Episode 17 starts with chicken strips and ice cream as I reminisce about lunch dates with my Nina at Friendly's. From patty melts, Fishamajigs, Jubilee Rolls, to Jim Dandy sundaes and Fribbles there were few places I loved going more as a kid than Friendly's. Learn some of the history of this New England/Northeast staple.
Nantucket island is so filled with incredible history, shops, beaches, and other attractions that there is no way to do only one Road Trip. The first of a likely 3 trips we stick to the Downtown Nantucket area including the amazing cobblestone streets, whaling museum, wharves, and countless shops and restaurants.
Growing up sleepovers were some of the best experiences. Most of them were fun if not uneventful. Then there were the ones that stuck with you, whether for good or bad reasons. I take you way Back In the Day and share 4 sleepover stories that you have to hear to believe.
This Week In History takes us back to the very first Boston Marathon which was run by a whopping 15 people. There's a special time capsule celebrating my Nana's birthday, plus other amazing stories that happened this week back in time.
Also be sure to check out 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 and YouTube after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 16 here.
Episode 17 starts with chicken strips and ice cream as I reminisce about lunch dates with my Nina at Friendly's. From patty melts, Fishamajigs, Jubilee Rolls, to Jim Dandy sundaes and Fribbles there were few places I loved going more as a kid than Friendly's. Learn some of the history of this New England/Northeast staple.
Nantucket island is so filled with incredible history, shops, beaches, and other attractions that there is no way to do only one Road Trip. The first of a likely 3 trips we stick to the Downtown Nantucket area including the amazing cobblestone streets, whaling museum, wharves, and countless shops and restaurants.
Growing up sleepovers were some of the best experiences. Most of them were fun if not uneventful. Then there were the ones that stuck with you, whether for good or bad reasons. I take you way Back In the Day and share 4 sleepover stories that you have to hear to believe.
This Week In History takes us back to the very first Boston Marathon which was run by a whopping 15 people. There's a special time capsule celebrating my Nana's birthday, plus other amazing stories that happened this week back in time.
Also be sure to check out 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 and YouTube after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode
Listen to Episode 16 here.
Intro 00:00
Hello world. And welcome to episode 17 of the in my footsteps podcast. I am your host, Christopher Setterlund coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but representing all six of the new England states from Northern Maine, Connecticut going right up against New York city. Thank you all for tuning in. Can't say how much I appreciate all the support, not only of the podcast but of my YouTube channel, my blog, my Instagram live streams. All of this is stuff that I'm passionate about. And when you're chasing your passions, you know, you don't feel like you're doing work. And that's why I keep telling everyone, you know, follow your dreams. You only get so many kicks at the can following your dreams and this content creation using that part of your brain is something I really love. So I just always wanna make sure that I thank you all for tuning in.
So I have two bits of really good news pertaining to I was talking about before the creative content. So first of all, this podcast is now being aired on Lemonadio.com. Saturdays at 3:00 PM. This internet radio station is owned and operated by Cape Cod radio icon. Stephanie Viva, if any of you have been on the Cape for and the last 15, 20 years, you know who Stephanie is from her morning show work on 106 WCOD. Everybody knows who she is. If you've been down here and I feel very humbled and thrilled that she enjoys this podcast enough that she would want to have it on a station that she operates. Obviously, if you're listening to this, maybe you're listening to it on Lemonadio. I did a little special intro just for the folks that are tuning in over there. And if you do listen over there, shoot me an email. Christopher Setterlund@gmail.com. Just let me know. I'm curious. I always check my numbers, I guess, to see where the podcast is being downloaded from the most, because then I kind of lean into that when it comes to marketing and advertising it thus far, it's apple podcast by a long shot, but I'm always curious if people are checking it out at other places.
And the second bit of good news that I can't go too deep into, but I'll just say that I'm in the works of finishing up details on my seventh book. So my sixth will iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod is coming out the week of May 24th. But before that's even out, I was approached by my publisher with three potential topics. They actually wanted me to work on all three. And I said, you gotta be kidding me. I don't know if I could handle three books at once, but I chose one.
The proposal is basically a formality. They want me to do this. It's kind of a new series that Arcadia publishing is doing. I'll just say it has to do with photography. And I'm thrilled because I've wanted to do something with my photography besides just share it on Instagram. But there'll be more details on that to come in the weeks and months ahead, I also just opened up my own, buy me a coffee page. It's a way for fans to support content creators. I've seen several other podcasters and YouTubers that are using it. And I decided why not just give that option? I'm never one that when I do these podcasts that I promote contributing to me, but it's one of those that I'm not gonna say no, if you want to, I really appreciate it. I've already had a couple of donations, one from Wear your wish. And I've mentioned that company a lot on here, and I'll say it again, go to Wear your wishes.com for some awesome clothing and apparel. And if you want to go to buy me a coffee, just look up in my footsteps podcast. You can't miss me, but this is episode 17 of the podcast.
