Episode 27: Top 5 Lighthouses; The Benny's Retail Stores History; Road Trip: Hampton Beach, NH; Remember the Sega CD?(7-1-2021)

Episode 27 begins by sharing the long history of a Southern New England staple, the Benny's retail store.  Originally an automotive store it evolved into a place you could get anything you needed over its nearly a century in existence.
Take a Road Trip to the little seaside resort town of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.  It may be less than 2 square miles in size but it is packed with things to see and do including the Hampton Beach Casino.
There have been numerous iconic video game consoles over the last several decades.  Those that have changed and innovated the industry.  Then there was the Sega CD.  A novel idea it did not do well and you will find out why.
This week's Top 5 features my picks for the best lighthouses I have seen. The only catch is they must be off of Cape Cod.  Which ones made the list?
Also check out the latest This Week In History and Time Capsule!
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV and YouTube after they've finished.

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

• Purchase Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod
• Wear Your Wish
• DJ Williams Music
• Vintage Benny's
• Hampton Beach.org
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Christopher Setterlund.com

Listen to Episode 26 here.

Transcript

Intro

Hello, world. Welcome to Episode 27 of the in my footsteps podcast, I am your host, Christopher Setterlund. This week, we've got a stacked show, we're going to be looking at the history of a New England original, the Benny’s store that had everything from tires, to toys to toilet seats. So we're going to check out the story of that place that only recently met its device. We're going to take a road trip to a spot that has a connection to my family, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. I'm going to take you way, way back in the day to the Sega CD video game console and how I got mine. We've got another top five, this is the top five lighthouses that I have visited. Plus this week in history, and so much more. So thanks for tuning in. This is coming up on episode 27 of the in my footsteps podcast.

Happy Summer, everyone. Happy July, everyone. Thank you to everyone who tunes into these podcasts who's given a shot to the live streams that I do every Friday at 8pm. Any of you have checked out any of my six books, either through Schiffer Publishing, or Arcadia Publishing. If you've gone to any of my events, now we've got zoom events this summer. So come and check those out. It's definitely been a full last several weeks for me, I'll tell you that. A lot of fun things, a lot of changes, a lot of opportunities, a lot of good stuff coming up, I feel that the end of 2021 is going to look so much different than the beginning of it in the best possible way. So stay tuned, I'll give you any updates I can on all these things I'm sort of talking about. It was nice. Last month, I passed my 25th high school graduation anniversary. And although because things are still kind of complicated with COVID and things reopening, we didn't have any sort of reunion. But I was lucky that one of my oldest friends John, he actually came here from Los Angeles and stayed for a few weeks, which is unlike anything he's done since he moved out there after college. It was kind of like a gift that I was able to spend more time with him in two weeks than I had in the last 15 years combined. We got into some shenanigans, including me getting rear ended at a rotary as I was trying to take him on a nice road trip to show him some stuff on Cape Cod that he hadn't seen since high school. Luckily, there was no damage to my car, no damage to us. But still, it was one of those things that it just goes into the book of our friendship where there are all these random things that happened. And that was just another one. I never thought I'd be so excited to be able to go back inside a library and actually do some writing and research in a library. For the last 16 months I've been stuck in my apartment doing it so any research, I'm sitting in a place where I usually watch TV. I mean, I still get the job done, but there's a lot of distractions. So I've really enjoyed being able to get back to an environment that actually feels like it stimulates my creativity. As you heard at the top we've got a fun and packed show. So let's just dive right into it. Anyone who grew up on Cape Cod in New England, especially southern New England, will remember the Benny’s store. So let's dive right in with the history of Benny's on episode 27 of the in my footsteps Podcast coming up right now.

