Episode 25 has a few new and exciting changes!
The debut of the Top 5 includes Cape Cod Icons, the places you have to see and experience if you have never been to the Cape, or even if you have been a thousand times.
Restaurant Storytime Part II goes back to my first year in the industry. A humble dishwasher embroiled in a food fight that ended in a TKO on a fellow coworker.
We go way Back In the Day to the fuel of my teenage years, Jolt Cola. A staple of the youth of the late 80's through 90's Jolt prided itself on having all the sugar and twice the caffeine of traditional sodas. It was for all intents and purposes the first energy drink.
There is a fabulous Road Trip to Groton, Connecticut in the eastern part of the state. It includes a classic example of dedication to the craft photography from a trip I took there in the past.
All of that and a streamlined This Week In History with a new birthday-themed Time Capsule!
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(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 24 here.
Episode 25 has a few new and exciting changes!
The debut of the Top 5 includes Cape Cod Icons, the places you have to see and experience if you have never been to the Cape, or even if you have been a thousand times.
Restaurant Storytime Part II goes back to my first year in the industry. A humble dishwasher embroiled in a food fight that ended in a TKO on a fellow coworker.
We go way Back In the Day to the fuel of my teenage years, Jolt Cola. A staple of the youth of the late 80's through 90's Jolt prided itself on having all the sugar and twice the caffeine of traditional sodas. It was for all intents and purposes the first energy drink.
There is a fabulous Road Trip to Groton, Connecticut in the eastern part of the state. It includes a classic example of dedication to the craft photography from a trip I took there in the past.
All of that and a streamlined This Week In History with a new birthday-themed Time Capsule!
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(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 24 here.
Intro
Hello, world. Welcome to Episode 25 of the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This week, we're going to have another loaded show, it's going to be restaurant storytime to including someone getting knocked out with a piece of food, we're going to take a road trip to Groton, Connecticut, got a special new segment coming up, that I'll get into in a minute. We're gonna go way, way back in the day as I share what fueled my teenage years, jolt cola. And of course, we got this week in history with another special time capsule connected to earth day. All that's coming up on episode 25. How is everybody doing out there this week, summer is upon us. We've had a few of those days in the last couple of weeks that get up there and heat and give you that taste. But especially on Cape Cod, New England this time of year, the humidity hasn't kicked in yet. So you get the dry heat that they get out in the southwest. But as we get into summer and Cape Cod starts to really get busy with tourism, I hope everybody has a fun summer. And it's more like normal. And of course, remember to take the podcast with you I keep these relatively bite-sized 45-50 minutes so that they're easy to digest. I have a lot of favorite podcasts that I listened to that are two, two and a half hours long. And sometimes that can be a slog. So that's the one thing I wanted was to make sure that if you listen to an episode, it's in and out, you get all the info. And it's not like wow, that took forever to get to the point, make sure to find me on Instagram. That's where I'm doing my weekly live streams Fridays at 8pm. I know it's harder and harder to get more people to tune in in the summer at 8pm. On a Friday, it's kind of like a shot in the dark. But I've been doing it at that time for long enough now that I don't want to just change it up. Unless you people out there that tune in think I should try a different time. I'm always looking for suggestions and feedback. And speaking of suggestions and feedback, you can only shoot me a message either through social media or at Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. If you have anything you want to hear on the podcast, Cape Cod, New England centric or retro segments. But as I said, there's a special new segment starting this week. And basically, this week in history is going to be shortened. Part of it is going to be replaced with top fives. I've gotten some feedback, I did a poll on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to see what people would like. And top five lists were the overwhelming winner. So this week, we're going to start with our first top-five list of Cape Cod icons. These are the places you have to see if you've never been here. And they won't be in any particular order. Because I think I'm going to create enough debate just with my five, let alone a specific order. Also keep an eye out coming up the first week of July, when Wear your wishes.com will be relaunched. I recently did an awesome photo shoot for that with my sister Kate, we went to some places and did a lot of product shooting. And the reason that you won't hear her being advertised in this episode, because the site is actually down for the remainder of June. And not because of anything bad. It's because everything sold out. So she didn't want people just going to the site and it's like an empty shelf, where your wish will be back starting next month. And obviously I will let you folks know and I hope you go and check it out because the products she's got coming out are amazing. The intention bracelets, you'll love it. You'll love it. And speaking of you'll love it. Let's get this podcast going with restaurant storytime. Part two, Part One had great feedback. So we're back with part two. And this one goes way back to my beginnings in the restaurant industry. So here we are with restaurant storytime part two on the in my footsteps podcast. Let's go take a walk.