We are chugging along. I've got so much content coming up over the next several months. I've said it before. I have enough content in the shoot right now that I could do this podcast for another 4 years. And that's without doing any more research. And I'm constantly finding new things that I want to share on the podcast. I just want to keep spreading the word you guys are doing a great job of that. I really appreciate it. I can promote myself enough, but when other people believe in you and promote you, that means more than anything.
So in this week's episode, we're gonna take, get trip back and look at the history of Friendly's restaurants, which has a place in my heart of my childhood. We're gonna take the first of what will likely be three road trips to the island of Nantucket. There's way too much to see there, to cram it into one road trip segment. I'm gonna take you way, way back in the day to four of my sleepover memories, they go from least embarrassing to most embarrassing, I guess, but I don't name names. Of course, we get another segment of this week in history, including the very first Boston marathon, all that, and so much more. Thank you for tuning in. I am Christopher Setterlund. This is episode 17 of the, in my footsteps podcast. And come on, let's go take a walk.
Friendly’s
I don't know about anybody else out there. But I can tell you as a kid, there were few things that I looked forward to more than actually going out to eat or eating something beyond a normal meal. Because you know, as a kid growing up seven days a week, 21 meals a week, if you do three meals a day, you're looking at the vast majority being a normal dinner, sit down meal with the family or something simple, but nothing beats going out to eat. And for me, if you listened to Episode 15 of the podcast when I talked about my Nina’s celebration of life, one of the biggest thrills that I always used to get was going out with her for lunch and toy shopping. And the backdrop for those days was always the friendlies restaurant growing up on Cape Cod, there were several including to inside the Cape Cod mall at one time. Unfortunately, today with the passing of time Friendly's is looking like it's going to end up being one of those things that falls with the changing of time, but I wanted to talk some about friendlies give you some of their history and my memories of going to friendlies. This will be mostly the 80s because that was when I did the shopping with my Nina, but friendlies their story goes all the way back to 1935 and Springfield, Massachusetts, so it's a local place. The actual first Friendly’s opened in 1935, two brothers Presley and Curtis Blake, and it was a modest neighborhood ice cream shop. Double Dip cones were five cents, and the name friendly came from the intention of providing a warm, caring, neighborly service to all who visited. It took a little while but by 1940, a second friendly opened in West Springfield, and this one popular demand with customers they had to add food. So a hamburger was the first food item besides ice cream, even as the number of restaurants physical restaurants diminish as of January 2021, there are 130 friendly still open. For us living on Cape Cod. The closest ones are either Plymouth or North Dartmouth. But even as those diminish, you can still go to most supermarkets and get the friendlies ice creams and novelties and such. But the friendlies take home half-gallon ice cream packages, those started in 1950. And you can remember when you go to friendlies, they would have those at the front by the cash register was like a gift shop, there was all the ice creams that you could buy right from there, and you can get all those same ones. As time went on friendly, slowly added locations. There were 10 by 1951 in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, but it took off in the 60s and early 70s to a point where there was 500 friendlies located in the mid Atlantic and northeast by 1974. That next year, they introduced one of their most famous creations and that was the Jubilee roll. This was something mostly for the holidays, chocolate and vanilla ice cream with nuts and sprinkles and fudge and it came in that green container. I'm sure it's still around. Now that was one of their most famous items. The Blake family held on to friendlies through 1979 and then they sold to the Hershey Foods Corporation. So I mean, that's a pretty thing from going from one store in Springfield and 1935. To then Hershey like the biggest candy slash chocolate company in the world owning you. Things were looking pretty good for friendlies. As I stated before, you can still get Friendly’s ice cream in supermarkets that began in 1987. With those half gallons, they have the little mini sundae cups every now and then I still get those. Those are really good. They're addictive, especially when they're 10 for 10 at Stop and Shop, look out. I remember in my trips to friendlies with my Nina or sometimes my uncle John or other family members. I always got the chicken licken plate which was chicken tenders and fries. I mean, that's the common favorite for any child chicken nuggets and french fries. I could still go for that. And of course there was the Fribble their milkshake. It would come in that big milkshake the thick glass with the friendlies logo on it in the cursive red letters. I didn't know until I started doing the research for this podcast segment that Friendly’s. I always called it that it was not called Friendly’s with the s until 1989. That means it was Friendly, even when I was a kid. But I always just called it Friendly’s and assumed it was always that but No, not until 1989. The kids menu was still there. If you didn't like that kind of stuff. You could always get a patty melt. They had grilled cheeses. It was just a fun atmosphere. I always remember those different Sundays and the Sunday cups they do are similar. You could get the Reese pieces one or the other.