Benny’s

Benny's was definitely a unique store with a unique setup. When I said at the top of the podcast that it had everything from tires to toys and toilet seats. That's the first thing that popped in my head when I used to go there. You could get almost anything there. I don't know if I would say it was basically a step above Ocean State job lot and a couple of steps above $1 store because the stuff they had there wasn't cheap, but it's weird. The setup made it feel that way kind of on Cape Cod, the Benny's that I remember was in Dennis Port right on route 28. Their logo is this reddish cursive lettering that said Benny's I don't know if anyone hasn't been there. You're not going to relate to it. But people that went to Benny's, you can see it in your head and you can hear the commercials that used to be on the radio. It was a retail chain and Benny's was founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1924. Their main areas of operation were Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. So it was a southern New England store. It was founded by Benjamin Bromberg, thus the name Benny's from Benjamin, and at its peak, it had 31 stores. So it wasn't huge, but yet I guess growing up around one it felt like it was bigger than it was when it first opened on November 9, 1924. The first Benny's was a Benny's auto store in Providence, Rhode Island. I guess they hung on to their roots because they had the tires were there when I remember walking in to the one in Dennis port and you'd look on the left and there were tires on the wall, which was weird because then on the other side, there were toys that were homewares, camping equipment, but they still prided themselves on selling quality tires. And they had garages, at least at the one in Dennis port. They had garages where you could get the tires, you buy them and they'd put them on. So that was something you couldn't get at Job lot or TJ Maxx or Dollar Tree or any of those things. I think that although Benny's wasn't this spectacular place to go, it seemed like it became a part of the community everywhere that it was. I mean, when you're open for 93 years, people get used to you being there thinking you'll always be there. I think that's how it was with other long-time stores that closed down places like filings and Woolworth, where you just think they're gonna be there forever. And then the times change and there they go. I mean, it happened recently with toys r us who were to thought when I was a kid, if you had told me Toys R Us someday we'll be out of business. I'd say No way. They're everywhere. And I think that's kind of with Benny's. They weren't everywhere. But in southern New England. They felt like they were you could go to Benny's and get anything literally like I said tires but you walk in and there's stereo equipment, fishing equipment. There was fitness equipment. I remember there going there and getting a set of dumbbells. Benny stayed in the Bromberg family. Throughout his tenure, three generations had it. After Benjamin Bromberg died in 1966. He was succeeded by his son Malcolm. And then after Malcolm died in 2014, his children, Arnold, Howard, and Judy all took over the company. I remember going there many times to get not last minute gifts, because then it sounds like I just went there like as an excuse. But getting a gift for my, especially for my two oldest nieces. You go in there and they had toys, you could get actual birthday slash Christmas gifts there. They had bikes there. I think another reason why Benny's kind of resonates with me is because I lived in Dennis port for six years. So it was literally I could walk to it. So if you needed something, oh, I gotta go to the store and get whatever. You could go two minutes away and go to Denny's rather than driving up into Hyannis, which is the business center of Cape Cod. For those that aren't from here. You know, rather than going to the mall, you go to Benny's and get the same thing. And it's probably cheaper. And places like Benny's. It's kind of was the last bastion of the old 5 and 10 stores. I don't know if anyone's old enough to remember those. When they first started, you know, in the late 1800s, five and 10 stores five and 10 cent everything in there was five or 10 cents. And it was a community place as much as it was a place of business. I think some people just went into Benny's for that sense of community like you would see either the people that work there, you would know. Or there'd be people from your neighborhood in there that were just putting around looking at whatever was new. It was as much a community as it was a place to buy things. For the record. I never bought any tires at Benny's. I don't know, I know they sold them from the beginning. But when I was growing up, I didn't know that Benny's used to be an automotive store when it first began in the 1920s. So if you go into the store and you see tires, you're naturally going to be like, it'd be like buying tires at Job Lot or at the dollar store. They may have been high quality, but I don't know if I trust them. As retail started going more and more online in the 2010s. The writing was kind of on the wall for places like Benny's that were mainly physical locations. Amazon just grew and grew. And now it's bigger than anything, even though Benny's expanded in the 60s and 70s. And even when they even opened a new store in 2005 and Killingly Connecticut, the children Arnold, Howard and Judy of the Bromberg family in 2014. When they took over, they kind of saw the writing on the wall of where retail was going, that it was going online. And they weren't a huge place. They had 31 stores. It's not like they had 500 and they could kind of convert to an online retailer. Sensing the trend that was coming. On September 8, 2017. Benny's announced that it was closing all of its 31 stores. Sadly, as the age of technology has gone on, it's become more and more impersonal. When it comes to retailers weren't hours just a web page on a laptop rather than people that can actually help you. And don't get me wrong. I love being able to at like 1130 at night, go on Amazon and find something I need and have it shipped to me. But there's part of me that feels it's another piece of childhood. That's just gone away, but times change. It's just the nature of the beast. The very last Benny’s store in Greenville Rhode Island closed on December 11, 2017. bringing to an end 93 years of the company being in business for the record the Benny's in Dennis port that I used to visit all the time became big lots, which it's funny because it's it's different, but it's not that much different from Benny's. It's like a similar offshoot, it's not quite job lot. It's not quite Dollar General. But it's another similar kind of store. Those seem to be the only stores that are growing. All is not totally lost though, if you're looking for a slice of nostalgia. Besides going on YouTube and actually being able to find kind of low-quality commercials from Benny's from the 90s and 2000s. You can go to vintage Benny's dot com. And while you're there, you can order merchandise that has the Benny's logo on it. So that's fun if you're if somebody you know loved Benny's and loved going there and was really sad when they closed. You can go to vintage Benny's dot com and buy a t-shirt with the Benny's logo on it. I've debated it, but it seems like there's no one I know in my family that if I bought them a Benny shirt, they would actually wear it. That would be one of those. They thanked me and then put it in their closet for 50 years. I've still got lots of great memories of going to Benny's through the years and getting anything I needed. Anyone out there? Did you go to Benny's? Do you remember it? Or is this whole segment just about a place that you have no idea what it was. Even if you don't there probably was a place near you that was similar to Benny's. Maybe it's still open. Maybe it isn't. But it's just another piece in the evolution of retail stores. Who knows what will be the next really famous chain to close? I don't want to start getting predictions out there. But go online and check out all the Benny’s stuff you can find and live in those memories of what it used to be like

