighthouse is about four and a half miles from Fort Revere. So you get these amazing photos of Boston light in the foreground graves light in the background kind of overlapped with each other. But if historical forts and lighthouses are not your things, and you want to have a little more fun, you can check out the Paragon carousel at 205 Nantasket Avenue. This classic old carousel is the last remaining part of the Paragon Park amusement park which was built in 1905. The carousel was built in 1928 and it has all of the original wooden horses. And this is currently one of less than 100 of these types of carousels remaining in the United States. So it really is a unique and fun experience to go and ride on one of these knowing there are not that many left in this country. You can visit Paragon carousel.com, and see some photos and get a lot more of the history of Paragon Park, if you're interested in that. And when it comes to history, you can't go wrong with checking out the Hull life-saving Museum. This is at 1117 Nantasket Avenue, or life saving museum.org. The museum itself was founded in 1978. And it looks back at the maritime heritage and the lifesaving heritage of the town of hall that goes back a couple of centuries. They have great exhibits, and they've got online exhibits if you want to go to their site and learn things. They're open every day, except Tuesday and Wednesday. So definitely check ahead before you go because the hours are relatively short. So I don't want you to go down there and be there at a time when they're not open. Although the views from around there are great, you really can't go wrong when it comes to going to Hull and just finding little nooks to just look at the views of Boston and the islands out in Boston Harbor. This is one of those where just the vibe of the town is great, at least in my opinion, maybe you'll have a different opinion. But what you should do is go to Hull and spend the day and spend the night and if you're going to stay overnight there, definitely check out the Nantasket Beach Resort at 45 hole Shore Drive. It's a beautiful boutique hotel located right on Nantasket beach. So when I said find a place to park and there are three miles of beach to walk, here you go. You set up home base at the Nantasket Beach Resort and then go right across the street to the beach. Visit Nantasket beach resort.com to get a lot more information about their history, what types of rooms they have the amenities, what they're all about. Naturally, if you're up in Hull spending any sort of time up in that area, you need something to eat. What better than to have seafood, classic New England seafood at Jake's seafood. It's at 50 George Washington Boulevard and also Jake's seafoods.com. Being like I said that Hull is one of the smallest towns in the state as far as land area. Jake’s seafood is right on Nantasket beach. Everything is centrally located except Fort Revere, you got to kind of drive to get to that. If you're not craving seafood when you get up there. Checkout schooners at 157 Nantasket Avenue. This is more of a typical American food restaurant. So they've got pizza steak pasta, of course they've got seafood too. They're also at schooners dining.com, visit Hull chamber.org To get a better overall scope of this town. And things to do that maybe I missed. Because I've been here dozens of times, I have my favorites things that I go to checkout, and I mentioned fort Revere, but there are other things that I have not seen, that you may enjoy. Like I say, with all these road trips, just go to these places. And yeah, maybe check out some of the stuff that I talked about. But also just use your own imagination. Use your own instincts, drive your car, let it take you somewhere that you're not sure where it is. That's how you find the best places. Hull is one of the crown jewels of the Massachusetts coast, South Shore, North Shore, Cape Cod, all of our coasts, Hull is one of my favorite places to visit. And yeah, it's relatively small, it looks like a little bent finger sticking out from Cohasset. But it's got a lot of stuff packed into a little area, not to mention the amazing views, the amazing beaches, restaurants, and historic sites, it's all there. And all centrally located, you do not have to go too far. So go and check out Hull, Massachusetts and I will be back next time with another road trip showcasing one of the amazing cities and towns in the six states of New England and beyond.