Heath bar one, it was different when you got them there and the cup actually in front of you. But as a kid, it was like the greatest thing ever. And ended up there with more than 60 flavors of Friendly’s ice cream. And at its peak, there were 850 locations that seemed like they were everywhere. Even on Cape Cod. I still drive by them now the ones that have closed or become other restaurants and you can see that shape, you know, that triangular shape of a friendlies restaurant. So what ended up happening that kind of spelled the end? Well, in the 21st century, there was a recession in 2008. That coupled with the company getting sold a couple of times after that recession, and at the beginning of the 2010s. They filed for bankruptcy over the 2010s they closed more than 300 locations. In 2016. They were sold to a Texas-based company Dean Foods for $155 million in 2019. That's when they started closing a lot of the New York and New England Friendly’s locations and that's when I started seeing a lot of them going under, including the one in Hyannis and one in South Yarmouth. It's next to the Cape Bowl bowling alley, in November 2020. Mostly thanks to the COVID pandemic Friendly’s again was sold. This time though it was for only $2 million to the Ameche Partners Group, which it's just unbelievable when you hear that $2 million for the Friendly’s franchise, the whole the name everything. You would think how big this was in the 80s. I can think of it as a kid I never would have thought that Friendly’s would be sold for that little money. Incredibly, the Blake brothers both lived to be very, very old. In May 2019, Curtis Blake passed away at the age of 102. And Presley Blake, he only died a few months ago in February 2021 At the age of 106. It's incredible. Maybe it was something in their ice cream that they made, but both brothers lived to be well over 100. And who knows what the future holds for the Friendly’s chain. Like I said, there's 130 of them left. None of them are within 45 minutes of where I currently live. So it like in this area. It seems like it's going under but I don't know what the rest of the restaurants are like. Obviously you can get the ice cream in supermarkets, but I'm always going to look back so fondly on the memories of going to friendlies with my Nina. I always get the chicken licken and I will get a Fribble and or a Sunday. But you all out there. What was your favorite friendlies food? Did you like the fish in the jig? Or the Big Beef cheeseburger, they were always on toast instead of an actual like burger bun. Did you love the Sundays, the strawberry or the banana? Or the Jim dandy or the regular hot fudge? Did you like to sit in the nice vinyl booths or at the counter. I could go either way, friendlies was just a different place. And it's a shame that kids of today will probably only know it as the ice cream in the supermarket and not the experience of going with your grandparents or family to go to one sit there and look at the menu with all the pictures and just you felt special being there. And it's not just friendlies but that was the one that always stuck out for me. And I wanted to share some of my memories of friendlies and the history of it and I hope it brought back some positive memories for you. New Englanders listening to this that used to go to friendlies as a kid and any of you listening elsewhere, are there friendlies restaurants near you were there in the past? Which one did you use to go to? I'm always curious as to how they're doing outside of New England. But no matter what happens with friendlies will always have the half gallons and the Sundays in the supermarkets right
Road Trip: Nantucket, MA
It is road trip time again, this is the part of the podcast where we take a little trip to one of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing places that New England has to offer. And I'll tell you, I love doing these. I love sharing places, especially ones that I've been to a lot and that I really enjoy, because it's so exciting because I can just imagine somebody listening to this podcast and hearing about a place and then going there because I recommended it. When I started my in my footsteps travel blog in 2010. I went to a couple 100 cities and towns, and I enjoyed all of them now granted on varying levels. So some of the places that I share on the podcast, you can tell when I really really love the place I'm talking about. So get ready, because we're about to travel 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod to Nantucket Island, a throwback to 18th century 19th century whaling and it's incredible. This is going to be part one of three parts. They won't all be in a row, but there's no way I could cover all of Nantucket Island in one segment. So the easiest way to get to Nantucket is via the steamship authority ferry, which usually you leave from Hyannis. The regular ferry is I think two hours and 10 minutes. There's a fast ferry that takes an hour. You can fly over there. There is the Nantucket Memorial airport in the center of the island, but the ferry is the most common. And when you take the ferry over there you dock right at downtown. The first thing you see before you get to downtown, is Brant Point Lighthouse, which is one of the most well-known lighthouses in the country, I would say maybe I'm being biased. So it's located at the tip of Brant point. There are two other replicas of this lighthouse in Mystic Connecticut, and one in the Inner Harbor of Hyannis. So the irony is if you're going to Nantucket you could actually see this same lighthouse at the beginning and the end. This Brant point that's there now is the second station I guess you could say the original Brant Point Lighthouse is 47 feet tall and it still stands, but because of the shifting sands, it was located far from the entrance to the harbor now, so they had to build a new Brant Point Lighthouse. All of the places I'm going to talk about in this segment about Nantucket you can walk to them from downtown. That's why I lumped them all together. When you get to Nantucket and you get off the ferry The first thing you'll notice if you go to Main Street, it's the incredible cobblestones that just give it this awesome vibe. It looks like you're back in the 17 1800s so Main Street was paved. They believe around 1837 With legend having it that the stones came down from Gloucester specifically for the streets. drive slow if you're going over these cobblestones, it's bumpy. It's even worse if you bring a bike like I've done several times, because you've got to ride on the street. They don't like you riding on the