Sponsor: Wear Your Wish

The time has come. It is July it is time for the summer relaunch of Wear your wish and Wear your wishes.com I am extremely excited to share with you all of the new things that are now coming from Katie Marks the owner and all of the hard work she put in. This is the second launch because their first launch was so successful that she ran out of all her products, which I have said is a great problem to have, in addition to the clothing that you've seen before with the logos on it when you've checked out the site now we've got a lot of bracelets, awesome bracelets, poor shoes, mermaid bracelets, crystals. There's a beautiful shamrock one that is dedicated to our grandfather Sully John Sullivan. There are beautiful necklaces with intentions on them to get your own vibe, your own feel. There are rainbow bracelets. There's something for everyone for every vibe for every feeling where your wish has it. Go to the website Wear your wishes.com Find them on Instagram and wear your wish. I've been waiting for the relaunch so that I can start sharing all of this with you again. And we can try to sell out everything again. Sorry Kate, I want it to be so successful that you've got to do a third relaunch. So visit Wear your wish at Wear your wishes.com and see all have the new clothing, accessories, and apparel that is now available for the summer relaunch.

Road Trip: Hampton Beach, NH

This road trip is gonna bring us to a spot that's got a deep connection to my family, which makes it even more fun to kind of share with you when it's got this deep connection to my roots. The state of New Hampshire has a very short coastline. It's only 18.57 miles but part of it is the incredible seaside summer resort town of Hampton Beach. It's part of the greater Hampton, New Hampshire area. It's located about an hour north of Boston and about an hour south of Portland, Maine. So it's I don't want to say centrally located because it's not it's way further to get there from Connecticut than it is from Boston. Obviously. In some ways. It reminds me a little bit of the outer part of Cape Cod. It's small, as of 2019, the population was only 2685 people. So it's sort of like Truro on Cape Cod, which is the last town before you get to the fist of Cape Cod up in Provincetown, Truro places it in the winter. There's like nobody there. And I think Hampton Beach is kind of similar. I also find it to be like Cape Cod in a way because it was in the late 19th century that it really became a tourist destination in the summer, in 1897, when the Hampton Beach improvement company began the recreation and entertainment-based development of the beachfront, kind of taking advantage of what they've got. And they don't have a lot when it comes to land. Hampton Beach proper is only 1.4 square miles. So this may end up being the smallest place that I ever talked about in a road trip segment. And forgive me some of this. I may bleed over into the actual full Hampton, New Hampshire, but in actuality, there's a lot in that 1.4 square miles. There's a ton of stuff to see. I believe that for anyone that goes to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, the first place you're probably going to check out is the Hampton Beach Casino. The casino was opened around the time that they started developing Hampton Beach as a summer destination. In 1899. It opened part of this casino there's the casino ballroom which has their concert events. And everyone has played there. You had in the history you've had Paige and plant, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jerry Seinfeld, I found out when researching the Hampton Beach casino for the podcast, that back then in the 19th century, the term casino, which today you think of gambling, that's not what it meant. The word is actually Italian for the summerhouse, and it means more of a gathering place. So when you hear Hampton Beach casino, it's not a place with slot machines. It opened Fourth of July weekend in 1899. And by the next year in 1900, they constructed a 57-room hotel, the Ocean House, which is just to the north of the casino. The ballroom itself was opened in the late 1920s. And it's large enough to accommodate 5000 people. And even this year, they've got a good lineup of people playing there, depending on what your tastes and music is. Obviously, REO Speedwagon is playing their Blues Traveler Tower of Power. There's a lot more to do there though. Besides seeing a concert that the casino in June, they actually just happened. They have a sand sculpture contest every June 200 tons of important sand is dumped on Hampton Beach. And these people called the Grady bunch led by Greg Grady, they all make these incredible sand sculptures. For anyone that's familiar with Cape Cod. We do in Yarmouth. They do sand sculptures, businesses will do them. And they're really nice, and they're in front of a lot of businesses around town. This is like that only times 1000. So that's a note for next year, I saw that when I was researching that it had actually just happened. So I felt bad sharing it with you because now it's like you've got to wait about as long as you could wait for the next one until June of 2022. But you can go to Hampton beach.org and get all of the info you need about that. And to see a lot of these places that I'm describing right now, naturally with a name like Hampton Beach, there is a lot of beach there. Hampton Beach State Park on Ocean Boulevard. It has all of the accommodations you could want from a beach, fishing, swimming, picnicking, camping, and it's located