Episode 35: Restaurant Storytime III - Attack of the Swans; Top 5 1980's Fads; Old School PSA's; Hershey PA(9-2-2021)

Episode 35 begins with a return to the Restaurant Storytime series.  For part III we take a look at what happens when people feed swans at a restaurant after being told not to.  It does not end well.
Take a Road Trip to the sweetest place in America.  The Chocolate Capital, Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Though there is more to see in this mid-sized town it is most well known for Hersheypark.
What were some of the most popular and random fads of the 1980's?  In the episode they are compiled in a new Top 5 list with a bunch of honorable mentions to boot!
Growing up in the 1970's through 1990's kids were subjected to some fun, informative, and downright odd Public Service Announcements.  Some of the best of the bunch are remembered as we go Back In the Day.
There is also a new This Week In History and Time Capsule featuring the crazy but true story of Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos.
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
• In My Footsteps: Harrisburg & Hershey PA
• Hershey PA.com
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Christopher Setterlund.com

Listen to Episode 34 here.

Transcript

Intro

Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 35. This week's episode, we're going to continue restaurant storytime. This is part three, Attack of the swans, I'll let that just sink in. We're going to take a road trip to the chocolate capital of America, Hershey, Pennsylvania, we're gonna go way, way back in the day to some old-school PSAs. This is something I'm really excited to share. I'll get into that. We're gonna have a new top five that's filled with 1980s fads that came in went while some may have stayed but posted Well, thankfully, there's a new this week in history and time capsule with the story that I can't believe is true, but I can't wait to share it. All of this and more is coming up right now on episode 35 of the in my footsteps podcast.

Welcome in everyone. Welcome to September. We're only a few days away from Labor Day and my favorite time of the year starting basically, from Labor Day to the end of the year to New Year's Eve. That's my favorite time of year. I like summer, but I love fall. The weather stays good through early November now. And there are just a lot fewer people on Cape Cod because it gets to a point there's only so much room on Cape Cod and people keep coming down. So I love the chance to get to go back out and explore all of what makes Cape Cod great with far less people. And plus, there's lots of awesome holidays, Halloween that my birthday comes up which is right around the one-year anniversary of this podcast, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There's other family birthdays that come up. So it's just a great time and I can't wait to get it started. Wanted to make sure that I gave a shout-out and thank you to everyone that tunes into my weekly live streams. They're called without a map Friday nights at 8pm on Instagram, this last week. It was wild right before I went live. There was a coyote within 15 feet of my car where I was parked. And it decided that it was just going to take a dump right there. I thought it was a dog getting walked but it was a coyote. And I stepped out of my car and yelled at it. I said I see you over there. So the coyote stared me down while it took a crap in the grass. It was right before I went live. So I had to share that with everyone and now I get to share it with you. Not saying that every live stream has craziness like that. But hey, you never know what the next one might have happened. I'm really excited because I think September is going to be a big month for the podcast. I've got the normal three full-length episodes and one bonus episode coming up but I got a lot of great content that are going to be in those episodes. I try to make every episode as good as I possibly can. But as with anything, there's always some that you're more excited about than others. This episode here is no exception. But coming up the bonus episode this month is going to be looking back at Nirvana's Nevermind album 30 years later, which I still can't believe it's that long, but I really excited to share that one. That's going to be episode 38. But until then we got episode 35 Starting now. And the wild story I suppose, as we go back into restaurant storytime and another one that I'm just really excited to get some feedback on when you hear this story that is 100% true. So let's dive right into restaurant storytime three attack of the swans on episode 35 of the in my footsteps, podcast.