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 42 years ago this week, May 8 1980. And the declaration by the World Health Organization that the terrible disease smallpox had finally been eradicated by humanity. Smallpox had been around for centuries and was like the scourge of humanity in the world where on average three out of 10 people who got the disease died of it, then the rest would get those, pustules with the pus that would burst you would end up with permanent scars so nobody was spared if you got it. If you've been listening to the podcast, you know back in episode 40, I talked about Cape Cod's loneliest grave that of Thomas Ridley who contracted and died of smallpox in the 1770s in Provincetown. And the fear of infection was so bad that the people buried him miles from town in the middle of the woods just out of fear of catching smallpox. English Dr. Edward Jenner was the first person to start the process of trying to vaccinate people against smallpox way back in 1796. And it shows how far medicine has come that it took almost 200 years to finally eradicate smallpox. It began where Jenner saw milkmaids who caught cowpox, which sounds terrible, we're actually protected somewhat from smallpox. So that's where the idea of vaccination came from, give people diluted cow pox to protect you from smallpox. The plan to eradicate smallpox from the world was first announced by the World Health Organization in 1959. But it lacked the funds to really get off the ground. By the time intensified eradication program began in 1967. Smallpox had already been wiped out in North America in 1952, and Europe in 1953. The last person to die of smallpox was a woman named Janet Parker, who was a medical photographer at England's Birmingham University Medical School. She fell ill on August 11 1978, and was finally diagnosed with smallpox on August 24, eventually dying on September 11 1978. Her mother, who was providing care for her also caught smallpox, but she did not die of it because she had been vaccinated a few weeks earlier. The announcement that the world was free of smallpox on May 8 1980, by the World Health Organization is considered by many to be the biggest achievement in international public health. And that happened 42 years ago this week in history. And to celebrate that day, we're going to have a brand new time capsule that's going to be on the same day, May 8 1980. So let's see what was going on in the world back then in pop culture. The number one song was call me by Blondie. This was off their album auto American. It was number one for six weeks, and was the second number one song by the New Wave punk band. This was also on the soundtrack to the movie American Gigolo, and interestingly, originally, they wanted Stevie Nicks to perform the song but it ended up going to Blondie and becoming their biggest hit ever. The number one TV show was 60 minutes. This is the oldest and most-watched news magazine program in America. It's been on the air at CBS for 54 seasons beginning in 1968. In its run, there has been more than 2500 episodes of 60 minutes. There have been some big time names in the history of news that have been hosts or part time hosts, including Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Dan Rather Diane Sawyer, Morley Safer, Walter Cronkite, and many others. Originally in 1968, it was a bi-weekly news magazine hosted by Harry reasoner and Mike Wallace in 2013. TV Guide ranked 60 minutes number 24. Out of the best series of all time, and fitting for this week. The number one movie was Friday the 13th This is a recurring theme for this week's episode of the podcast. Pretty much everyone knows Friday the 13th the original camp slasher film, it starred Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King, it also had Kevin Bacon, as all the counselors get picked off one by one at Camp Crystal Lake. A lot of people think that Jason Voorhees was the killer in the original but nope, it was his mother. Although Jason is in it at the very end with one of the best jump scares ever in horror movies. This movie spawned a lot of sequels, and it spawned a lot of renewed interest in the slasher genre and horror genre of movies. And this movie was a success. It made nearly $60 million on a budget of $550,000. It also has a 63% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes making it the only Friday the 13th film to be considered fresh all the rest are rotten, even though I like some of them. And if you were around back then may 8 1980, and you found yourself at Camp Crystal Lake or somewhere else like that. And you needed a car to make a getaway that you knew would not make it and you'd end up stranded and killed by a serial killer. You could get yourself a brand new 1980 Ford Pinto, two-door hatchback for just over $3,700 base price, or about $16,000 when adjusted for inflation. That's going to wrap up another this week in history Another time capsule. And now it's time for a brand new top five coming up. This is going to be a good one it's going to bring back memories for people of my age, my generation my musical tastes, as we look back at my picks for the top five, lesser-known and somewhat forgotten grunge alternative bands of the 1990s. So let's see what you remember.