near all of this stuff. Like I told you Hampton Beach, the community itself is small. So even if you're on the actual beach or not far from anywhere, if you don't feel like camping out on the beach, you can stay at the Ashworth by the sea hotel. It's family-friendly. It's only a half mile from the casino ballroom, and it has the modern accommodations that you could want with a luxury hotel, an incredible views. There's an outdoor rooftop bar, they've got their own 24 hour market, indoor heated pool fitness center. So it's everything you could want, and they're at 295 Ocean Boulevard or at Ashworth hotel.com, so you can see for yourself, you have to grab a bite to eat at Farrs famous chicken at 43 Ashworth Avenue. They reopened last month every day. But you can also do delivery if you're in the area. It was originally opened by Henry and Gould afar, Henry and Gould afar started with the golden hand in the early 1970s. And in 1978 changed its name to Farr's famous chicken. They're definitely a must-eat. They've got a lot of local recognition and that's a spot that people flocked to especially in the summer, visit them at Fars, Hampton beach.com. And then in person when you go there, like I teased at the top though this Hampton Beach has a connection to my family, and obviously I wanted to save that for last. In the 1940s and 1950s. My great grandparents, John and Blanche Sullivan, they ran a Sullivan’s Donut shop in Hampton Beach. The family also had run one in Fitchburg, which is where my grandfather was born. This donut shop was located closer to the harbor side, away from the ocean. Although I mean Hampton Beach is not that wide, and where it is wide, there's a marshy area, but my great grandparents had a donut shop there. They influenced my grandfather who opened his own donut shops in Brockton and then down on Cape Cod in Hyannis. And I have no idea if the building the donut shop was actually in still stands. But I definitely want to go check it out and see if I can find it at least get a feel for the area. You can learn a lot more about Hampton Beach and the surrounding Hampton area of New Hampshire like I said, Hampton beach.org. You can go to NH state parks.org and learn some more about Hampton Beach State Park. Beware though when you go in the summer it is packed. Like I said the population is just under 2700 In the offseason, but you're talking 10s of 1000s that go up there daily to visit during the summer. And not all of them stay overnight. They do day trips. It's not that far. Like I said an hour from Boston. But whether you go to hear a concert at the casino ballroom if you go to have something to eat at Farr's famous chicken spend the night at the Ashworth or if you just go on a day trip and sit on the beach for a couple of hours. Just go up there and check out Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. I know I've got plans to dive deeper into my great grandparents' donut shop up there. So I've got my own reasons to go. But I'm sure that I'll grab something to eat at farce when I go there. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. And I'll be sure to be back with the next episode for another road trip where I share one of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing places that New England has to offer you and hopefully you go check them out too.

This Week In History

It's time for this week in history's top story. 84 years ago this week on July 2 1937. Amelia Earhart sent her last transmission, the story of Amelia Earhart is one of the most famous Unsolved Mysteries ever in this country. On the morning of July 2, 1937, she and her navigator Fred Noonan took off from lay New Guinea on one of the last legs of their historic attempt to circumnavigate the globe, with their next destination being Howland Island in the Central Pacific about 2500 miles away. However, Earhart never arrived. They were battling overcast skies, faulty radio transmission and a rapidly diminishing fuel supply in her twin-engine Lockheed Electra plane at 8:43am. On July 2, she sent her last transmission, she reported flying on line 157337 running north and south. So it was basically sending out her coordinates of where she was, and that was the last anyone heard from her. After losing contact. Unfortunately, there were 250,000 square miles of ocean for the US Navy and Coast Guard to scour to try to find the plane. I mean, that's impossible. The official report at the time was that Earhart and Noonan had run out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific Ocean and drowned. A court order declared her dead in January 1939. But from the beginning, when they lost contact with them, it's there's been so many rumors and innuendo and stories of what could have happened. Stories like them crashing on a remote Pacific atoll Nikka Morogoro, that they may have crashed there and lived on the island as castaways but eventually died there too. There were stories that they were taken prisoner by the Japanese, with even some people saying she either died in a Japanese prison, or was released and came back to the United States under an assumed name. No matter the story though, of how Earhart met her and she truly was a pioneer of aviation and her name she's a legend. Even though people usually point to what happened in her last flight, still the things that she did as a female pilot in the 1920s and 30s. It's incredible but sadly, you've got to look at the end and 84 years ago this week in history, the last ever transmission recorded was received from Earhart's Lockheed Electra plane. 