Restaurant Storytime III: Attack of the Swans

Restaurant storytime, it's one of my favorite segments. I'm so glad that I started adding these to the podcast, it's a chance to share some of the craziest stuff from my many years working in the restaurant industry. The only problem is I have to either not name names or make things very vague because some of these things I don't think everyone wants out there. But you know, it's all for laughs there's nothing that we did that was illegal or anything like that. But still you don't know what people's feelings are towards having embarrassing and funny things about them shared all over the podcast world. In this one though, there are no real people involved. This one involves animals. Swans are everywhere in New England. In ponds. You've seen them all over there. These beautiful big white birds. They've got dark black eyes. It looks like they've got the nasal tape that you put To Help You Breathe Right strips to help like over their beaks. They'll go they're beautiful and people love to feed them but there’s signs everywhere, don't feed the birds. Because even though they're beautiful, and they're, it's nice to feed them, they're not very friendly, and they can be quite aggressive, especially if their babies are around. So this restaurant storytime kind of ties swans into my old job, where I worked for the most part in the restaurant industry was right on the water. So we were prone to having when the tide got high, swans would come in through these little creeks, and they'd be right at the edge of the property. So they'd be out there. And you could either walk down the road a little way, and watch them swim, and some customers would walk down. And they, I think some of them fed them. I mean, we didn't have a sign out there saying don't feed them, but they kind of did anyway, we in the kitchen, we would watch them, we would not feed them because we were told by our boss don't. But we would have sometimes the customers would come through the back. So we had this little fence, a tall picket fence. So you couldn't see what was going on back there. Some of the cooks wanted to smoke, or were throwing trash away. That's stuff that customers don't want to see. It's like seeing how the sausage is made. Over the years, though, the swans got used to being fed. So obviously, they were fed by customers or cooks and servers, and they began to get more brazen, where they would climb up the side of the grassy hill and they'd be either on the deck every now and then. Or they would start to wander their way out into the parking lot. So just imagine you've got customers down on Cape Cod, the elderly population is a lot higher than most places except for probably Florida. But you'd have these people coming in to eat, and you'd have swans circling their cars and wandering through the parking lot looking to get fed and hissing at people if they didn't get fed. I don't remember any stories of swans attacking customers per se, like biting them or anything. But I do know that swans hissed at customers and chase them somewhat. And this was in the mid-90s. So this was the point where my boss, she told us don't feed the swans, we've got to discourage them from coming out. And because just because they hadn't attacked a customer yet, didn't mean that it wasn't going to happen. The best way that we came up with to discourage the swans from going out into the parking lot happened during winter, when we would get a lot of snow, the swans would be circling around at high tide, and they would start climbing up the snowy hill to go out into the parking lot. I don't know how many cooks did this, but different ones would take shovel fulls of snow and shovel the snow at the swans to scare them away. So just imagine these swans coming up the hill. I mean, they're tall, three feet tall, kind of long, skinny necks, and they'd be coming up like a monster movie up over the hill. And they just get doused with shovel fulls of snow to knock them back down. Eventually, that did kind of stop the swans from going out in the parking lot. I think not being fed, combined with the chance of getting snow thrown at you would stop the swans from risking it. But that didn't stop them from being in the area. And that's what leads to the main event of this restaurant storytime. One of the most memorable stories of all time as far from me working in a restaurant. This was a summer evening. During the week, where we had this restaurant I worked at there was beautiful views of the water. And people would always basically fight over getting to get the best views. They'd want the tables right in the corner where you could see the water see the boats coming in. On this night, there were swans swimming around, it was high tide. And the people were you know, having nice meals and it was a beautiful summer evening. There swans swimming out there and it was not sunset, it was getting closer to it. I can't remember how many swans that were out there. But at some point, the swans decided it was time to fly away. So just imagine this nice majestic scene with the colors in the sun and it's summer and the swans take off and it's beautiful against the backdrop of summer on Cape Cod. And then out of nowhere, this is 100% true. One of the swans flew into the power lines. And so I can't I can see it in my head. It flew into the power lines and knocked the power out in the restaurant. Obviously, the swan got electrocuted. This is in front of all these customers. A lot of them visiting Cape Cod maybe for the first time and it's this majestic scene. And it's like look at the swans and it flew into the power lines and got cooked. Naturally, this changed the mood in the restaurant, it knocked the power out. So that was a big thing. What happened next was our boss came in. And basically it was like we were drawing straws to see because somebody had to go and get the swan to retrieve it, and throw it in the dumpster. So one of the cooks he was the one that was the low man, I guess unlucky to have to go, he brought a garbage bag and some gloves. So just imagine there could have been kids in the restaurant and such and they're watching this cook go out there in his apron with a garbage bag and picking up this majestic Swan that was just cooked in the power lines. And he had to throw it in the trash bag. And he's walking back with the trash bag because the swan This was probably 100 feet a couple 100 feet down the road. So it wasn't like it was out in the water and the power lines were over the road. So it was laying in the road. You had to watch him go walk down the road and pick up this big white bag of feathers and throw it in the trash bag. And that was he came back with the trash bag. He tied it up and threw it in the dumpster to make sure nothing got it. But I do remember for the next few weeks, we had the running joke in the restaurant was that we had actually used the swan as part of our specials because it was like fried chicken. Oh man, I've had to pause this a couple times recording it because I just laughed so much. It's terrible that this swan died. But it's more of the scene of this picture-perfect evening on Cape Cod at this restaurant. You're having this great food, this great scenery. And you know, kids could be like, Oh, Mommy look at the swan, and then it just gets cooked in the power lines. I don't remember if the power came on that night either. That may have ended the night at the restaurant. That was just one of the most legendary stories of my time working in the restaurant was just a swan flying into the power lines and knocking out the power in front of all these customers on a busy summer evening. There are other animal stories, especially at the restaurant that I worked at for a lot of the time, but those will be saved for another restaurant storytime. I hope you enjoyed this third installment of the restaurant storytime attack of the swans. And I hope that if you listen to this, the next time you see a swan you just close your eyes and imagine the scene that we all saw with it flying into the power lines long. That was a long time ago, 25 years ago, but it's still funny to this day.