Restaurant Storytime Pt. 2
The first edition of restaurant storytime was received so well that it's time to dive into restaurant storytime part two. The first installment of restaurant storytime was from Episode 19. And I went over a story of a snowball fight I had with another guy, except he was an unwilling participant and it was indoors. This one's going to be another funny one. We're going way back to the very first year that I worked in the restaurant industry. This was a very famous story as far as the people I worked with. It's one of our favorites. So I'm hoping you like this and you laugh quite a bit. For the setup here. I was working in the summer, and it was nighttime. So I was a dishwasher, then I would do prep. And I would do dishwashing. There were two cooks, working the line in the kitchen with me as the dishwasher. We had one of the cooks had gone next door. So there was a third guy, but it was slow enough that he had gone across the parking lot to the barn that doubled as our prep room slash walk-in slash freezer, to He's over there doing prep. There's the setup. One of the cooks in the kitchen told me I had to go next door and ask the prep guy over there for something to go next door and get whatever. I'm 15 years old. I'm only a few months into my tenure working in a restaurant. So it's just Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I go. As I'm walking across the parking lot, I hear the sound of something hitting off the barn. And I didn't know what it was. I looked around and I could see one of the cooks standing there. But I didn't know what it was that hit the barn. I went in, spoke to the prep guy inside got what I needed was coming back. And here's one of the cooks standing out there again, and here comes a cherry tomato whizzing by me and it hits off the barn again. So they're throwing tomatoes at me. As they walk across the parking lot. I went back inside delivered whatever it was I had brought over, went back to doing my dishes. Not too long after one of the cooks again asked me Oh, can you go next door and get something. And I was partially naive and partially worried about saying no, cause I knew they were going to throw stuff at me again. So I walked across the parking lot. And sure enough, here they come both of them whipping tomatoes. And I got pegged with one. But the other ones were missing because it was starting to get dark. It was dusk, so they didn't have as good of an aim. Although I guess I was had my white apron on. So it made me an easier target. I went inside the prep room and I spoke to the prep guys that they're throwing tomatoes at me. And so what he did this time was he handed me a sheet pan a big it's probably 18 inches by 36 inches, big sheet pan for those that aren't familiar with it. And that was my shield. So I had this thing in front of me and I'm carrying whatever it was back and they're throwing the tomatoes, and I'm dodging them blocking them. It was a success that time I was saved from getting hit with these. It's funny how we wasted food like that. I don't know how expensive a pint of cherry tomatoes was then or is now but the fact that we just were throwing them or they were throwing them at the barn and such. So rinse and repeat. Here we are. I'm doing the dishes again. The third time they want me to go next door and get something by this point. I'm just like, oh, man, they're trying to just kill me with these tomatoes. So I walk across, it's dusk. They're throwing them again, I forgot to bring my sheet pan with me as a shield. I went inside to talk to the prep guy said, look, what do I do. So he handed me another sheet pan, and I'm heading back towards the swinging screen door to go out in the parking lot. I've got the sheet pan in my hand. And he tells me he says put your hand back. So I give my right hand and he put something in my hand and he said here you go. Here's your weapon to throw if they start throwing stuff, I took three or four steps out of the door and up on the deck by the kitchen back door. One of the cooks pops up and he's firing tomatoes at me and I'm blocking them with the sheet pan. Little did I know that off to my right. The other Cook was now outside boy, it couldn't have been too busy in that kitchen. If they're both outside waiting for me. Let me set this up. There was a picnic table and a dumpster. So a lot of the times you'd either throw the trash in through the side of the dumpster, you had a sliding door. Or if it was very full, you would stand up on the picnic table and throw the trash and this was more for dishwashers or prep people or servers that weren't strong enough to swing a trash bag up over the dumpster was like seven feet high. So that's what it was for this picnic table. So this second cook is bobbing up from the picnic table is this picket fence that's whatever, seven feet tall. So he's popping up and throwing it. It's like a protective shield for him. He runs out of ammo. So he jumps down off the picnic table and he's going to run up the steps to the deck back in the kitchen to retreat from where I'm standing. I'm probably 40 feet from the deck. And the vantage point I had I probably had a two-foot wide window from 40 feet away. And I said you know I'm gonna get him back. So this guy is running up the stairs. I've got my right hand cocked back with whatever it was that the prep guy handed to me as my retaliation weapon. And I fired it and you could hear the pop as it struck the cook in the side of the head and he dropped like a sack of potatoes on the deck. It turns out what the prep guy had handed me was a medium size red bliss potato. In my hand, it was pretty much the same size as a