sidewalk on Main Street at the beginning of Main Street is the lieutenant Max Wagner fountain. And it actually just returned to the spot just last month March of 2021 because a year earlier in March of 2020. It was struck by a motorist and nearly destroyed so it spent a year getting repaired. In this found it was named for Lieutenant Max Wagner of Nantucket who died of gunshot wounds he received fighting with the 26th Massachusetts regimen in the Philippines during the Spanish American War. I only knew it as a beautiful fountain. But when I wrote my third book, which was in my footsteps, a traveler's guide to Nantucket I had to learn the appropriate name to put it in the book. And that's where I learned about Max Wagner not too far from the fountain at 16 Main Street is the beloved gardeners corner Compass Rose. It's a mural with directions to all the cities from where you're standing, you know, London, Paris, etc. It's a neat little spot to check out and just see where you are in the world. And when you're walking from the ferry, there are several wharves with a lot of boats that are really cool to just check out. The Nantucket boat basin is a really popular Marina located right there in Nantucket harbor. It's the premier luxury destination for sailors and yacht captains. There's 240 boat slips, so a lot of times you can see some really cool boats there being an island naturally, there's beaches that just surround you wherever you are, and from downtown. When you get off the ferry, you can walk to jetties Beach, which is about a mile walk north from where the ferry docks. It's called jetties beach because there's a super long rock jetty that sticks out about three quarters of a mile out into the water. If you want beaches, though, you've got to go it's also about a mile walk from the ferry but it's a little bit east of jetties beach and that steps beach, it's probably in my top five favorite places on the island. It's difficult to find parking, per se to get to it. There's a bike rack at the head of the trail that leads you to it. But 23 Lincoln Avenue is basically where you would go steps beach, I guess it gets the name because of the steps that you had to take to get down to the beach. But at the top of those stairs, it's the view is incredible. You look over and you can see Nantucket sound. And to the right, there's this really cool dune shack. It's a place that I was lucky enough to see the sunset at once, and it's just incredible. So I highly recommend that. Definitely take a bike when you go there, Nantucket, it's not that big, where you can't see all of the island on a bike. But if you do bring your car, Nantucket doesn't have any streetlights on the island. It just adds to that vibe. Like you've gone back in time to a whaling port. And speaking of the whaling port, you've got to check out the Nantucket whaling Museum at 13. Broad Street, that's a day in itself. If you go over there for a day trip, it's going to be difficult to really see all Nantucket has to offer, I would definitely recommend staying overnight. I've done it before. If you're gonna go there's a lot of hotels, resorts bed and breakfasts over there. The top one is the White Elephant at 50 Eastern Street, that's luxury accommodations, but it actually started as rustic cottages. And since the 1920s. It's been one of the most sought after hotels. It's basically steps from Brant Point Lighthouse. Even now as I'm describing just the downtown area of Nantucket, I'm realizing all these places that I want to include and tell you to go see Mitchell's book corner at 54 main street, I did a book signing there for my Nantucket book, and it was awesome. I sat out on the sidewalk with my books. And it was a late summer day people walking by and it was the best except for the lady that came up to me and saw my last name Setterlund And she was Swedish and she started speaking Swedish to me. And I just looked at her like she had three heads. And then she said you're Swedish right? You speak Swedish? No, no, I don't. At 16 Sunset Hill is the Jethro coffin house, which is also known as the oldest house because it's the oldest house still standing on the island. It was built in 1686. Nantucket was originally home to the Wampanoag Tribe of Native Americans. In 1659, a group of settlers arrived including members of the Macy and coffin family. And that's how Nantucket was born. If you go over there and you stay for a while stay at the white elephant or the Nantucket hotel, or the Periwinkle, which I stayed at the bed and breakfast you got to eat go to Lola 41 at 15 South Beach Street, the 41 is from the 41st parallel on the map, and their decor and atmosphere, food and drinks all are based around that 41st parallel. It was opened in 2006. Before that it was the Bluefin restaurant. There's also a Lola 41 in Palm Beach, Florida, and Lola 42 in Boston. But above all else, you know, if you go to Nantucket, it's good to have a plan of things to see but just explore. There's so much to see just in downtown like I can't recommend that enough. Go eat at something natural the sandwich shop at 50 Cliff road just a walk from the Jethro coffin house. Check out the Nantucket Lightship basket Museum at 49. Union Street, check out the First Congregational Church at 62 Center Street, it's beautiful inside, but if you can get a chance to get up into the tower, it's got this incredible view of downtown. That's the big selling point. It's a throwback Island. Everything you could want is there you feel like you're far away from everything, including the 21st century, but just go visit Nantucket. I can't wait to get back over there this summer. It's a place so nice that it became my third book that I ever wrote. I'm very proud of that in my footsteps a travelers guide to Nantucket through Schiffer Publishing, I'll put a link in the description of the podcast in case you want to check it out. It's got all these places listed and they go kind of in an order that you would get off the ferry and go north and you would do a circle around the island. So I tried to take the guesswork out. All these places I mentioned are all in there. But as we go forward, like I said there'll be two more parts to Nantucket Island. The second part will be the outer villages of ‘Sconset and Madaket. And then probably the third one will just be everything that I missed because I know I will I know I've missed stuff already now. Tune in again next time for another road trip we will find another amazing place in the six New England states that you've got to go and check out and that will give you all you need to know to go there.