Road Trip: Hershey, PA

Road trip time again. And it is time for the next stop on my epic 2019 trip all around the eastern seaboard. Last time that we did a road trip we did the capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Now we are going next door basically the next town over the chocolate capital of America, the sweetest place you can go. That's Hershey, Pennsylvania, a lot of the time Hershey and Harrisburg they're kind of promoted together. Even if you go to the tourism website, visit Hershey harrisburg.org. So they're kind of a package deal. One town will promote the other and vice versa. But I wanted to split them up so they each got their own time to shine because even though they're promoted together, they're not really in the same place. Hershey itself is 15 miles east of Harrisburg. It puts it about 95 miles west of Philadelphia. As of 2019, the population there was 14,654 So it's just above a small town. Despite that, above all else, Hershey, Pennsylvania is known for one thing really and it's right in the name. So The Hershey Company was founded in 1894 by Milton Hershey. The company is well-known all over the world for its chocolate. In 1900, Hershey sold its first milk chocolate bar 1907 was when the Hershey's chocolate kisses first came out. So many other legendary products came around in the years that followed. 1939 They had the Hershey's miniatures first started which were originally samples to send out to people looking to sell the products in their stores. In 1963, Hershey bought the HB Reese Candy Company which received pieces Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, all of that legendary candy. By 1979. They had reached their first year Hershey's did have $1 billion in sales. Anyone who's anybody all know Hershey's. Just walking around Hershey, they have street lights. Instead of being normal-looking street lights, they're Hershey Kisses with the lights coming down underneath. Every pole has a different candy bar but it's like a mascot candy bar with a face on it. So if you were driving through accidentally and didn't know what Hershey was or where you were, you would find out real quick, and it's a lot of fun to walk around and just get a feel for it. The main attraction obviously in Hershey is Hershey Park. It's been around for 115 years, and is a 144-acre amusement park in Hershey. In the summer when it's really busy. There are more than 70 rides and attractions 14 roller coasters a water park, the biggest ride is the candy Millennium hypercoaster. That's the parks tallest, fastest and longest roller coaster, it's 210 feet tall, can reach speeds of 76 miles an hour, and extends for more than 4600 feet, which is almost a mile. The thing that I found neat about Hershey is the fact that like I said, it's a small town of 14,000 people. So think of a town that has that many people or that few people and just imagine this huge amusement park there. It's sort of like a juxtaposition where I'm walking down these main streets and they're nice, they're calm and quiet. There's a lot of people but it's not like being in Boston or New York or Philly. And yet a couple of 100 yards away, you can hear screams of people going through these rides, so it was a weird sort of mix. If you're not big into the rides in the amusement park, I definitely recommend Hershey's chocolate world. Not only because it smells like chocolate as soon as you get in there, but you can get all kinds of souvenirs. You learn how chocolate is made, how the chocolate bars are made, you can create your own chocolate bar and either give it as a gift to someone or make it for yourself. They have several different resorts and places to stay when you're there, the hotel Hershey Hershey Lodge and Hershey Park Camping Resort, so they got something for everyone. If you're interested in learning about the history of Hershey, outside of the park, there's the Hershey story museum. And they've got a lot of exhibits and stories of how the company was built. They've naturally got a gift shop and candy store. That's where I went. Because like I told you, when I did this road trip, my time was kind of at a premium. So going and spending the day at Hershey Park as much as I wanted to, wasn't feasible. If you've been listening to this podcast, think about all these places I've shared in the road trip segment the last few episodes. Scranton, Harrisburg, and Hershey, Pennsylvania, are all the same day. And I'm still not done with this day. Next week, we're going to do Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. And even then I'm not done. This is all one day. So the Hershey story museum was a perfect way to tie it all together and get the candy at the gift shop. They had chocolate-scented little mini candles, I got some of those. As I say with all of these road trip segments, especially based around this 2019 trip, go to each place and spend as much time as you can there. Don't be like me and rush through. Because as I research these to share with you on the podcast, I look at these places like oh man, I wish I had spent more time at Hershey Park, I highly recommend taking the time, you can take the Hershey trolley tour, that's a way to go all around the town. It's basically this town was built by Milton Hershey around his company. So it's really interesting to see what his vision was. And just imagine him back in 1894 creating this company. And now here's this huge amusement park and all these resort hotels. If you don't want to take the trolley, they've got those, the bikes that you can rent. It's like they got the little things you put the money in and it unhooks it and you can take the bike and ride around and you just bring it back somewhere else and hook it up. It's almost like a rental car, but it's a little different. To learn more about Hershey and Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, you can check out the Hershey company.com that will give you the history of the company itself and Milton Hershey and the headquarters that are located in Hershey. I walked over to those. And in the parking lot there's all these cars that are just wrapped like they look like candy bar wrappers. So you've got Hershey and Reese's and Fifth Avenue and all these that are just cars and those were a lot of fun. I think they were all-electric vehicles too. I mentioned it during episode 33 But again, check out visit Hershey harrisburg.org to get more ideas of where to go and where to stay. Hershey is pretty obvious where to go and stay, but you never know you might not be into Hershey Park and there's a lot of other stuff to see too. And finally, check out Hershey pa.com. Again, these are three different websites, they're all going to tell you similar different shades of similar things on what to see and what to do in Hershey. I would recommend if you don't want to go to Hershey Park which is going to be crowded, find a place to park and just walk around because that's how I found the museum was just parking and walking around. I didn't have the time to go to Hershey Park so I had to find other ways. Enjoy it. Definitely check out the sweetest place in America, the chocolate Capitol Hershey, Pennsylvania. It's fun for the entire family. And I'll be back in episode 36 For the next road trip which is going to be very different from Hershey, Pennsylvania. This is a civil war American Icon Gettysburg, Pennsylvania I was very thrilled and humbled to be able to go and visit this spot. So there'll be a very different vibe but still just as interesting. Next week on the next road trip