Top 5: Forgotten Grunge/Alternative Artists
Last week's top five we looked at some 1980s TV theme songs. This week's top five are going up a decade into the 90s. And looking at some of the lesser-known or maybe a little bit forgotten grunge alternative bands and artists. For those that grew up in that era. When you think of grunge alternative music you think of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In chains, Soundgarden, maybe a few others, there are others. But then there are bands that had a couple of hit songs that kind of came and went not saying they broke up but it was just they had this flash and then they kind of faded back down the card. And these bands that I'm going to mention today had some great songs, so I want to bring them back to the forefront if only for just this top five segment. So 90s Kids rejoice here we're going to do the top five lesser-known slash forgotten 90s All grunge bands. We've got some honorable mentions. As always, this will kind of get your mind going. Lesser known 90s grunge all bands honorable mentions include the Screaming Trees, stabbing westward, Meat Puppets, Better Than Ezra and Guster go look up any of those on iTunes and pick out their most popular songs I guarantee you will remember them from the 90s. But those were just the honorable mentions. Now we're going to dive into the actual top five so here we go. Number one was Sponge. Sponge is still around they were formed in 1992 in Detroit. Their debut album was rotting Pinata in 1994. A lot of these bands kind of came about during the immediate aftermath of the death of Kurt Cobain, where everyone was looking for the next big band to fill the hole that Nirvana left sponge had some big hit songs including Plowed which is you should know that one if you're a grunge/alt fan. They also had hits with the song Molly in 1995. And then wax ecstatic in 1996, which was kind of their last big foray into the mainstream. Number two is Soul Asylum. This band was formed in Minneapolis way back in 1981. But they actually didn't cross over into the mainstream until 1992 when they released their album grave dancers union which had the amazing yet haunting song runaway train with the video that featured all these missing children. Around that same time on the same album, they had the song somebody to shove and black gold which are both really good and they bring me back to being in eighth grade. In 1995, they released let your dim light shine which had the song misery on it. That was a hit. But after that they started fading kind of from the mainstream. So it was early to mid 90s for soul asylum. Number three is Cake. This band was formed in Sacramento, California in 1991. It was their second album fashion nugget in 1996 that had their first real big foray into the mainstream, which was a song called the distance. They also covered Gloria gainers, I will survive disco hit their follow-up album prolonging the magic in 1998 had another big hit song Never there. And it also had the kind of underrated song sheep go to heaven. If you go watch the video for that you might get a few laughs or be freaked out. After their 2001 album comfort Eagle they started to fade from sight though, so they were definitely a big late 90s band. Number four is Silverchair. They were a teenage Australian rock band founded in 1992. They first broke through in the United States in 1995 with their album frog stomp. This was a major grunge alternative hit album with songs like tomorrow, pure massacre and Israel sun. Their 1997 Follow up album freak show was not quite as good it did all right. It had the singles freak and abuse me but after that they started to fade from sight and I know the singer had some health issues. But after that big burst onto the scene in the mid-90s Silverchair started to slowly fade away too. And finally on the list of top five lesser-known slash forgotten 90s alternative grunge bands. Number five is Brother Cane. This band was formed in Alabama in 1990. And they really had one huge breakthrough album and that was seeds in 1995. They had a great 90s All staple with Fools shine on. But they also had got no shame and voice of Eugenia from the same album. It was a great album My junior year of high school, Fools shine on became more of a 90s staple when it was featured in the 6th Halloween movie The Curse of Michael Myers. Interestingly, their follow up album 1998 Wish pool, I have literally no memory of it could be that I was in college and just listening to different music, but I didn't remember them even releasing another album. But it doesn't matter because the seeds album is great. You should definitely pop that in if you're a fan of 90s rock 90s alternative. But there you go some music for you to check out. You know it's spring take a walk outside make a playlist with these 90s lesser known all bands, sponge, Soul Asylum, cake, Silverchair and brother Cane, and that'll wrap up the top five, I'll be back with a brand new one that will be even more random or I'll try to make it even more random next.