And now we're going to dive into a special time capsule. It's funny how these happened to always now fall on the birthdays of friends, but hey, why not share it? This week's time capsule is no different. We're going back to June 29, 1977, the birth date of a dear friend, Amy Keller Jump. If you've seen the podcast logo, she helped design that. So it's only fitting that I share her birthday and wish her a happy birthday with a time capsule. The number one song in America was gonna fly now, which is also known as the Rocky theme by Bill Conti. Even if you're not familiar with the actual name of the song, if I say the Rocky theme, you can hear it in your head right now. From the movie of him jogging through the streets of Philadelphia, up the steps can you see it? Can you hear it? That's when you know a song has crossed over into pop culture. When I can say the name and you can hear it. The song has been repackaged and repurposed in almost every Rocky movie sense. And the Creed movies I think at least somehow. So it's still going we're talking 44 years ago, and it's still being repurposed. The number one movie was the deep. It starred Jacqueline Bissette McNulty and Robert Shaw. And it's an undersea adventure about a couple who become involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover a deadly shipwreck in Bermuda and waters. The movie made over $100 million on a budget of around 9 million. So it was a big success. Although today it has a 48% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But don't let that influence you go and check it out. It's a classic from the 70s. On TV. The number one show was the TV movie terraces. It was a movie about a doctor and an ex-chorus girl and a lawyer that have separate high-rise apartments but terraces that touch and it's starred Lloyd Bochner, Julie Newmar, and Lola Albright. And it's interesting because of all the time capsules I've done, this is the first time that the number one show on TV wasn't a famous TV show but was a TV movie. I can't really tell you anything about terraces except what I researched. But as far as I can see, there was no terraces to movie and no spin-offs to it. So I guess it was a one-and-done. And if you were ready to go to the roller skating rink, or go out for some disco dancing on June 29 1977. And you needed something to wear that fit the times. You could get a long-sleeved polyester, denim jumpsuit. Yes, those were real. And I found photos of them. I'll try to post them on Twitter after so you can see how stupid these things look. But if you wanted one, they were $29.97 or about $133 when adjusted for inflation. So there's a bunch of money you'd never get back. That's going to wrap up a time capsule. Happy birthday to Amy, I hope you enjoyed hearing about what was going on the day you were born. And I'll be back next week with another top story from this week in history and another time capsule. We'll see if it's someone's birthday again.

Sponsor: Laura and Tony’s Kitchen

I just wanted to give you a quick update. Laura and Tony's gourmet market Cafe has officially reopened. They reopened on June 17. They're open daily from 10am to 6pm. On route six in northeast ham right near the Wellfleet drive in the best breakfast on Cape Cod bar none. They have everything you could think of breakfast and lunch now. Besides the typical pancakes and French toast and scrambled eggs. They've got steak tips grilled organic chicken artisanal sandwiches, salads, tofu, lobster salad, I said I would tell you when they reopened officially. So here it is visit Laura and Tony's kitchen.com then go in and say hi to Laura and Tony themselves and have the best breakfast on Cape Cod bar none.