Sponsor: Wear Your Wish

it's September, summer is coming to an end. Kids are going back to school, the weather's about to get crisp and beautiful for fall. Perfect time to find something new and great from Wear your wish Katie marks is company has got all you need to look good for fall to feel good for fall. She's got totes and bags. For those going back to school. She's got hoodies as the weather starts to get cooler. You want jewelry, she's got jewelry and bracelets and accessories. Be sure to check out the new coming soon send corner healing with the intention for your Mind Body Soul and space. The new T shirt shop with new designs, be sure to check out the Sully which is dedicated to our grandfather John Sullivan, you've heard me talk about him a lot. He was my hero. And now he is immortalized in T-shirt and sweatshirt form. And also the Dooby note which will have all the new jewelry accessories and all the other new stuff hand selected each month and wear your wishes.com high-quality fashion and style. Easy online shopping. They're all over social media, Wear your wish find them on Instagram. They're a great follow with more than just products for sale. There's lots of inspirational quotes that I find very helpful on a lot of days. So fall into fashion, grab some great stuff from where your wish at Wear your wishes.com and make sure to make a wish at 11-11.

This Week In History

It's time now for this week in history. And one of the craziest stories I probably will ever have shared on this podcast. I couldn't believe it was true. I had to make sure to share this. This is the story of maybe one of the only TV shows to ever be canceled in the middle of a broadcast because it was so awful. We go back to September 3 1992 29 years ago this week and the naughtiest home videos event from Australia. Basically this TV show was Australia's spin-off to their own Funniest Home Videos like we've got America's Funniest Home Videos. They had Australia's Funniest Home Videos. So Australia's naughtiest home video so you can see where this might go. This show was no lie, a show depicting videos of sexual situations and other sexually explicit content. The show was presented by Doug Moray, and he had a lot of funny one-liners over the videos, but some of these videos I can't believe they made TV. So let's dive into a list of some of the things that were shown on this show. If you're sensitive to this type of stuff, you might want to skip by, content featured shots of animal genitalia. Humans or animals humorously engaged in sexual intercourse. So funny sex that's good for TV, people who get accidentally and humorously disrobed. There were videos like a kid grabbing a kangaroos, testicles, a man lifting a barbell with his penis, an older woman removing an envelope from a strippers underwear with her dentures to people running into the water with flaming pieces of toilet paper stuck to their butt. And two people filmed having sex in the middle of a public park. So just imagine this is the debut episode of there's all this stuff on network TV and Australia. It was featured on the Nine Network and the owner. His name was Kerry Packer. He was informed of what was going on on the show while he was having dinner with friends. So then he found a way to turn it on and see what was on his network. And he called the network's screaming at them to get that off the air. They went to break with Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos on the line. They came back and it was cheers, and they said it was a technical difficulty. So they had replayed the show cheers, but in reality, it had been canceled 24 minutes into its first episode that was meant to go an hour. Ironically, despite the content is not really what you'd want on your network, there were a lot of calls of people complaining that it got yanked that people liked it. It was reported that 1000s of people called into the Nine Network and by estimates, upwards of 65% complained that it was taken off the air, you would have thought it would have been the opposite that people would have wanted it taken off the air. But I guess that kind of sophomore toilet humor, it can be very popular look at the movies, the host, and basically, everyone associated with that show was fired. So everybody lost their job. Ironically, though, Moray did return to the Nine Network to be a judge on the 2005 series star struck. And this was shortly after the owner Kerry Packer passed away so that's the only way he got back on that channel was when the owner of the channel died. So that was the story of the wild story of Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos 29 years ago this week in history, and for the time capsule will go back to the same day but here in America. So 29 years ago this week, September 3 1992 Time Capsule, the number one song in America was end of the road by boys II men. This was a massive hit off of their Cooley high harmony album. It spent a then-record 13 straight weeks at number one, and in the end-of-the-decade charts the end of the 90s it was listed as the number six biggest song of the decade. It was featured in the Eddie Murphy movie boomerang and was certified platinum as far as single status goes. The number one movie was sneakers. It starred Robert Redford River Phoenix, Mary McDonald and Sidney Poitier. It was a comedy crime drama about computer hacking. It made $105 million on a budget of $23 million. It's got a 79% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it's classified as a classic rainy day type movie. So I think it comes highly recommended. I have not seen it even though it came out during my going to the movies' heyday. The number one TV show was Roseanne, which I believe has come up before in a previous week in history, but I'm not positive on that. Roseanne was a massive success about the Conner family. It lasted originally for 231 episodes between 1988 and 1997. It was number one for several years. And it was such a cultural phenomenon in America that it actually came back. The Comeback didn't last long, though, because Roseanne Barr has kind of a big mouth and she says things that she probably shouldn't say. And that's always been the way she was. So she got booted off her own show. And it became just the Conners after. And if you were getting ready to go back to school in 1992, like I was I was getting ready to start high school. And you wanted a nice cool pair of Levi's jeans. If you lived on Cape Cod, you could go to Puritan Cape Cod, we had three locations down here, you could get a pair of Levi's jeans for 3195. when adjusted for inflation, it's about $62 and it looking around now if you wanted to buy Levi's jeans, they range somewhere in the 40 to $50 range. So that means that they were actually overpriced back in the early 90s. And now they're cheaper. That's usually the inverse when I do these types of Time Capsule listings. That's going to wrap up this week in history and another time capsule. But now it's time to dive into something else. I've been looking forward to the new top five list. This is going to be the top 519 80s fads. These are things that I thought of. Maybe you've got a lot of different ones. But let's get that countdown going right now.