Back In the Day: Friday the 13th NES Game
As of the recording of this podcast Friday, the 13th is tomorrow. It's always seen as a spooky and unlucky day. So much so that a hugely successful horror franchise was built around the day. Friday the 13th is synonymous with Jason Voorhees, the seemingly indestructible hockey mask wearing machete wielding axe-wielding killer. As of this recording, there have been 12 Friday the 13th movies, including the reboot in 2009. And the original in 1980 that you heard me talk about in this week in history segment where Jason was not the killer. There has been merchandise, there have been music videos, in part six Alice Cooper did a song for Friday the 13th part six man behind the mask, and it's awesome with basically scenes of Jason just killing people. But as a child of the 1980s growing up with kind of the emergence of video games, I mean, Atari was when I was really little and then that kind of faded away and Nintendo took its place. It was only natural that a video game version of Friday the 13th would come out. But how did that game go down? Well, that's the subject of this way, way back in the day to talk about the Friday the 13th Nintendo game. It was released in February 1989. So I would have been 11 years old. Friday the 13th part seven, the new blood was the most recent movie to come out, which was a good movie. It was kind of like Carrie versus Jason, where the female protagonist had telekinetic powers. First thing you got to know if you didn't grow up back then Nintendo games the graphics were all right for the day, but it's it's eight-bit graphics, so there's only so much you can do. It's definitely not like today where games are so much like reality that it's like you're there. In this game though, the music I mean, the music was all right. You can hear it now. We'll lay this a little bit over. The music definitely added a bit of a creepy vibe. But you play as one of six camp counselors and they each have varying powers and abilities and it's a side scroller where you're just running along and there are cabins there for some reason there are zombies at Crystal Lake, and crows that attack you and you throw rocks at them. I remember at the beginning playing this game and the different camp counselors and their names and trying to figure out if they were real characters from the movies. Chrissy, Debbie, Mark, and Paul are all names of people that were in the movies. The other two, George and Laura, I don't remember. So I don't remember this. But in researching for the podcast, this segment, there was also a Friday the 13th computer game, released in 1985, that I guess, has more of the gore you would expect from the movie, which is interesting. Obviously, I guess Nintendo is more family-friendly, and they're looking to make money that way, the computer games of the mid 1980s, which was still a very small niche market. So I guess they could be gorier. The whole point of the Friday the 13th Nintendo game is to find and defeat Jason. So you're running through the camp, you're going into all the cabins and trying to find him. You get to upgrade your weapons as you go if you find something new. So you're not just throwing rocks at Jason, which I'm sure would really get you far in the movies. And I always remember the alarm, the timer that would come on, where there's a countdown to Jason killing someone else at the camp. And you have to try to find him and stop him from killing one of the kids are another counselor. And it's this horrific thing where you know that if you don't find them, it's someone else's dead and it's your fault. I rarely was able to find Jason before he killed someone. I always bumped into his mother though, who was basically floating Medusa head. I guess in part two, if you've seen the franchise, Jason's mother's head is on the altar there. It's kind of like that, but eight-bit graphics. As an 11, 12 year old kid playing this game, I got bored with it and realized just how difficult it was difficult to the point that it wasn't fun. There are some games that you play that are difficult, but they're fun. And you love the challenge and the achievement of defeating certain levels and bosses and such, this was a game that you'd play it and get sick of it, so I would rent it. I rented it a couple of times from local video stores. But definitely never asked for it as a gift because God that would have been a waste of my parents' money. So you've probably noticed, as I've done this segment that I have not talked about Jason himself from the game much. That's because I was saving the best for last. The cover of the video game is Jason from Part Seven swinging an axe, and it just looks awesome, just terrifying. So you're expecting Jason to look like that. But boy, were you surprised when you played this game. I didn't expect Jason to have a purple jumpsuit, and kind of a light blue mask. When he comes out to attack you. It just looks like such a cheap knockoff of the real Jason, that it's almost like you shouldn't even have made the game at all. If you couldn't make Jason look like what he looks like in the movie. All you needed was a black jumpsuit and a white mask. But no, this is terrible-looking colors. And obviously, he's basically impossible to defeat. So the game would always end for me with Jason standing there. And it just says you and your friends are dead TAS great. It was so hard to beat Jason, you basically he would come out fight if you've got a couple of shots and he might retreat. And it might say you've won for now. But you had to deplete his life bar three times. And it's hard enough to beat him once. It's like being Mike Tyson's Punch out and having to knock him out three times to win. I suppose if you really had a lot of time and determination, you could defeat the game. But even then the end screen says that he's defeated or is he and they're not going to tell you. The game got terrible reviews. And I can tell you as a kid playing the game. I rented it probably twice had an awful time trying to beat it and then just said forget it. I'm not playing this game anymore. It was sort of like when they had the Jaws The Revenge game for Nintendo or is another one that was just awful. Although the jaws movie I think was worse than the game. But still, these games didn't come out too long after each other and it was part of me was that maybe Nintendo should quit trying to make games based on movies, especially terrible movies. For me, the ultimate thrill came a few years ago, when a new company made a Friday the 13th game that was awesome that actually was worthy of playing. If you go to F13 game.com, you'll see it the graphics are amazing. There's all the different iterations of Jason from when he had the bag on his head all the way up to the most recent ones. They were even thinking of doing a Nintendo version with that stupid purple suit, like he's the Joker and Jason. But that's really worth it. You can even go on YouTube or on their site, there are clips of gameplay. It's one of those where it's fun to actually watch and see the game look like what I had hoped the original Nintendo game looked like. But that's a look back a special look back on what is the week of Friday the 13th that just the awful difficult, terrible graphics? Friday the 13th game for Nintendo? Did you ever play it? Did you waste your money and buy it? Or did you have your parents rented for you? And did you actually beat it? I didn't. I played it a few times hated it and never played it again. So I guess Jason defeated me in that way.