Top 5 Lighthouses I’ve Visited

Well, it's time for the second top five countdown list. The first one was a pretty big success. I got a lot of positive feedback. So I'm back with the second one where these are just countdowns of just random subjects to kind of create discussion. The top five will not be in any particular order. Because I feel like I'm going to create enough discussion just with the five I choose of whatever subject let alone putting them in a particular order. For those that didn't hear episode 25 the first countdown was top five Cape Cod icons to visit if you've never been to the cape for this one it is top five lighthouses I have visited I love lighthouses so I figured why not dive right into this countdown. The one caveat with this is that they have to be lighthouses off of Cape Cod. They can't be places that I can just go to on the cape. I have to actually I don't consider it really traveling unless I go over the bridges. So that's the only catch before we start. Honorable Mentions go to Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine. Marblehead Lighthouse in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and Castle Hill lighthouse in Newport, Rhode Island. They almost made the top five first lighthouse is Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth Maine. This lighthouse is awesome. It's if you go there in the winter and it's snowing. It looks like a snow globe that you would get and have on your mantle. It's Maine's oldest lighthouse, you get some incredible views if you walk out onto the rocky outcroppings. You can go there for sunrise and sunset, and as part of the bigger fort Williams Park, if you're not a lighthouse person, you can go there and walk around anyway. The brick and rubble lighthouse was first opened in 1791 and stands 80 feet tall and I can't recommend that enough. The second lighthouse is Scituate lighthouse in Scituate, Massachusetts. This one it actually looks a little bit similar to Portland head. But it's another classic on Massachusetts is South Shore situate is just as beautiful classic New England coastal town and I think the lighthouse ties it all together. Again, it's perfect for sunrise and sunset. It's great for night photography. I've done that I went and did night photography there and managed to lose one of my lens caps in the breakwater, which is just classic me first opened in 1811 in a spot called Cedar Point, the lighthouse is 25 feet tall and there's a little park around there. You can sit at some benches, but there's always people there because it's a landmark. And there are so many different vantage points you can get of this lighthouse. There's a breakwater that stretches way out into the harbor, you can get far away shots, you can get close up shots, pictures with the keeper's house and the buoys. And it's really not that far from Boston or providence. So that's why it made the list it's easily accessible and it's beautiful with a lot of vantage points. Number three is owls Head lighthouse in owls head Maine. This one makes a list just for my favorite shot. It's one of my favorite pictures I can take of any lighthouse, there's a staircase leading up to where the lighthouse is. And the photo of the staircase leading to the lighthouse is just one of the favorites I've ever taken. I did a road trip two Owl's head Maine in Episode 19 of the podcast if you want to really deep dive into this lighthouse, the brick lighthouse was first opened in 1825 and it's part of Owl’s Head State Park. I will say is a little town it's very quintessential Maine, and you have to hike your way out to the lighthouse. It's not that far, but you do have to walk if you get to the parking lot. You can't see the lighthouse. That's part of what I like is it secluded. The lighthouse is 30 feet tall. But it stands 100 feet above sea level and the views of the surrounding area from the lighthouse are incredible. That's part of the allure of owl's head is not only the pictures, you can get off the lighthouse, but the pictures you can get of the surrounding main wilderness from the lighthouse. That's why it's on the list. We'll stay in Maine for number four. That's West Quoddy Head Lighthouse located in Lubec Maine, which is the furthest East you can go in the United States. This Lighthouse looks like a candy cane with red and white stripes. All you need to know is that I centered my first big road trip in 2010. Around going out and seeing this lighthouse from where I live. It's over eight hours to drive to it. But I said that's where I want to go and it's a hike. It's way out there. Once you get past the town of Mathias. It's not that there's nothing out there. There are small towns, it's really the middle of nowhere and it's beautiful. It's awesome. The current Lighthouse stands 49 feet tall and as a part of Quoddy Head State Park. This is like many of the others on this countdown. There are so many vantage points that you can get these incredible shots of the lighthouse. You can see Canada in the distance. And even though it's far away for most people to get to unless you live out there. It's definitely worth it. I plan on going back again, I don't know when but sooner than later. It took me nine years to get back there after I went the first time and it won't be nine years to go back again. And number five, last but not least, is Cape Hatteras lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So remember what I just said about West Quoddy head about planning a trip around going to that lighthouse, multiply that by 1000 because I did a road trip and 2019 and the final destination was this Cape Hatteras lighthouse. And from here, I mean, where I live, it's 15 hours or more to get there. Obviously, I didn't drive all the way in one shot. I did it as part of a six-day road trip. But the end game was always this one black and white stripe located in the town of Buxton, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States at just over 198 feet. And if you want to climb it, it's 257 steps, which is essentially like a 12-story building. And when you're face to face with it, yeah, you see how tall it is. In order to get a photo of myself with the entire lighthouse in the background, I had to set my camera up at the old Keeper's house, which is located 400 feet away from the lighthouse. So that will tell you how tall it is. And you really can't even see me in the photo. This lighthouse was built in 1870, and it's part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, when I thought the Cape Cod National Seashore was big until I went out there, but I planned an entire road trip on going to Cape Hatteras light. And I also went to body Island Lighthouse, which is near there. And in the future. I'm sure I'll do another top five countdown and there may be new ones on there because I've got my eye on this place called Split Rock lighthouse in Minnesota, that might be the next road trip plan. But that wraps up the top five countdown of the top five lighthouses I have visited. Tune in next week, I'll have another interesting top five to share with you all.