Sponsor: Wear Your Wish
I Just want to take a moment before I go on to remind everyone to go and check out Wear your wishes.com that is the company run by. Katie marks. My sister, I interviewed her for episode 11. She gave an in-depth very inspirational and emotional interview on her journey as single mother to business owner. And now the launch occurred February 28th and Wear your wish is open for business, clothing and apparel. Go there now and enter your email on the site Wear your wishes.com to be in the entry for a free hoodie. They've got so much more to come, but they've started launching. They're open for business to where your wish brand is built around wishes and desires and dreams, the where your wish, the 11-11, making a wish when you see those numbers on the clock or anywhere, I will tell you. For a fact that in the time, since I have interviewed her, I've had numerous 11, 11 occasions, not just on my clock, but going to the store and getting a receipt for my total. And it's 11, 11, $11, and 11 cents. There's so much stuff go to the site.
Don't just take my word for it. Go back and listen to episode 11, listen to the interview. Go watch the interview on YouTube. That's the more uncut one I have to try to condense these for the podcast. Wear your wishes.com is where you go get started. There's so much more to come, but I wanted to give a little reminder for everyone to just go check it out. It's going to be big 2021 is going to be big Wear your wish at Wear Your Wishes.com.
Back In the Day: Sleepover Stories
For any of you that have listened to the podcast, you know that I have said all along, I was a child of the 80s, and a teenager of the 1990s. And it's funny for me to be my age now in my 40s, looking back at things from my childhood and saying, Wow, I can't believe we were allowed to do those things. It's the same with my parents saying things were different in my day, and I never thought I'd be at that point. And I look back, and there's definitely things I miss about being a kid. There's some things I don't, obviously you can kind of do whatever you want, not whatever you want as an adult, but you got a lot more freedom. But there are things that I miss about being a kid, get on your bike and ride to the store or walk to the corner store, having far less responsibilities, when it comes to holidays, getting all kinds of stuff for your birthday and having parties. But the thing I missed the most are the sleepovers that I used to have going to friends, houses, friends coming to my houses. And that's what I want to talk about going back in the day, I want to share four of my favorite sleepover stories for some laughs and maybe to bring up some memories of for you. And as we go, there might be a second segment of sleepover stories. But these were the four that came to me right away. And I'm going to not name names with some because some are pretty embarrassing. And I'll embarrass myself but not others, if possible. The first one has to do with one of my I think it might have been my first sleepover at someone else's house. I was probably nine years old. And this friend lived right around the corner from us. And he was part of a big family just like me. So all of us siblings kind of paired off. We were all kind of similar in ages. But I remember everything was normal. We were sleeping in his wallet sleeping in his room, we were going to sleep and he decided it would be fun to start freaking me out about Freddy Krueger because A Nightmare on Elm Street, part two had just come out. And I remember he scared the hell out of me nine years old. So you know, I think it was episode two or three. I did a back in the day segment about when I thought movies were real. And this was in that time. So I thought Freddy Krueger could have been real coming to get me when I slept. But he ended up scaring me so much that I freaked out and his mom had to call my mom to come walk. It probably was 10 10:30 at night, she had to walk in the dark around the corner from our house to come and meet me and have me go home with her. So my very first sleepover was me getting scared, crying, having my mom have to get called to come and get me. So that's how it started. At least in other someone else's house. The second story also revolves around a movie. This one I can name names. This was one of my oldest friends. His name was Matt and he lived diagonally across the street from me in the neighborhood. I grew up in Cherry Lane, and he slept over and I'll never forget my favorite monster movie of all time is the original King Kong Vs Godzilla from 1962. So Matt slept over and we were so excited to because King Kong Vs Godzilla was going to be on. I think it was WLVI channel 56. On the TV back in the 80s. There was however one catch. And that was the fact that the movie was going to be on at 3am. So thinking we were 10 years old, we decided to pull an all-nighter and stay up and actually watch it. And we did our best to stay awake. 11 Midnight 1am. That's really late. But then the time came 3am. And there's the beginning of the movie, King Kong Vs Godzilla, and we just looked at each other like we made it. And within two minutes we fell asleep. So we stayed up all the way to 3am to see that movie, and watched like two or three minutes of it and then fell asleep. That was a sad one. I think of all my friends growing up, I think Matt was the one who we slept over each other's houses the most mostly because of proximity. It literally could just go outside and shout you want to sleep over or eat over which meant to come have dinner. Once I got old enough Nothing beats having birthday party sleepovers when I would have several people sleepover and it was just a big it was great to cap off your birthday. You got all the presents, had your favorite dinner had your favorite usually dessert cake, whatever. Then you had your friends over it was like you ran the house. And when you grow up with a family of five kids, that day becomes the best day like you're the king of the house, because every other day, you've got to share it with so many others. This may have been my first birthday sleepover, but you know, my family will let me know if I'm wrong. I think I was eight years old. And we lived in this house where the basement was partially finished. And because I was the oldest I got to have that room as mine, which was great because you shut the door and it was so dark I would sleep forever because I couldn't see anything. I can't remember everyone that was there that night. I might have had three or four people but what it comes down to is we were all hanging out watching