Closing
That's going to wrap up episode 68 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thanks again, to everyone who has been tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. I hope you enjoy every episode, but I'm sure that some are better than others. But I put my full effort in to make each one as good as I possibly can. So this is usually where I tell you to tune into the live streams on Friday. But I have decided to kind of put those on hold for now. The reason being that I started the live streams Fridays at eight on Instagram as a way to grow the audience and interact with listeners of the podcast. And I found in just over a year of doing them. I wasn't really making any headway. And it became less fun and more of a job, which I realized once the stream stopped becoming fun, I decided I just didn't want to do them and kind of go through the motions. So I know there are only going to be a few people that are disappointed based on the amount of people that actually tuned in. Perhaps someday I'll come back and do them again. But as of right now the without a map live streams are being retired after 50 Something episodes. So thank you to the people that did tune in. But yeah, for right now they are going away. But you can still find me on Twitter, find me on Instagram, check out my in my footsteps podcast blog. I'm trying to update that more with great Cape Cod, New England history and lifestyle articles, some of which have been on the podcast, some of which will be on future podcasts. The latest article was the story of Cape Cod's worst wildfire, which happened in 1946. And it's pretty fascinating. I want to wish my nephew Liam a happy 16th birthday. I don't know how you are 16. But that's coming up next week. It'll be before the next podcast goes up. So I want to make sure I wish you a happy birthday ahead of time rather than after the fact. Soon you'll get your learner's permit and your driver's license. And then you can show for your old ass uncle around when he's in his 70s. But Happy Birthday, Liam, I hope it's a great day. And hopefully, I'll see you at some point get over there. I know the last few years with the way the world has been it's been more difficult to see the people that matter. But I think each day gets us closer to being as normal as things can be in this world. If you want to buy me a coffee, you can go to buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast, any donations go to advertising the podcast. And I will shout you out in an upcoming episode. If that's any more of a bonus. Check out my homepage Christopher setterlund.com created run updated by my oldest friend Barry Menard, who's a great graphic designer and a greater human. So I'm just blessed to have him in my life and have for God over 35 years. If you're in need of healing, physically, mentally, wellness, nutrition, all of that come into mind body spine chiropractic. We're so much more than just that. But that is enough. Dr. Michael Singleton is the brains behind the operation. He's got more knowledge in his pinky finger than I got in my whole body which is great to sit under his Learning Tree. And of course we've got Heather that holds that whole thing together at the front desk. I had to do her job a couple of weeks ago, and I always appreciated what she does, but I appreciate it more when I get thrown in the fire and of course Kaylin Orr TKO trainer Kaylin will be back at some point as she convalescence and heals her fractured neck. Go give her love on Instagram and tell her speedy recovery we all miss her in there and be on the watch for Cape kettlebell, our sister gym that should be opening. I'm not sure the end of the month, the beginning of next month we'll see obviously you'll know when I know. But remember to do for you take care of your mental health. Do things that make you happy. If you're not hurting anyone with your choices and things you do that bring you enjoyment, then do them mental health means more today than probably any time in my life for sure. So lean into what makes you happy because that's what's most important mental health should be first and foremost. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. Enjoy every moment you can and leave the biggest footprint possible because you never know what tomorrow brings. And I'll be back next week with episode 69 of the podcast, including the True Crime Story The murder and trial of Edwin Ray snow, a road trip to Westerly, Rhode Island. A look back at the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 30 years after it went off the air, the biggest North American Sports stars of the 1980s and more coming up next week on episode 69. Thank you all for tuning in to Episode 68. This was the in my footsteps podcast. I have Ben Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon.