Episode 43 begins Year Two of the podcast and what better way to celebrate a birthday show than with the story of one of the kings of Cape Cod entertainment the Mill Hill Club in West Yarmouth. From humble beginnings of suits and strings this establishment turned in to one of the most happening places to be for over fifty years.
Birthdays can make you feel old, one way to feel young again is by giving your hair a more youthful shade. We go way Back In the Day as I embarrass myself with stories of hair coloring gone wrong, and basically they all went wrong.
The latest stop on my epic 2,100-mile Road Trip is the place where the Civil War was ended, Appomattox, Virginia. After the last story of the Blue Ridge Parkway fail was this a chapter with a happy ending? Well, yes and no.
Infomercials have been a staple of daytime television for decades. Children have had sick days filled with them when staying home from school. So which of the As Seen On TV products are or were the funniest? This week's new Top 5 shares some that will give you memories and some laughs.
There's a brand new This Week In History with the debut of the Boston Bruins and a Time Capsule surrounding another special birthday, my own!
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)
Listen to Episode 42 here.
Episode 43 begins Year Two of the podcast and what better way to celebrate a birthday show than with the story of one of the kings of Cape Cod entertainment the Mill Hill Club in West Yarmouth. From humble beginnings of suits and strings this establishment turned in to one of the most happening places to be for over fifty years.
Birthdays can make you feel old, one way to feel young again is by giving your hair a more youthful shade. We go way Back In the Day as I embarrass myself with stories of hair coloring gone wrong, and basically they all went wrong.
The latest stop on my epic 2,100-mile Road Trip is the place where the Civil War was ended, Appomattox, Virginia. After the last story of the Blue Ridge Parkway fail was this a chapter with a happy ending? Well, yes and no.
Infomercials have been a staple of daytime television for decades. Children have had sick days filled with them when staying home from school. So which of the As Seen On TV products are or were the funniest? This week's new Top 5 shares some that will give you memories and some laughs.
There's a brand new This Week In History with the debut of the Boston Bruins and a Time Capsule surrounding another special birthday, my own!
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)
Listen to Episode 42 here.
Intro
Hello World. And welcome in to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is the beginning of year two of the podcast and we're starting it off with episode 43. We're going to kick off the second year of the podcast with a loaded episode, starting off with the story of one of the biggest icons in the history of Cape Cod business, entertainment, and all that the Mill Hill club itself what a story it's got. We're going to continue with a new road trip to Appomattox, Virginia, where the Civil War ended. And I've got a funny story of how I ended up there. We're going to go way, way back in the day as I share my most embarrassing and funny stories of coloring my hair because I was never satisfied with his actual color. There's a brand new top five list with the funniest As Seen on TV products that you'll remember probably most of we've got a new this week in history and Time Capsule centered around a certain birthday. But we'll get into that in a second. All of that more coming up right now on episode 43 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome everybody. This is going to be a unique podcast in several ways. As I said, we're kicking off year two of the podcast when this debuts it will be one year to the day from when I started this journey. It's been a long road, it's been a long fun road. A lot of topics that I've covered that I've enjoyed from Cape Cod, New England and beyond, I can still remember when this was just a kernel of an idea, a way to share a lot of different topics that I enjoy, and hopefully you enjoy it was kinda like that, where hey, at least I'm doing something creative that I like. And if other people like it, that's great. If not, I'm still doing something fun and creative. When I was 12, 13, 14 years old, I used to make my own radio shows with friends, talk shows, commercials, and skits. So this is almost like an extension of that. And someday I'll do a back-in-the-day segment and talk about all of those, but it's kind of full circle. And here I am in my 40s and I'm doing something similar. I've been really happy with how things have progressed with this. I've gotten to communicate with many people that listen to the podcast, people that I don't know, you know, outside of friends and family who obviously always support me and I appreciate. But I'm talking about people that I've never met that I've come into contact with because of the podcast. And that's what's really great is kind of the common bond with things that I talk about. And I'll dive way more into all of the history, this first year of the podcast in the live stream that's going to be Friday at eight on Instagram, like I always do, unless you're hearing this after the fact that you've missed it. But I'm going to do a lot more it's going to be like a retrospective coming up Friday. Like I said this was a unique podcast this episode for several reasons. One was at the beginning of year two of the podcast. Second reason is that as I'm recording this, I am without power where I live, we had a huge nor'easter winds gusting 85 to 90 miles an hour knocking trees