TV just enjoying being kids. And back then we had a cat smokey, because she was like a charcoal gray cat. And she was pregnant at the time. And she loved all of us kids. When it came time for her to give birth, I guess she felt comfortable being around all of us eight-year-old nine-year-old boys, because in the middle of my birthday sleepover, she came downstairs and laid in the middle of us and started having kittens. Now in reality, she had one kitten, and we named him Solo. But still, how about that for a birthday sleepover? Imagine being one of the other kids, you go to sleep over your friend's house for his birthday, and the kids cat comes down and has kittens in front of you, holy Lord, I couldn't make that up and solo the cat, the only one that was born. He's got his own story, I'll share at some point in a future podcast that you won't believe either. But now we come to the fourth sleepover story. So when I see I can't make this stuff up my family, especially my siblings, they make the joke that my life sometimes seems like an episode of the show Seinfeld, where the most random things happen, but it's reality. And this story here I was, I think 12 or 13. So obviously this life is a Seinfeld episode started early. I'm not going to name names here, because this is the king of all sleepover stories. So me and another friend of mine, we were going to stay in a third friend's house. So far, so good. And we slept, I believe I slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. My friend slept on the couch. And the kid whose house it was he slept in his bedroom. So imagine that you invite people to sleep over and you don't even sleep down where they are. That immediately should have been a red flag. I think we slept with the TV on in the living room. So at some point during the night, I was sleeping facing the TV. So the kid whose house this was the family had two dogs. One really big dog that I don't know if it was an Akita, something like that. But then he also had a poodle, a little poodle. And I don't know what time of the night it was. But I just happened to open my eyes facing the TV. And the poodle dog walked into view. And within two feet of my head, he decided to squat and just start taking a poop on the living room rug right next to me where I was laying. And it's like, what do you do? It's late, late at night. You don't scream at the dog. So I basically just rolled over and just pretended that it was a dream. But oh no, it was real because in the morning, the kids mother was cleaning up the dog poop. And he asked us if we saw anything and I played dumb. So no, no, I was asleep. Needless to say, I never slept over that kid's house again, to have that as your debut sleep over a dog pooping on the floor next to your head while you're sleeping. You got to be kidding me. That's my king of sleepover stories. But if I come up with any more, I'll definitely do another segment. But what were your favorite sleepover memories? What was your best one? Or what was your worst slash best one? Shoot me an email Christopher setterlund@gmail.com Let me know your sleep over nightmares, sleepover dreams, all that stuff. I'll be back with more back in the day stuff as we go on in the podcast.
This Week In History
It's time for the latest installment of this week in history where I comb through all the archives that I have access to, to come up with a few interesting stories from over the years, decades, centuries, and open up a new time capsule. I love history, I became a big history lover in high school, and I try my best to make history as interesting and palatable for even those of you that don't like history. So let's jump right into what is another big week in history. This week in history. 246 years ago, April 18 1775, Paul Revere makes his world-famous ride. In 1774 And in the spring of 1775, Paul Revere was employed by the Boston committee of correspondence and the Massachusetts committee of safety as an express writer to carry news messages and copies of important documents to as far away as New York and Philadelphia. He was like a postal worker before the post office was a big thing. So on the evening of April 18 1775, Revere was summoned by Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston. He was given the task of writing to Lexington, Massachusetts with the news that regular troops are about to march into the countryside west of Boston. Story has it that these troops plan to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock who are staying at a house in Lexington, and probably continue on to Concord to capture or destroy military stores gunpowder ammunition in several cannon, revere contacted an unidentified friend and instructed him to show to lanterns and the tower of what is now called the Old North Church. It was then called the Christ Church. As a signal in case Revere was unable to leave town to lanterns meant that the British troops planned to row by sea across the Charles River to Cambridge rather than march out on land at Boston neck. Paul Revere was successful in getting to Lexington and basically saving Adams in Hancock from capture, but then he himself was captured on his way to Concord but he was released later on having succeeded in giving the Massachusetts and colonial militia that heads up the Battles of Lexington and Concord soon followed, which sparked the American Revolution. And it all started 246 years ago this week in history. Ironically, Paul Revere did not gain fame for his ride until a poem was written about it by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1860. This week in history 124 years ago, April 19 1897, the first ever Boston Marathon was competed. The idea for a marathon in and around Boston was the idea of John Graham, who was the inaugural United States Olympic team manager. The original Olympics as we know them today happened in 1896 in Marathon grease, thus the name marathon and it was such an amazing experience this race that naturally want they wanted to have one here in the United States and in Boston, various routes were considered with the assistance of Boston businessman Herbert Holton. Originally the Boston Marathon was 24.5 Miles not the 26.2 as seen today. The original route began at Metcalf mill in Ashland, Massachusetts, and ended at the Irvington oval in Boston. The race was run, as I said, April 19 1897. It was won by John McDermott of New York. And there were only 15 people that ran it, just for reference in 2019 There were 30,234 official runners of the Boston Marathon. So imagine there's only 15 people and it wasn't even a full marathon. McDermott finished the race in two hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds. The distance of the marathon as far as the 1896 Olympics goes was 24.8 miles, and it was based on the distance run according to a famous Greek legend, in which the Greek foot soldier Pheidippides was sent from the plains of Marathon to Athens, Greece with news of the astounding victory over the superior Persian army. The Boston marathon course was lengthened to 26 miles in 1924. And the starting line was moved west from Ashland to Hopkinton. Basically how we know it today. Since its inception in 1897, more than 607,000 runners have finished the Boston Marathon and it has gone on to become probably the most well known road race, Marathon foot race that there is in the world. People come from everywhere to run in this race. My Uncle Steve has run it at least 10 times. And he always wants me to run it. But I told him I'm retired as a marathoner. I might walk it but running it's out of the question isn't. The First Boston Marathon took place 124 years ago this week in history this week in history 126 years ago, April 24 1895. The first solo sale around the world begins in Boston. The man who set sail was Captain Joshua Slocum, a native of Nova Scotia, Canada on April 24 1895, the 51 year old sailor departed from Boston aboard his tiny sloop called the spray, a 36 foot nine inch gaff-rigged sloop oyster boat. He then proceeded to sail around the world single-handedly, Slocum would end up writing a book called Sailing Alone around the world. Slocum intended to sail eastward around the world using the Suez Canal. But when he got to Gibraltar, he realized that sailing through the southern Mediterranean will be too dangerous because of the piracy that went on there especially him as a lone sailor on a small boat. So we decided to sail westward in the southern hemisphere down around the bottom of South America past Australia through the Indian Ocean around Africa, the Cape of Good Hope and then back to North America. Slocum traveled more than 46,000 Miles he returned not to where he started from though he returned to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27 1898. And the sad bit of irony is that hardly anyone noticed his great achievement because the Spanish American War had begun two months earlier and dominated the headlines. Only after the war was over. Did newspapers start to pick up what Slocum had done? But when he actually did it, no one really cared because there was a war going on. You imagine sailing 46,000 miles, this huge achievement of mankind and you get back and everyone's like, Yeah, well, there's a war going on. Sorry. And then another sad bit of irony, Slocum in 1909, set sail for the West Indies on one of his usual winter voyages, and was never heard from again. In July 1910. His wife informed the newspapers that she believed he was lost at sea, and in 1924, he was finally declared legally dead this week in history. 126 years ago, Joshua Slocum set sail from Boston for the first solo trip around the world and in some pop culture this week in history. 34 years ago, April 19 1987. On The Tracey Ullman Show, the very first ever Simpsons sketch appeared, cartoonist Matt Groening created the Simpsons. But the irony is that the Simpsons weren't originally intended to be the sketch brought to life it was supposed to be life in hell, which was another of Groening’s comics. The first sketch the Simpsons appeared in on The Tracey Ullman Show was a two minute long, good night short. And if you watch it, I mean, the humor is not there like it would be later on. In my opinion, the first 10, 12, 13 seasons of The Simpsons are some of the best television ever, I might be biased, because now it's still on the air and it's not close to the same. The Tracey Ullman Show was on from 1987 to 1990. And the Simpsons would get its own series, starting with a Christmas special in December 1989. I was in fifth grade, and The Simpsons debuted. And I find it ironic that now I'm in my 40s, and the show is still on TV. But like I said those first 10, 13, 14 seasons, you could just throw a dart at any of those episodes, and you're gonna find something just incredible way beyond its time. And it all started 34 years ago this week in history on The Tracey Ullman Show, and now it's time for another time capsule. And I'm going to do something special here because this time capsule doesn't actually fall in this week. But because I'm not doing a podcast next week. That's my week off. I want to do April 30 1924 Because that was the day that my Nana Doris Doane Setterlund was born and I want to share what was going on the day that she was born. So 97 years ago, the number one song was Somebody Stole My Gal by Ted Weems and his Orchestra. It spent five weeks at number one on the Billboard charts, which I had to look up I didn't realize Billboard magazine, actually debuted in November 1894. Not quite the same as billboard became but it was still a thing back then. The number one movie was Sherlock Jr. Starring Buster Keaton. It was a silent film, it made $448,000 back then about 6.9 million in today's money. Basically, it's a film projectionist longs to be a detective and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocket watch. It has a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes so it must be worth checking out. And there was no television back then. So I had to find the number one radio show. So the number one radio show was Eveready Hour, debut only a few months before in December 1923. It's considered the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It was radios first sponsored network program paid for by the National Carbon company, which at the time owned Eveready battery. And if you ever wanted to listen to the ever ready, our, I guess there's only one known recording of one episode from May 15 1928. And that's it. So otherwise, it's lost to history, and there's photos, but that's about it. But if you wanted to listen to it, and you wanted to buy a radio, the cost of a radio April 30 1924 was anywhere from 35 to $350 in money then, which would be anywhere between 540 and $5,400. In today's money to buy a radio, and on that day, 97 years ago, my Nana was born and made this world a much better place. And I'm so glad that I got to have her in my life until I was 32. So I wanted to share that time capsule and that'll cap another week of this week in history. I hope that it makes history palatable, interesting, even a little bit entertaining even to those who don't like history, and I'll be back again the next podcast episode with more this week in history.
Closing
And that's gonna do it for episode 17 of the, in my footsteps podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much to all of you that have taken a moment to check out any of these episodes to any of you that are loyal listeners, anyone who has shared it via social media. I really appreciate it. That's the way to get the audience to grow is for listeners to share it and say that it's good. I can promote it all I want, but when others, when you folks do it, that means so much to me.
Next week, there won't be a podcast. That's my week off. As you know, I do three weeks on one week off episode 18, will be in two weeks and that's gonna be a fun one. We're gonna visit the Storyland amusement park, which stood where the Cape Cod Mall now stands. It's a mind-blowing thing to know what used to be there. We're gonna go way, way back in the day to my days of playing little league baseball and farm league baseball, we're gonna take a road trip to a classic Vermont town Middlebury, and there'll be another loaded this week in history, including the Hindenburg disaster. But before then you can tune in to my live streams on Instagram, Fridays at 8:00 PM, where I kind of go over the podcast in more detail and just have fun chatting with anyone who wants to come into the chat and listen to me yak on for 30, 40 minutes. It's fun it is it's called without a map.
Find me on Twitter. Chris Setterlund is my handle Instagram, like I said, I've got two channels. Christopher Setterlund is the official one that I do the live streams at. I've also got an in my footsteps podcast one on Facebook. I have a fan page in my footsteps podcast. Check out my official website, Christopher Setterlund.com designed and operated by my oldest friend, Barry Menard, a great graphic designer from Rhode Island. I hope any of you that have listened on Lemonadio, just shoot me a message somehow and let me know that you're hearing it. I'm just curious what the audience is like over there. As I said, thank you again to Stephanie Viva for giving me the platform on there to share this with all of you. Hopefully you're enjoying it. I've got so much more content to come tons of it, years worth. So there's plenty of time to build the audience.
Visit, wear your wishes.com. My sister, Kate’s clothing and apparel store. It's really taking off. If you go there, she's got a lot of high quality merchandise. She's adding things everyday. She's got an awesome luck collection dedicated to our Grampa and things like that. She's always adding things and she's worked so hard and she's selling out of a lot of stuff. So if you go there and see something you like, that's not there. Either send her a message and let her know or just wait, cause it'll be restocked.
I also wanted to announce, so my next book, book number six, iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod is being released. As I said, May 24th through the history press at Arcadia publishing. Since I can't really do a regular book launch like I've been doing for every other book where we have a get-together and kind of a celebration, I'm going to do a special live stream on Monday, May 24th on Instagram. I'll let you know more about that. I'm gonna try to have it with, for photos and some stories of doing the book and such to make it as close to normal as I can. But I wanted to give a heads up so that if you want to come and check that out on Instagram, it's gonna be fun. I'll make it fun.
The book is dedicated to my six nieces and nephews, Kaleigh, Emma, Liam, Landon, Lucas, and Sylvie. I wanted to give them all shoutouts. I said in the book and I'll say it here. They make getting older, not as bad. And that's the best compliment I can say. It's great to see them all doing so well and making me and especially their parents all so proud. They're worthy of having the book dedicated to them and just remember to take care of yourselves out there. I feel like everyone's burned out. I know I've been burned out, but even if you're burned out, just take time for yourself, it's getting nicer out. Be out in the sun. I've been trying to do that a lot more vitamin D plus it helps you drop some weight, which is what I've needed to do since COVID. Self care, taking care of yourself, putting yourself first that's most important.
You know, hopefully as summer goes, things will get closer to back to normal. And then we can all start to enjoy life like we used to before. And as I always say, remember, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because as we've seen in the last year, you never know when things are gonna change. So just enjoy it while you can. And I'll talk to you all again in two weeks, but I'll see you sooner than later on the live streams. And thank you so much for allowing me to share my passion with you with this podcast. I really appreciate it.