Back In the Day: Sega CD

Growing up, I've been lucky enough to have a lot of incredible video game consoles that have come along in my lifetime, from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, PlayStation X, Xbox, and Nintendo Wii. They're all icons of the video game industry. But then there are the ones that come out with a lot of hype and just go away just as quickly as they came in. And that's what I want to talk about is one that I had one that I went so out of my way to get and it was just an epic fail. This is the story of the Sega CD system.

Sega CD was a CD ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis, which I had the Sega Genesis, which was my favorite system growing up. And I thought Sega CD was interesting because it had a video game WWF rage in the cage, which was what I wanted, but they didn't make it for the regular Sega Genesis. Sega CD was released in North America in October 1992. With a lot of hype, it was introduced with a price of $299. outside of North America, it was known as the Mega CD. If anyone is listening from outside of North America and wonder what Sega CD is, there was a big benefit of CD technology as far as video games when the average CD offered more than 320 times more space than a Sega Genesis cartridge. This allowed full-motion video games such as Night Trap, which was pretty controversial. It was the player takes on the role of a special agent tasked to watch over teenage girls having a sleepover. And sadly it starred Dana Plato, the actress from different strokes who died of a drug overdose in 1999. But it was like a choose-your-own adventure with real people. Essentially, Sega CD had some critically acclaimed games like Sonic CD, lunar, the Silver Star, pop full mail and snatcher. But it also had a lot of games that did not perform well. Part of the problem was having the CD technology meant that you could make these really deep, complicated games that you know a lot of people will get tired of. Not everyone wants to play a game that will take you hundreds and hundreds of hours to beat. The initial sales of the Sega CD were pretty good. It sold over 200,000 units by the end of 1992 and 300,000 by July 1993. They were helped by the fact that Blockbuster Video bought Sega CD units for rental in their stores. Interestingly, Nintendo had a plan to make their own CD type console at the time, but canceled it. Going back to the knight trap game though, the United States Congress had hearings on video game violence and marketing them towards children in December 1993, specifically pointing out Night Trap and the fact that typical video game players were between seven and 12 years old, and that violent video games were being marketed towards them. That I'm sure didn't help the sales of the Sega CD but in general, it was a failure no matter what. In total 2.24 million Sega CD units were sold worldwide before it was discontinued in the first quarter of 1996. But we'll circle back to the beginning and why I'm talking about it is because I actually had a Sega CD. And like I said, I got it for one reason only, and that was WWF rage in the cage. It was released around Christmas in 1993. It featured the full motion video like I was talking about with Night Trap, but this time it was wrestlers doing their moves. And it featured 20 wrestlers, which was awesome, most games would feature eight to 10 and it gets boring having the same guys fight. The game featured some of the biggest wrestlers at the time. Macho Man Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lex Luger, Mr. Perfect. And a bunch more. You could do one-player tournaments, there were no tag team modes, even though they had three different tag teams in the game. And of course, rage in a cage could have cage matches, so I wanted the game. Luckily for me, my friend John had Sega CD, and he didn't like it or didn't want it anymore. So I bought it off him. I was at his house and I bought his Sega CD, and I had ridden my bike over to his house. And the only way I could get it home was he let me use his hockey duffel bag, if you can picture it in your head, it's got the two straps that aren't really that big. They're meant to be held by your hands. And this bag is probably three feet long. But I couldn't ride my bike with one hand in the dark, and then have this hockey bag with a video game console in another hand. So what I did was I found a way to get the straps over my shoulders, I shoved my arms through there. So pictured I was 15 or 16. And I've got this hockey bag just wedged over my shoulders, just the fabric rubbing against my skin. And I had to ride my bike home with this hockey bag on my back. It was only like two miles to get home. But I get inside, and put my bike away. And when I looked my skin was just rubbed raw around my arms from carrying this frickin hockey bag. And it hurt like hell, I had to use the moisturizing cream. It looked like I had I had basically two terrible rope burns on my arms from carrying this thing, all that effort to get a Sega CD and get rage in the cage. And I might have played it for a few weeks. And then, you know, this was early 1994 that I got this from my friend John. And by July of 94 I had bought my video camera because I wanted to be a film director. So playing video games kind of went out the window in favor of making videos with my video camera. I don't know how long I had the Sega CD for, but I'm almost positive. I did not have it by the end of 1994 that I had already gotten rid of it. So I went through the trouble of buying it getting the rage in the cage game, riding on my bike with a hockey duffel bag over my shoulders, ripping my skin off just to play it for like a few months and then get rid of it. That is really typical teenage kid thinking. But I did get back into video games I believe the end of 95 I got a PlayStation so it wasn't like I swore off video games. I just had a new interest in the camcorder. Did any of you out there play Sega CD? Did you have one? Did you waste your money on it like me? And then just get rid of it? What did you think about it? shoot me a message let me know. And I'll be back in the next episode to go way way back in the day for some other awesomely radical slice of 1980s and 90s nostalgia.

Closing

That's going to wrap up episode 27 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy these podcasts. shoot me a message anytime. Christopher setterlund@gmail.com Questions, comments, suggestions, if you have an idea for the retro segment, top five segment, I'm always looking, I've got enough stuff to program this podcast for the next four years, but you never know I might be missing something. Find me on Twitter, find me on Instagram. Friday nights at 8pm. I do my Instagram Live Stream. They're called without a map. Those are a lot of fun. I start by talking about the podcast and they routinely go off the rails. Go to my homepage, Christopher setterlund.com operated and designed by my good friend one of my oldest friends Barry Menard, the great graphic designer. If you want to buy me a coffee go to buy me a coffee.com Anything that's donated to the podcast I used to advertise it. Because the main thing is getting new listeners to the podcast more than anything else. That's how you grow your audience marketing. People like you that listen and like it and share it. That's the main thing that's more valuable than anything I could get from these donations. You can subscribe on YouTube. I've got companion videos to the podcast up there. Usually, a segment from each episode goes up in video form with photos and animations and stuff. I also do 4k New England videos. The most recent one was all over Mill Park in Middleborough, Massachusetts. If you've never heard of it, check it out. It's a neat historical site. Look for my article in the August edition of Cape Cod Life magazine. It's a little slice of old Cape Cod. It ties in with my sixth book, iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod. There's a teaser so you can get an idea. Get your copy of that book though, through Arcadia Publishing. If you want to go to Amazon, you can get it there. I've got six books out. The first three are all in my footsteps travel guides through Schiffer Publishing. The second three second trilogy, historic restaurants, Cape Cod nights and iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod, if you're on the cape or not even on the Cape, I'm doing zoom events throughout the summer for the book. My next two are July 20 and 27th through the Falmouth library. One is for the restaurants book. The next one is for Cape Cod nights and iconic hotels and motels. So that's going to be fun. As I said earlier, check out Wear your wish at Wear your wishes.com to see all of the incredible bracelets and necklaces that are new and coming out in July. And all the other clothing and apparel that has been there. You can't go wrong. Katie has worked so hard on this company. And I'm so proud and thrilled to see it doing so well. As I said in the time capsule, happy birthday to Amy. I hope it's awesome. I hope you do something fun slash crazy. I hope everyone out there has a fun, safe and happy Fourth of July weekend. I would say get ready for the fireworks but around more I've been that fireworks are going off several times a week. So it's not going to be anything new. But hopefully we can do it at the beaches like traditional yours and get back to normal. Tune in next week for episode 28 of the podcast. We are getting up there in numbers. We're going to have our second dedication to the craft segment. This time it's going to be all about this awesome Martha's Vineyard photo trip that I did with my buddy Steve in 2014. I'll get spooky and creepy with a story about the cannibals of Boon Island, Maine. That one is fascinating yet kind of gross, but I'm sure you'll like it. I can't save all of my creepy True Crime Murder stuff for Halloween season, we're going to have another top five countdown, this one is going to be top 5 1980s product mascots, except for cereal ones, they're going to get their own countdown. But get your wheels turning 80s commercial product mascots, you see him in your head, we're gonna do a top five. I'm gonna go way way back in the day to the old school music stores when you used to have to go in and buy your records and tapes and CDs. This will be a fun one to check out. There'll be another time capsule with this week in history, all that and more next week on episode 28. And remember to take the time for yourself. Mental health is more important than anything. Believe in yourself, and follow your passions. These are all things that I say to you. But I'm also saying to me, I think it's like partially for myself, but I hope it helps you as well. Because being happy being successful, and feeling secure in life, that's more important than pretty much anything and that's what I'm hoping for all of you. That's what I'm hoping for me for the rest of 2021 and beyond. But remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey, because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again as always for tuning in, and I will talk to you all again soon.