cherry tomato, maybe a little bigger, I hadn't noticed. So thinking I'm thinking I'm throwing something that's hard enough. But it turns out I was basically throwing a big rock. And the worst part is, here I am, I'm a 15-year-old dishwasher. The cook that I just nailed with this potato was a good six foot two 230 pounds, it was a one-in-a-million shot. If I tried that same shot hitting a moving target 40 feet away with about a two foot clearance, one on one and a million, I could never do it again. But I nailed this guy and dropped him and he was laid out on the deck I ran over. Because all I'm thinking of is he's going to be pissed off, and he's going to just beat the hell out of me. So I ran over to the deck and I'm just horrified. And I'm just apologizing. And he's sitting up now on the deck and the other Cook is kind of just standing next to him. And I just said I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And the cook was just like no, it's my fault. They both realize that them throwing the cherry tomatoes at me it kind of forced my hand I guess. So nothing came of it. I did not get the crap kicked out of me for knocking a cookout with a bliss potato. But I can still I can see it so clearly in my head. And I think it was about 28 years ago that this happened. And I can close my eyes right now as I'm recording this and I can picture it in my head, the sound of the potato hitting him, the sound of him hitting the deck and my fear and horror of what the repercussions might be. And even the rest of the night. I wasn't sure if something was going to be coming. I wasn't sure if I was gonna get something thrown at me later on, but nothing ended up happening. And I do find it ironic that the first two editions of restaurant storytime consist of me throwing something at someone else. I hope you enjoyed that one. I hope you could close your eyes and picture the whole scene. But I'll definitely have another restaurant storytime coming up at some point. Check out the original one in Episode 19. And this one, here's a good companion to it. What a crazy, crazy time it was working in the restaurants in the 90s and into the 2000s was a wild time.
Back In the Day: Jolt Cola
If you were to go back in time, especially to the early to mid-1990s and find me after school, it'd be real easy to set up the scene. As far as what I'd be doing eating drinking. There'd be some sort of grunge music playing on my stereo, nirvana. Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, I'd be there with my torn jeans. If I had friends over. likely we'd be eating a bag of Doritos. If we went to the corner store we get Doritos there. And as far as a drink if I didn't have regular Mountain Dew, and I had the King, the OG the original energy drink that was part of my teenage years and that was jolt cola. And as big a part of my life as jolt cola was when I was a teenager. It is now making a comeback which I am pleasantly surprised to find out although I don't know if I'll drink it. But for those that are younger or older that don't really know it or remember it. Here's a little bit of what jolt cola was and the effect that it had on me growing up. Jolt cola was founded in 1985 in Rochester, New York by father and son duo Joseph and CJ Rapp. This was on the heels of the epic failure of New Coke, which that's a whole other story. The whole catchphrase with jolt was all of the sugar and double the caffeine. So when I was introduced to it in the early 90s I mean that just spoke to me right there as a teenager to get that sugar high caffeine high just pumping through you. The rapps wanted to go back to the old-school soda. They saw soda as a treat and not something healthy so they obviously put it together to be about as unhealthy as you could get. jolt when released had 10 teaspoons of real sugar per can along with 5.9 milligrams of caffeine per ounce. The Food and Drug Administration had kept sodas at six milligrams per ounce for caffeine so they came in just under the wire jolt had twice the caffeine of Coke or Pepsi. So it was no marketing slogan. And in the early days, one consumer described jolt as liquid speed and I would have to concur that that's pretty much what it was. jolt had its initial release in the Rochester area where the RAPs had their soda factory in April 1986. And it slowly made its way around. It was in 26 Wegmans supermarkets. And then when word got out that this was kind of like a forbidden or a naughty drink with all the extra caffeine and sugar, then it took off. By the summer, Joseph and CJ rapp had signed distribution agreements with 20 different states. When it got to Cape Cod, and down in my area growing up, it was hard to not be fascinated and drawn in by the can that was mostly red with white pinstripes and the jolt word with the lightning bolt going through the O. And if that didn't get you, it was being told that it was twice the caffeine of any other soda. You had to experiment with that kids don't think about what extra sugar and caffeine will do to their bodies. I didn't think of it. In fact, it made it better. I grew up in the days when you still were basically booted out the front door by your parents and told to stay out and play until the streetlights came on or until it was dinnertime. So if you're going to be outside, especially in summer, when it's nice out and it's laid out a lot, you're going to need some kind of fuel to keep it going if you're going for long walks or bike rides or playing football or baseball or basketball. And jolt became the fuel for that. Within a year of its released jolt was available in 44 states. And it was always very much a small niche drink. It settled in at about point 1% market share of soda. So obviously it didn't come close to Coke or Pepsi or Mountain Dew or Dr Pepper or anything like that. The wraps they definitely saw where their market was. And it was not marketed towards kids, but more towards college students seen as a stimulant. I don't think they ever called it an energy drink, but it helped with college students studying for finals and such. And it was also marketed with the help of a special mixed drink that was called a jumper cable, which was jolt and rum which I never have tried. But if anyone out there has ever had a jumper cable, let me know how that was. I'm assuming it will be something like the Four Loko drinks that kind of they've been banned in most places that are caffeine and alcohol. Jolt definitely gave you this euphoric sugar high for a time. And in the mid-1990s. I had purchased a camcorder I had wanted to be a film director. So my friends and I would film the skits. And there are some of these skits in the background. You can see a can or a bottle of Jolt cola because that was the fuel that got our creativity and insanity going. I don't know how my mother dealt with me having friends sleep over and my bedroom was upstairs and we will be all hopped up on jolt. And we will be filming skits in my bedroom and these skits, some of them will involve us jumping around on the bed and diving on the floor at midnight at 1am. I can't believe my mother didn't kill me for that. And to make it worse, I didn't become a film director. So it's like I did all of this annoying stuff and drank all the jolt for nothing. But with the advent of Red Bull and other energy drinks, legit ones that were marketed as energy drinks jolt kind of found itself lost in the shuffle. And their initial downfall came when they tried to stand out from the crowd again. And in the mid-2000s. They made this I think it was like a 24-ounce can that had a screw on top that looked like a battery. The problem with this though, was that it was so much more expensive to get this and not that Red Bull has ever been cheap. But you can get energy drinks for cheaper that are seen as legit energy drinks and not soda with a lot of sugar and caffeine. So jolt fell off in 2017. After being shelved for many years, jolt returned under new management, and new ownership. This was when I was researching this for the podcasts that I saw that it's actually available at Dollar General Stores. And we have a few obviously on Cape Cod, so I might go looking to see if I can find it. It would be more of a novelty thing to just try once again. I'm in my 40s now so I'm not going to start drinking soda like Jolt like I did in my teenage years. Those days were wild though. Getting on our bikes and riding to the corner store was called townhouse news or town Quick Mart those were the places and buying a bottle of Jolt a bag of Doritos and some sort of candy bar and then wondering why we were insane for hours and hours and then just wanted to go to sleep. I I think many of the energy drinks that are out now besides Red Bull ones like bang and see for that I used to get at the actual health food stores. I betcha those are more intense than jolt was. So I think I might leave it in the past where my memories of jolt and the crazy hyperness that it gave to me and my friends and the creativity I guess that it spawned for videos with my camera or radio shows that inspired the podcast. I might leave it in the past because I don't want to drink jolt now and just be disappointed and have part of my childhood get ruined. Did any of you out there drink jolt? I mean back in the 90s I don't mean as much now because now it's not unique the jolt that's around that just came back. But then any of you drink it and then get hyper. What was the craziest things that jolt made you do? Those were definitely some crazy but good old days.
Sponsor: Nobnocket Boutique Inn
Martha's Vineyard is an island just over 87 square miles in size just off the coast of Cape Cod. It's perfect for a day trip, but it's better if you go and stay the night and enjoy it even more. And what better place to stay and experience the vineyard and stay the night than a slice of island luxury with a Twist the Nobnocket boutique inn, located at 60 Mount Aldworth road in the town of Vineyard Haven Nobnocket is an old school Bed and Breakfast in a building built in 1908 but it has all of the luxuries you could possibly ask for for the 21st century. Centrally located only a half mile from the steamship authority terminal in Vineyard Haven. It has won countless awards for its service including the best of Boston, the best of Cape Cod and the Islands and the Conde Nast Johansens award several times what makes it so special. The amenities just to name a few include daily gourmet breakfast in-room massages, complimentary bikes to ride around the island, Sun patios, beach towels locally roasted organic coffee, and my favorite part is the secluded location so you're away from everyone but close to everyone. It's the best of both worlds. Annabelle and Simon are from the vineyard by way of England and then Cape Cod where they established the platinum pebble in which was also very popular and award-winning. They moved from the Cape to the vineyard in 2015 and immediately made the Nobnocket Inn the place to be checkout Nobnocket.com to see room availability and then go over there check in say hi to Annabelle and Simon visit the vineyard and be centrally located the Nobnocket Inn a boutique Bed and Breakfast that's a slice of island luxury with a twist and her own little slice of paradise on the incredible island of Martha's Vineyard. Go and visit Nobnocket Inn.
Road Trip: Groton, CT
This week, we're taking a journey to the Constitution state, the eastern part of the Constitution state Connecticut, and the city of Groton. It's located on the Thames River, directly across the river from the town of New London. As of 2018, its population was 38,692. So it's like a midsize. It's bigger than a town. But it's not a huge city like 50,000 Plus, for those who have never been to Groton it just over 100 miles southwest of Boston, and about 130 miles east of New York City, making it a relatively easy day trip from most parts of southern New England and eastern New York. And if you've never been there, I would say their biggest claim to fame and the first place you should visit is the museum for the USS Nautilus. Luckily for you and for me when I chose Groton to talk about for the road trip, the museum is actually finally reopening as of the recording of this, it should be opening soon. It's been closed through COVID for 14 months. So that's a good thing. There's nothing worse than starting to talk about a place for a road trip and then realizing that either it's still closed for COVID Or I've had a couple that I've described for other towns in the past and then I find out the places actually closed permanently, which is the worst and I gotta go rerecord the Nautilus was the first ever nuclear-powered submarine. It's located at one Crystal Lake Road and parking it admission is free. So there's another bonus to bring the whole family to check it out. Construction on it began in 1952 and it's 320 feet in length and That's a fun place to start as far as a trip to Groton being located right on the water. Kind of at the meeting point between Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound. Naturally, Groton has a lot of beaches. And if you can only choose one, I would choose Eastern Point Beach on beach pond road. It's a part of this kind of a little half-moon Cove type beach area. It's kid-friendly with a playground. It's right near the University of Connecticut's southeastern branch that's right there. The Shinnecock golf course is right near there. These are all things that if you're driving around and you see one of those other things, you know, you're right Near Eastern Point Beach. For me, Eastern Point Beach is a great place to visit. But right near there is Avery Point Beach. And part of that. As I've said many times on this podcast, there's a lighthouse. Avery Point Lighthouse was a spot that I had to go and see after seeing photos of it, because it looks like I can only describe it as a Barbie doll castle. It's this muted pink, it's hard to describe without seeing it. And perhaps the reason why it looks so unique is because it was built during World War Two. So it was completed in 1943. But it wasn't lit until the following year, because there was fear of enemy invasion. So they didn't want to have a new lighthouse kind of directing people in towards the port. The 41-foot tall, octagonal-shaped lighthouse was actually scheduled for demolition. And the Avery Point Lighthouse Foundation raised the necessary $500,000 in 2006, to restore it, and now it's a private aid to navigation. It was originally discontinued in 1967. So it kind of just sat there for a while. So I could see why they might want to demolish it. But now thankfully, it's still there. And then after it got restored, I got to go and see it. And that's kind of a funny story because my buddy Steve and I went there because naturally when we go on photo trips, we kind of seek out lighthouses as a centerpiece of whatever trip and go there and it's like, okay, we've taken photos of the lighthouse. And now we'll go and explore what's around it. Avery Point Lighthouse is naturally right on the water and the dedication to the craft. If you listen to episode 14 of the podcast, I had to get a certain angle shot of the lighthouse. This meant going down in among the rocks kind of below where it stands to get the shot looking up at it, I have the photo, I can share it on Twitter so people can see it. Anyway, I went down there to get this photo and I managed to slip on kind of the slimy moss in the rocks. And I had to protect my camera. So I held the camera to be instead of bracing myself and I went down on my left elbow and my ankle. And I was laid out in the rocks. And I just remember taking the photo from laying down in the rocks. So every time I see it, I just can remember the sound of my elbow cracking on the rocks. I didn't break anything but still, naturally that's what happens with me. I have no regard for my safety when it comes to photography. Less than a 10-minute drive. North from Avery Point Light is Fort Griswold, it's on Monument Street and Park Avenue. And I'm one of those that I love old forts. It's so interesting to see something that was such an important part of history but is now just kind of sitting there not decaying, but in some cases they are the 17-acre site including this granite fort was an important part of the early stages of the American Revolution and they would communicate right across the Thames River with Fort Trumbull in the town of New London. It's got this beautiful sweeping view of the Thames River. So that's cool. The view is great. It became obsolete in 1906 when Fort Wright was completed on nearby fishers Island. That's a fun place to check out for Griswold, and while you're there in Groton, if you're at Fort Griswold, you're lucky because if you're hungry, not too far away from you as Paul's pasta shop. Paul's pasta shop is at 223 times Street. They're doing curbside pickup still right now. It's a great Italian spot with huge portions right on the river. It's run by Paul and Dorothy fidrych. They've been running it since 1988. They've got daily specials, they do catering, and they even do retail pasta and sauce. You can buy it, bring it home, make it in your own home. So that's an excellent place to carbo load after walking around fort Griswold and checking out Eastern Point Beach. In addition to Paul's pasta shop. There's also the shack restaurant in Groton, that's at 441 Long Hill Road. They've got What'd you just say, you know, good old-fashioned American cuisine, with two other locations in East lime and Waterford They do breakfast lunch and dinner during the week except Sunday when it's just breakfast. And if you go there for breakfast, you've got to get the mess. It can only be described it's a play-to-home fries with scrambled eggs, ham, peppers, mushrooms, sausage, onions, Monterey Jack cheese bacon. It's awesome. That's one of those things that not that it's a dare to eat it, but it's very filling. So that would be recommended. If you go there, check out shack restaurants.com And just look at the menu. And I dare you not to be excited to go and check it out. But like I say, with all these places that I feature in the road trips all across New England, it's better to just go and drive and just experience it and feel what it's like to be there. At least that's what I do when I go to any place that I've never been. Just drive around and any road might lead you to somewhere neat that you've never seen before. Check out mystic chamber.org which features the whole greater mystic area which includes Groton, that gives you a better idea of things to see and do places to stay places to eat. And most of all, just have fun. Enjoy Groton, Connecticut checkout for Griswold, definitely Avery point light just don't go down in the rocks, especially if the tide has just gone out. It's pretty slick, as I mentioned, easy to get to from Boston to New York City to everywhere in between Groton, Connecticut is definitely a spot to check out. It's one of those great big towns small cities and let me know what you think if you go to Groton shoot me a message about what you like hopefully all the places I hype up live up to the hype, and maybe you find something I didn't mention and then I get a chance to go back and see it. But I'll be back with another road trip from one of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing places that New England has to offer the next podcast
This Week In History
so as I said at the top of the podcast, we are changing things up. So this week in history is being condensed down to one main topic and a time capsule to make way for the top five debut this week in history 93 years ago, June 17 1928. The very first plane lands at what was then the Hyannis airport, which is now known as the Barnstable Airport. The Hyannis airport in his time before being an airport was actually a spot called the tip top farm owned by a man named George Wagoner in 1928, Charles ailing and his son Robertson bought the property with the idea of creating an airport starting in March of 1928. The area was cleared out to farm 57 acre farm and then there's a lot of wooded area around there that had to be cleared out to make runways. By June it was ready to go. But they kind of needed someone to be the guinea pig to test out the runway. The word was put out looking for any pilot that was willing to test out the airport. The call was made to Denison airport and Quinsey. And a pilot named Alton Sherman, who was flying his waco nine with his passenger, Dr. Edward Ormsby. They were willing to oblige and test it out. Sherman landed the plane, and then Robertson Ayling, decided to really test it out by taking off in the plane and then landing back down on the runway successfully. Back then the runway was much like people that are from Cape Cod know the Cape Cod airfield and Marstons mills where it's that long, flat grassy surface. That was basically what the Hyannis airport was. Interestingly, Alton Sherman, whose plane was used for the landing in the first departure from the airport, what ended up becoming the airport's manager in 1931, after the death of Robertson ailing and there will be much more to come in terms of the Hyannis airport, its construction, the story behind it, but 93 years ago this week, the very first landing occurred at the Hyannis airport, and let us jump into a special time capsule. We're going to go back to June 18 1978 43 years ago this week. The number one song was shadow dancing by Andy Gibb. The song was written by Andy Gibb and his three brothers who also had a kind of famous disco band called the BGS. The song was number one for seven weeks, and it was one of three top 10 singles from the album shadow dancing that Gibb released. The number one movie was Damien The Omen to this was the second film in the trilogy of Omen horror movies based around a seemingly innocent normal young boy who was actually the Antichrist It starred William Holden and Lee Grant and made just over $26 million domestically on a budget of 6.8 million. Right now it has an approval rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe stick to the original omen. The number one TV show was one day at a time. This sitcom aired from 1975 to 1984 and starred Bonnie Franklin as a divorced mother raising her two teenage daughters played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Burton, Nellie, it was rated in the top 20 TV shows for eight of its nine seasons, and had a sort of reboot in 2017. For Netflix, with Norman Lear, the original creator coming back as an executive producer. And if you wanted to pick up Andy Gibbs, Shadow dancing and listen to it in your car, a good old-fashioned eight-track player, yes, those actually existed would cost you about $169, or just under $700, when adjusted for inflation. And that's a time capsule from June 18 1978, which was also the birthday of my buddy Steve, who you heard on episode 14 with the dedication to the craft interview. So I want to wish him a happy birthday. And now you can know what was going on the day you were born. And if your parents wanted to buy you an eight-track player, you know how much it cost. But now it's time for the debut of the top five.
Top 5 Debut: Cape Cod Icons
What exactly is the point of this top five is to create conversation and debate and get people thinking, basically, I'm going to just pick random topics and give you my opinion, the top fives. Fittingly, the first one that I'm doing for this episode is top five Cape Cod icons. Now that may be misleading. I've had people think that I meant icons like people. What this is, it's the top five places to see if you've never ever been to Cape Cod. So if it's your first time crossing that bridge, this is what you need to see first. And these are going to go in no particular order because there's going to be enough debate as it is. If I put them in order, then we're looking at a whole other can of worms. Also, I hope you liked that intro song. It's a copyright-free sound alike of the final countdown by Europe. Anyway, top five Cape Cod icons. Number one, the Cape Cod canal. You can't get here and not see it. So when you're driving over the Sagamore or the Bourne bridge, all you got to do is get right off the main highway and head down to the canal and check it out. There are plenty of parking areas, visitor areas where you can get out and there are bike trails on either side so you can walk it. But it's incredible that some people think that Cape Cod is an island and that it was always an island. No, it's a peninsula, two rivers got connected, which created the Cape Cod canal, but it's a man-made Island. Number two, the pilgrim monument in Provincetown. You can't go to Provincetown and not see it, you can actually see it from most places on the cape. It was finished in 1910. And it stands 252 feet tall. So you go out there and the views are incredible. And actually, there's an elevator that's being put in from Bradford street below that you can ride up so it sometimes it's a pain to get up to it as driving and parking can be tough. So this is an interesting way to increase the visitor count to the pilgrim monument. It commemorates the landing of the pilgrims at Provincetown in 1620, and is built of solid granite and it's a sight to see, definitely, if you've never been to the cave, you have to go there. Number three, the Cape Cod National Seashore. This may be a bit of a cheat only because the Seashore is more than 43,000 acres in size and it stretches from East Ham all the way up to Provincetown. So I would think visiting going to the seashore, you're not gonna see all of it in one trip. But I'm thinking more of the beach. The great beach is what it was always called stretching from coast guard beach up to Race Point Beach, but it's this uninterrupted stretch of sand and it's part of what made Cape Cod this I guess is like mystical place when Henry David Thoreau wrote about it in his cape cod book in 1865. So much of the cape has changed since then. It's been developed so much, but when you go to the Outer Cape, and specifically the National Seashore, which was created by President John F Kennedy in 1961, it preserved the last bastion of the old Cape Cod. And there are still places you can go out there. There's no WiFi there's no people around you. Gotta just know the places to go and soak in what it was like on Cape Cod centuries ago. Number four is the Brewster flats. This one's kind of out of left field. The Brewster flats are a natural phenomenon from the ebb and flow of the tides and Cape Cod Bay, where the tides take sand off the beaches. But because there's really nowhere to go, it gets deposited just offshore. So when the tide is low, you're looking at tidal flats that stretch out for sometimes over a mile, you can walk so far out, and it's just a neat feeling once a day, so that's when you can go any day the beaches in Brewster specifically and Orleans like rock harbor, Skaket beach but then in Brewster at Ellis landing, Linnell Landing breakwater beach. And this is another one that you can walk as much as you want, or as little as you want, just like the seashore, just like the Cape Cod Canal, but go and see it because these tidal flats are incredible. And number five, the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Currently, the main spoke stretches from Yarmouth, all the way up into Wellfleet. They are planning on extending it back into Hyannis. And they want to stretch it all the way into Provincetown. But for right now, it's Yarmouth, to Wellfleet. Most of it used to be railroad tracks. And this is a great way to get exercise, but also see the natural beauty of Cape Cod, mostly from the safety of the woods, you have to cross roads, obviously. But there are lights and signs. So most cars will stop some don't. You pass by ponds and marshy areas, you see like you go through neighborhoods and such and you see the houses and it's just a great feeling like you're disconnected but still connected. The main spoke is just over 25 miles. And if you want to go further, there's a rotary and you can go right and go towards Chatham down the Old Colony rail trail to and those are the top five Cape Cod icons, places that you need to see if you've never been to the Cape and even if you've been to the Cape a million times, go and see them there's a reason why they're so popular. And let me know what you thought of the very first top five on the in my footsteps podcast. If you have suggestions or topics you'd like to see covered, shoot me an email find me on social media. Otherwise, I've already got at least 60 topics just off the top of my head. So there's plenty more to come
Closing
That's going to do it for episode 25 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who has tuned in been tuning in. If this is your first episode, welcome aboard. I really appreciate everyone that takes a moment out of their day to check out this passion project of mine. I'm going to keep doing my best to grow and evolve. I hope you enjoyed the top five list. That's going to be something that's recurring. So if you have any thoughts on it, any suggestions of potential future top five lists, shoot me an email find me on social media. As you heard in this week in history, my buddy Steve's birthday this week, so I wanted to wish him again a happy birthday. Hopefully, we'll have another great dedication to the craft photo shoot in real life and an actual interview for the podcast at some point. Special thanks to my sponsor for the episode The Noboncket boutique inn on Martha's Vineyard. Check them out. If you go over to the vineyard, it's a perfect place to stay and then go see the island. And also remember to keep your eye open for the relaunch of Wear your wishes Wear your wishes.com when everything gets restocked, I'm very proud of the job that Kate has done and the fact that all of her stuff sold out. And she has to relaunch shows you how big the brand already is. And it's only going to get bigger. There are going to be lots of fun and exciting things coming up on the podcast in my life that I can't share yet. I'm basically I'm waiting for contracts on a few things then I can reveal more of what's going on in the rest of the summer and into next year. For everyone that's coming down to visit Cape Cod or any of you that are listening to this from outside of New England and coming in to New England to visit. Check out some of the archived episodes. I've got a lot of road trips to a lot to every state in New England that has been represented pretty well. So check out the podcast episodes in the past and see if there's anything in the road trip segment that maybe you go check I'd love to hear someone tell me that they came to visit somewhere in New England and use my podcast as a guide, at least for one of these cities or towns. And you can still pick up my original in my footsteps that came cod travel guide through Amazon and through most local bookstores. I wrote it in 2013. But luckily, you know, the places that are in there are still around. So it's not that obsolete yet. wanted to give a shout-out to lemonade. Do anyone that's listening on lemonade do thank you for checking out my podcast. And like I said, there are archives. This is episode 25. And a shout out to my podcast nation brethren on Facebook. That's a great group. I'm, I'm in the top 10 most active on there because I just respond to everyone's questions. But it's a way that you get to learn about other people's podcasts. Why do some people have 100,000 downloads, and another one has 500? It's all about the evolution of this podcast. Tune in next week for a special shorter bonus episode of the podcast episode 26 is going to be all about the flash in the pan, the shooting star, the icon that was gone very quick, the Cape Cod Coliseum, everybody who was anybody in the 1970s through the early 80s. played there. They had their own hockey team, they had worldwide Wrestling Federation action there. And we're gonna go over all of it and bring back some memories for you folks when I wrote an article about it several years ago for Cape cod.com. And it ended up being their most-viewed article ever on the site at the time. But everyone I talked to about the Cape Cod Coliseum, most of their responses were Oh, I went but I don't remember because I was too drunk. So we'll give you some memories here next week. I hope you'll tune in. And with summer here, take some time for your own mental health get out in the sun. A good healthy dose of vitamin D is great for you. I've been outside so much. I can't run like I used to run but I'll walk and I'll jog a little. But you just get that good feeling good vibes from being out in the sun. And you don't have to walk or run you can just sit out in it. This is the time of year that we go through winter for so get out there and enjoy it. And if you're going for a walk, remember, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. This is your journey, your destination, and enjoy every moment you can because every day could be the last day so enjoy it like it was. Thank you so much for tuning in. And I will talk to you all again soon.