down and knocking power out. So I'm recording this on my laptop, basically looking at the battery and hoping I have enough to get it done. Because I want to make sure that this is ready to go on the date that it's supposed to go. So we'll see how that goes. But right now there's literally no power. I've got about 50% of battery left on my laptop, hopefully it's going to come back on soon. But we're going on 36 hours. The other reason that it's unique is that this is my birthday week. So by the time this podcast comes out my birthday will have just passed on November 2. And it's interesting because now here I am in my mid-40s. And yet I don't feel it most of the time, where I almost can convince myself that I'm still 25 years old and kind of on the ascent in life. But in reality, I'm close to the halfway point of my life. And you know, the funny thing about getting older is that the good old days that you look back on, they get more and more recent, which is one of those things that just it blows your mind. In fact, now there are different layers of good old days in my life, childhood where there was no responsibility or high school, where you're forming who you're going to be and making plans for that next step of your life. Then there are my 20s where I was constantly moving away from Cape Cod, moving to Las Vegas moving to Florida, and planning to move to New Orleans but not doing it. And now I even got the good old days when my oldest nieces were little, little kids, they're now 22 and 20, my two oldest nieces. And I'm just like, how are you Now at that age where I was moving to Vegas when I was my oldest niece's age? It's like, you want to slow down time, but you also want them to experience life too. I'm lucky that I have six nieces and nephews, and my youngest niece, who I've mentioned a bunch on here. She's not even three years old yet. So it's like, I kind of get a reprieve from feeling old at times. I can always sit here and long for those days. And I do quite a bit to be honest. It's also a fact that the next set of good old days could be happening now. Or soon, and I don't even realize it. I could always sit here and reminisce about family and friends who have passed or that I've lost touch with. Or I could realize that this time, it's easier to reconnect than at any point in human history. With social media with smartphones, if you haven't reached out to someone in years, you can find them instantly. So there's not much point in looking back when you could actually just reconnect now, I've spent my birthday week looking back a little, but also looking around me a lot more. As far as like introspectively, who am I? Who did I think I'd be at this time in my life. And what's important to me at this point in life, people will tell you Life is short. And for some it is, but for most, it is long. And being long, it's filled with opportunities, and clean slates, that are ready for you to ride on when the new day starts. And that's how I feel as I enter my 44th year on this earth, there have been a lot of good old days, there have been a lot of battle days, there have been people that have come and gone, people that have come and stayed people that I'm glad are here, people that I'm glad are not in my life anymore. But there's also that childlike wonder still in my life of what could come tomorrow, I always have that feeling of the other shoe is gonna drop. It can sound like dread, but it's not. There are things going on in life where you just never know what the next day brings of what next opportunity comes. But I'm gonna do my best to make this next year in my life the best it can possibly be. And I am so glad that you are all here to be a part of it and joining him with this podcast. And I wanted to start off year two with something very big, important, special and fun. And that's going to be the story of the iconic legendary Mill Hill club in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts. Even if you're not from the Cape, I bet you've heard of it. And I'm going to give you the whole scoop on the story coming up on episode 43 of the in my footsteps podcast.
Mill Hill Club
Though there have been countless hundreds and probably 1000s of nightclubs and bars and other forms of nightlife on Cape Cod, going back as far as the late 17th century, very few if any have reached the iconic heights of the Mill Hill Club. For more than five decades, the Mill Hill Club was more than a bar more than a nightclub. It was a destination, a landmark it was an institution on Cape Cod. However, you can't tell the story of the Mill Hill club. Without going back to its predecessor, Mill Hill is an actual physical location. And before the club that bears the name stood there, there was another spot in the location. nearly 30 years before the king of Cape Cod entertainment opened up. Another business sat atop mill hill overlooking what today is known as route 28. In the summer of 1924, a restaurant called The Old Mill tavern opened and carved out its own niche. The old mill tavern was owned by a woman named Rose Klaus who based her restaurant on the idea of traditional Southern cooking. And this was further stressed by the fact that advertisements from the day proudly trumpeted the fact they had a real southern mammy cooking the meals such as chicken and waffles. Klaus would eventually sell old mill tavern to Henry Fern and he ran the establishment until his death in 1941. And his death along with the outbreak of World War Two effectively ended the old mill tavern, and the building itself laid dormant for most of the 1940s. That was until 1948, when the most famous resident of Mill Hill took root. And contrary to what