Top 5: 1980s Fads

Oh, yes, the 80s my childhood. I always talk about how movies and music and video games and all this I just feel like all that it's, I'm the old man. Now this is my day was better. Some things have aged very well, some things have not aged well, that's what this top five is going to go into the top 5 1980s fads. These are things that every kid and adult had or did, and most of them I think have faded away, but we'll find out. First we've got some honorable mentions as far as 80s fads go, honorable mention list Koosh balls, which was a rubber ball with those little different colored rubber filaments all around it, hacky sacks, which were all the cool skaters used kicking around shoulder pads and women's clothing, which if you look it up, it's kind of weird looking. Even now, leg warmers, which were everywhere as far as exercising, but then they became part of people's outfits, which is just really weird. Breakdancing, which I guess is kind of still around, but back then it was everywhere you put down a piece of cardboard in the street and just start doing these spins and such. And the final honorable mention is Swatch watches which were everywhere. So those were the honorable mentions. Let's get into the actual top 5 1980s fads. Number one, the members only jacket members only were an actual clothing company. They're still around. And these jackets, they were like racer jackets kinda like windbreakers, but a little bit better quality, I guess. They're very creative tagline was when you put it on, something happens. They were everywhere. It was almost cliche at the time, especially the early to mid-80s To have a members only jacket. But obviously the company faded away. And it was relaunched in 2016 So you literally can pause this podcast and go to members only.com And get yourself a members only jacket. 35 years later, I guess they're back in fashion or they're trying to get back in fashion. Number two calculator watches. I had one of these, I guess Apple watches that are out now are actually you know, you can do all the stuff that you do on a smartphone calculator watches, that was literally all you could do. And the buttons were so small to try to do any sort of simple addition. It's like you needed the tip of your pencil in school to actually use it. The main brand that sold these was Casio and the funny thing is if you go on Amazon right now they've got vintage Casio calculator watches up there 24.95 I think that's cheaper than they were back in the 80s. When I had mine in school, it was probably more expensive then. Lots of kids had them. I think when we had tests back, you know, fourth fifth grade, I think we had to take them off. I didn't have mine for very long. Being 10-11 years old, I probably ruined it. Number three, and this one is for my sister's, the jelly shoes. These were slightly glittery open toed really soft, rubbery type shoes. I just remember all my sisters talking about their jellies jelly shoes. They were slip-on PVC, plastic rubber, they had a shine to them, all little girls wanted them. Although the exact origins of the shoes are unknown, it's claimed that a Brazilian company named grenadine introduced them in the early 1980s. They really took off in 1983 when Bloomingdale's ordered 1000s of pairs to sell and that kind of made them hit the pop culture market. They're technically still around so you can get some sort of my sisters want to get jelly shoes, I'm sure you can find them. Number four, Trapper Keeper. So this goes back to everyone in school. The Trapper Keeper was a binder that it had kind of a Soft Sheen foamy cover to it, they would have different designs with the Velcro to close it. And inside it had room for all these specific folders for specific classes. Everybody wanted one most people had them. I know I had mine. It was created by a company called Mead. And they've actually brought them back so much like the members only jacket you can get a trapper keeper too. So go out there get a members only jacket, a trapper keeper, some jelly shoes and just live in the 80s again, although it was originally launched in 1978 by Mead It was huge in the 1980s go look up on YouTube commercials for it. At its peak, the mead was selling more than $100 million worth of Trapper keepers a year. And I know I was a part of that were you 80s kids. And number five, perhaps the biggest fad Rubik's Cube. It was a puzzle game with different colored squares, and you had to line up all the colors on one side to make them all match. It was originally invented in 1974, by a Hungarian sculptor and Professor of Architecture, Arroyo Rubik, and it was called the magic cube. In 1980, the ideal toy company bought it. And from there, it took off, it was worldwide, it became the best-selling toy, the best-selling puzzle game ever. As of 2021, more than 450 million Rubik's cubes have been sold worldwide. And for those of you are those of us, I should say that had a Rubik's Cube and could never solve it. It's just to add a little salt to the wound. The record for the fastest time solving a Rubik's Cube is 3.47 seconds. I don't know how that's humanly possible. But yes, it's approved. It's a Guinness record. How in the world can you solve that thing in less than four seconds. And only thing I could do with that thing in four seconds is throw it in my closet, never use it again, because I get frustrated by it. That wraps up top 580s fads. We'll be back in episode 36 with another random but fun top five list of things just in general with the world.

Back In the Day: Old School PSAs

It's time to go way way back in the day with a topic that I've wanted to share for a while I'm really excited to share this give some cool memories to people of my age group, because I think you're all going to remember these things I'm about to talk about. Obviously, growing up on Cape Cod, being a child of the 80s, before school or on weekends, I would watch either channel 56, wlvi, or WSBK TV-38. And they'd have certain commercials and PSAs public service announcements in the morning geared towards children and teenagers. And that's going to be what I talked about in this segment. The ones I remember. And I bet you, especially when I give you the links to where to go see them, it's going to bring major flashbacks to you. I have an affinity for old commercials because for some reason I enjoy that feeling of the retro if you couldn't tell by this podcast, I'm a big fan of retro stuff. Back in the early early days of YouTube, I started just looking up Boston television channel commercials from the 80s. That's something I've subscribed to several channels like that. And it's just a lot of fun to get lost for a few minutes. In the old days. Over time, I was start to see these old PSAs that I remembered as a kid. And what I did was I got real player software, and I was able to rip the video from YouTube and save it because some of these channels are gone now. And so I made it a point to save all these commercials. I just went and checked my files on my laptop. I have more than 100 old commercials and PSAs that I remember downloading from back then the first ones I'm going to share are the Abominable Snowman or Better Business Bureau. PSAs he was like a puppet, an abominable snowman. And he would do PSAs like one was about saving your money and using it to buy things you want like balloons and kites. One was about not littering. There was one in school about getting school lunch and the snowman, abominable gut cake and things. And then there was a bird that was with him that she got all good stuff salad and orange and stuff. They were called Jr. Consumer tips. If you go to YouTube, and I'll put links in the actual description of the podcast, but the channel on YouTube is called love to register and the channel is still there and these videos are now 14 and 15 years old on YouTube and they're from the early 80s late 70s That one you'll definitely remember. How about woodsy owl help woodsy Spread the word, give a hoot don't pollute. Now those are everywhere. Most children of the 80s will remember woodsy owl where he was that huge mascot the owl with the green clothes and the big hat. They said please keep America looking good. I think he's still around in one form or another now but he started in 1971 woodsy owl to just keep the forests clean and nature. For the kids of my generation. You'll remember that he was originally voiced by a man named Sterling Holloway and you'll know him because he used to voice Winnie the Pooh. And so that's what I remember is woodsy owl and Winnie the Pooh at the same voice because they were voiced by the same man. There was an American Lung Association PSA with Superman in it from 1982. He had this packet of things called Super stuff, I believe it was these kids were playing on a baseball field and one kid didn't want to play because he had asthma. And he was worried about getting winded from asthma. And that's part of the American Lung Association and the super stuff. Another really famous one was McGruff, the Crime Dog, that one I think everyone remembers, even if you're not from that era, you've probably heard of McGruff, where he wanted to help take a bite out of crime. And especially the early 80s, there'd be things happening where Neighborhood Watch would see someone stealing a bike or someone trying to break into someone's house, and they would report it to the police and the cops would come and arrest the people. And McGruff would be there to kind of say you can help too, and things. He first came out in 1980, according to a 2008 survey that I found through Wikipedia, so you know, but nine out of 10 people recognize him. Now they could all