people remember those that went through the golden age of Cape Cod nightlife. The Mill Hill club, in the beginning, was far different from how it will be viewed during the heyday. It was originally owned by Harold Smith, whose son Jack Bragington Smith, eventually owned Mill Hill, a sandy pond club, and later Jack's outback in the beginning, the Mill Hill Club was an upscale estate establishment. It hosted fancy gatherings, weddings, parties, while also having an orchestra that played there. Smith only owned the Mill Hill club for a few years. He sold it in May of 1952 to a company called Mill Hill development, which was headed by a man named Joseph Sullivan. Though it was known more for strings and suit jackets during the 1950s. The initial incarnation of the Mill Hill club did play a big part in the early days of Cape Cod jazz. It was during the early 1950s that legendary jazz trumpeter Lou Columbo got his start on the cape by commuting from Brockton to play as part of a big band ensemble at Mill Hill. Later on in the 1970s Colombo would get a full-time gig there, leading to him moving to Cape Cod permanently with his family, though still maintaining a finger on the pulse of Cape Cod jazz throughout its early decades, the Mill Hill club began to incorporate other forms of music inside its walls. purchased in the late 1960s by Carmine Vara, the club ushered in acts like folk rockers Peter, Paul and Mary. While later on during the days of punk black flag would blister through a set there during the early 1980s. Comedian and future Crystal Palace owner Dick Doherty began to perform on the Mill Hill stage. In addition to those performances, such big stars like Jonathan Edwards, BB King, Gary Lewis, and his playboys, the grass roots and local legends, the incredible casuals and more would make appearances. It got to the point that these legendary performances were so iconic that in 1979, Mill Hill club had a live album that came out literally just Mill Hill live. And you can find it's very, very rare, but it's one of those things that if you have it, it's probably worth a good amount I would think. Vara, along with his son Henry and manager, Corydon Litchard would oversee the most prosperous and yet controversial period of the Mill Hill club. From 1969 to 1978. The same management team would be in charge that change when littered left at the beginning of 1979. trying his hand at owning the venerable velvet hammer in Hyannis. The Mill Hill Club was one of the pioneers of the Cape Cod happy hour, and attracted countless 1000s of people yearly, especially at its peak period of the 1970s into the 80s. The club expanded from the original 1600 square foot footprint of the old mill tavern to an enormous 8500 square foot, plus a parking lot with 150 vehicles. It truly was the king of Cape Cod clubs. However, as time went on, the Mill Hill club became a victim of its own popularity. It was wrought with liquor violations, small fires, Rowdy crowds, and increasingly louder entertainment, and Mill Hill became a target of the town of Yarmouth. beginning as early as the late 1970s. Residents complained to the town about overflow parking with people parking vehicles wherever they could, just to get into the iconic establishment. This led to liquor licenses and entertainment licenses being temporarily suspended at times like in 1983 and 2001. But the Mill Hill club soldiered on, Henry Vara took full control of the club from his father in late 1985. With Jim Leonsis coming on as manager, he would introduce the appropriately named mill tavern at the Mill Hill club as part of the complex. At the dawn of the 21st century, complaint calls continued to rise and the Mill Hill club slowly slid into obscurity, though it remained technically open until 2008. The club was virtually deserted in the years leading up to its official demise. The shell of the once mighty Mill Hill club fell into disrepair sitting on high overlooking route 28 as a relic of the golden age of Cape Cod nightlife. And you'll hear me talk a lot about the golden age of Cape Cod nightlife. It was basically the time from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. And kind of the end of it was the crackdown on drunk driving. That was really what started the downfall of a lot of these clubs, and they basically became targets for the town. Other ones besides Mill Hill, you're looking at it Guido Murphy's puffer bellies, the compass lounge, ones like that. They all span that golden age, as far as the Mill Hill when the facade crumbled over a period of several years before finally being knocked down in 2014. Making the way for a senior living facility ironically, Mill Hill residence which is owned by Maplewood. It opened officially in August 2017. This Retirement Community sits where the former king of Cape Cod nightclubs once stood for more than 50 years. And in a final piece of irony, the disco ball which hung inside the Mill Hill club for decades now sits in the lobby of the Mill Hill residents and enjoying its retirement. And there's the running joke that a lot of people that used to go to the Mill Hill club will end up being residences now at Mill Hill, because it's more for dementia people. And I used to work at the Mayflower retirement home and I've been inside Mill Hill and I have seen the disco ball, I've got a picture of it. I'll post it up on Twitter. So you can see the disco ball. It's in the lobby, and I think the people in there get kind of tired of people asking about it. But as far as icons of Cape Cod entertainment and nightlife, there are very few that rival the Mill Hill club, if you lived on Cape Cod, if you visited Cape Cod in the 60s 70s 80s 