be people my age, but you know, he's very recognizable. Another one I remember specifically from WLVI, was the Be Prepared PSAs for the Boy Scouts. And it was a song people saw and be prepared. I don't know if that will put the earworm in your head. Like I said, I'll put the links up on the description of the podcast so you can go and find them. Essentially, it was just a series of PSAs about joining the Boy Scouts and the fun stuff you could do building things and camp fires and such. The YouTube channel to find those is msTs one. And that channel has got a lot of local WLvi old commercials and such on it. Another series of PSAs that just have seeped into my subconscious from a child was the local dairy council ones. There was one that was Alison Wonderland where she seeing all these different characters from the cartoon eating and telling her about different dairy things and why she should eat them. There was one that was Dr. Brain Stein, who was telling this little kid about different things to eat for the Dairy Council. There was one that was like a pinball machine with things to like the four food groups. That was a big part of it. These were late 70s, early 80s. And I promise you if you're my age, if you lived in the Northeast in the 70s and 80s. If you see these, you're going to remember them. A really rare one was Snuffy, the talking fire engine. And I guess this was in conjunction with Burger King. I remember in kindergarten, they had a Snuffy type fire engine came in and did a talk about fire safety. So I don't know if it was the same Snuffy or if they had a whole bunch, but it was a old antique-looking fire engine with a face on it. That was kind of terrifying. Where the mouth would go up and down, but it was obviously being moved by someone and they talked about, you know, stop, drop and roll and all that stuff. But Snuffy, that's another one. There was an energy-saving one with a squirrel in a tree, and he's playing music and a giraffe comes over to have him go out like to go hang out, and he's just going to leave and he leaves his music on windows open and lights on and the giraffe is yelling at him about wasting heat and energy. That may have been another Better Business Bureau one after this. I'll probably go and watch all of these but right now I'm literally going from memory. And finally, the last one as far as these old school PSAs to share was the time for timer. He did the hanker for a hunk of cheese. That was his most famous one. I don't know what he was. He was just like a blob with feet and a hat and he would dance and sing and he had a cane. He also did something sunshine on a stick which was juice popsicles. He did the you are what you eat one. If you want to find a compilation for that. There's a channel rad martagon on YouTube, and he's got a compilation it's five and a half minutes of all the old time for timer PSAs and there was still more I was getting the main ones that I remembered there was like Chow daddy, who was like a weird wolf that was dancing around. And it's a weird one like he's doing the dance for different foods to eat. One of the best is if you're from this area is a guy named robe. alar who was a Martian, and he was he was eating candy bars, but then they had fruit and he was all shocked about the fruit. He had this glittery body suit on any talks with the thickest Boston accent which just is so funny. Martian with a Boston accent, you can find that one there's a channel JRod49. That's where I got it. I downloaded it from that page. So I have all of these. Those are some of my favorite PSAs from my childhood way back in the day, Saturday morning or before school these would all be on these just Do you remember any of those? The Abominable Snowman, woodsy owl? Do you remember the Be Prepared Boy Scouts, one, any of the local dairy council or time for timer, Snuffy, all of them, it's such it's so great that I can watch them that I found them. And I'm hoping that if I share the links with you that you'll get some nice flashbacks. And if you're younger, you'll look back at those and say, God, what the hell were these people thinking? But that's why I love the 80s

Closing

that's gonna put a wrap on episode 35 of the in my footsteps podcast. I hope you've enjoyed listening to it. As much as I've enjoyed recording it. This one was a lot of fun. And I always liked that you can kind of tell when I find topics that I can't wait to talk about that PSAs one was great. If you ever have any questions or comments, shoot me an email at Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. You can email me through my website, Christopher setterlund.com. That's got links to the podcast links to all my books is run by my oldest friend Barry Menard, you heard a couple weeks ago I did my happy birthday wish to him his birthdays pass now but happy belated again. You can find me on Twitter, obviously find me on Instagram and check out the live streams every Friday at 8pm. So this podcast goes up on a Thursday. So on the Friday there'll be a live stream. If you tune into that I just may have a whole bunch of photos of all those PSA characters to show you and jog your memory. Subscribe on YouTube. I've got new videos I'm trying to put up as many as I can. 4K New England I'm going to try to get back into now that September is here. Check out the in my footsteps podcast blog. I've got a lot of new articles I'm trying to work on that. I've recently done articles on the old fiddlebees restaurant and nightclub in Hyannis, the shootflying Hill in Hyannis tower and rest area. And before that I did Henry and Elsie Bowman, who escaped Nazi Germany and ran to successful restaurants in Massachusetts, from the 50s through the 1980s. Go to history press.com If you want to buy a copy of my newest book, iconic hotels and motels of Cape Cod, it's also available in all the local bookstores on the cape and  amazon.com Naturally, I've got three books through the history press three books through Schiffer Publishing. So you can check out any of those that are linked on my website, like I said, so go there, it's one stop shopping. Check out my Zazzle store zazzle.com Cape Cod living if you want an in my footsteps podcast bumper sticker. If you want to support the podcast by buying me a coffee at buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps, podcast, anything that gets donated, I use for advertising for the podcast. Donations are great. And yeah, I love all that. But the greatest thing you can do as a listener is share it, give it positive reviews on Apple and Spotify. And just let people know, because that's how you grow the audience. We're coming up on a year of me doing these podcasts. And I love it. It's a lot of fun. I've now gotten into recording the podcast in one shot before I used to do the segments one at a time, and then stitch it together. Now I just run through all of them. I think it helps with the continuity of the podcast. As always, I wanted to make sure I thank all of you that have been listening, all of you that have shared the podcast, all of you that interact with me. That's a big reason why I did this. I wanted to share a lot of my passions and things that I thought people could identify with. That's why I do some lifestyle stuff, the restaurant storytime and the other topics back in the day and road trip and things like that. I feel like a lot of you can connect and I'm finding that audience. Join me again next week for episode 36. Like I said, we're going to do a road trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That's going to be a lot of fun to talk about. We're gonna go way back in the day to my memories of what it was like getting ready to go back to school. That's going to be a lot of retro fun. I'll tell you all about Cape Cod's very first radio station and it's not anyone that you've probably ever heard of. It only lasted a short time in the 1920s and its story is pretty wild. I'll embarrass myself with a new top five of movies that gave me nightmares so you can laugh about them. There'll be a new time capsule new this week in history all coming up next week. So I hope you'll join me for that. Above all else, take care of yourself, take care of your mental health. I'm coming up on a year without alcohol. And there's been so many different things roadblocks thrown at me, and I'm sure you all have dealt with your own. COVID is something we all share. But other things besides that, I actually put a post on Facebook a few weeks ago that it was a miracle that I've gone almost a year without alcohol with all of the crazy crap that I've dealt with work and deaths in the family and housing having to find a new place to live. And I rely on family and friends to kind of have my back and recenter me and I couldn't do it without those people. And I'm sure you all have your own inner circle of people that have helped you through. But most of all, take care of your mental health. Lean into the things that make you happy. This podcast makes me happy. Getting back into running makes me happy. Whatever it is for you enjoy that more. And in this life. Don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. And enjoy every moment you can on every step of this journey, because you just never know. Happy Labor Day weekend coming up. I'll talk to you all again next week for episode 36 Come over for the live stream tomorrow night. Thank you all so so much and I will talk to you all again soon.