90s, chances are if you didn't go there, you knew people that did and if you went there, you didn't forget it. Because of the way the world has changed things like the entertainment and nightclub bar complex, like the Mill Hill club probably will never be seen again just because of the way the world is now. But there are pictures you can visit the kings of Cape cod.com, which is basically the group of all those guys that you remember that played at places like the Mill Hill club, people like John Morgan, people like Jim Plunkett, people like Gary Titus. So if you want another trip down memory lane after listening to this on the podcast, definitely go to Kings of Cape cod.com. And check out Dan McCarthy's site. He helped me a lot with my Cape Cod Knight's book, from which the Mill Hill Club was a big part of it. So go and pay them a visit and tell them you heard about it on the in my footsteps podcast, he'll get a kick out of it. He did a great job and all those legends of Cape Cod nightlife, they're still there for you to go check out. Even if the buildings themselves aren't around. All those legends are still there. And thankfully, in the technological age, we live in it's possible to take those trips down memory lane without the risk of a DUI
Road Trip: Appomattox, VA
It’s road trip time again, and it's a classic story time again. So you remember the last road trip segment in Episode 41. I talked about my epic fail in trying to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well this road trip segment here picks up right where that left off. After I realized I wasn't going to get to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. I went to the next spot on my checklist and that was Appomattox, Virginia. And for those of you that are history buffs, you know that Appomattox was where the Civil War ended or where Robert E Lee surrendered to Ulysses S Grant. Other than that, it's a really small town. As of 2020, it had a population of 1794. It's 90 miles west of Richmond, Virginia. For those of you that listened to Episode 41, you know that I made it to a little town called Love Virginia. That was my last gasp at trying to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway to get from Love to Appomattox is almost an hour. So I was basically up against it as far as beating the sunset to try to get to one spot and that's the McLean house at the Appomattox Courthouse. I guess I should have known better that Appomattox Courthouse is a small village. It wasn't an actual courthouse where the surrender was signed. That's why the McLean house ended up being where I needed to be. I figured that out once I got there, which adds to the embarrassment of the story. So we'll set it up. I've got an hour's drive ahead of me. It's cloudy out and it looks like it's going to rain. And so I'm barreling down Virginia route 151 And I mean, barreling like I'm flying, and I've got my Waze app on because Waze will alert you to where police are. So I'm basically figuring I can go as fast as I want and I'll make it in time, but there's still in the back of my mind, I'm like, I'm gonna get pulled over and I'm not even gonna make it. It'll be an epic fail all around. I didn't get pulled over. But when I got to 111 National Park Drive, which is where the Appomattox Courthouse National Park is. It was basically just after sunset but there was no sunset because it was cloudy and now it was pouring rain. When I pulled up the parking lot is basically empty. There's like one or two other cars and there are people getting in those cars. I come whipping around I drive up to the cars, and it was the National Park Rangers. They were closing up the park for the night it was after five, that's when they closed. So at that moment, I'm late. It's rainy. It's almost dark. And I'm there but I can't make it. I'm figuring this is like getting tackled at the one-yard line. I got out and I tried to explain to one of the park rangers as I'm getting soaked. I said, I drove all the way I said, I'm from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I tried to make it seem like I drove straight from Cape Cod to Appomattox, but I really didn't. But I said I drove there. I just wanted to see them. I said I wanted to see the Appomattox Courthouse actually first. That's when they said You mean the McLean house, I see where the surrender took place. And that's when I got it explained that it was the McLean house. So I think they took pity on me. I said all I want to do is run to it and get a couple of pictures. And that's it. I'll leave you can watch me leave. So they took pity on me and they let me go I'm getting soaked. I'm basically videotaping the walk over to it's this red farmhouse with this big white front porch, two stories. It was owned by Wilmer McLean and his family. It eventually became part of the Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Monument, April 10 1940. It was 970 acres. The McLean house would eventually be renovated and reopened April 9 1949, which was fitting because April 9 1865, was where General Robert E. Lee and General Ulysses S. Grant met to discuss the terms of surrender of the Confederate army to end the civil war. But coming back here, I was running my way up to the house, I barely had time to even realize where I was I videotaped most of the walk up there and took a few photos. But by the time I took the last photo, which was a panoramic shot, it was basically dark. Again, this comes back to what I've said during all of these road trip segments that go over my 2019 2100-mile six-day road trip, that there was very little time to enjoy what I saw. At the moment, I was trying to cram everything possible into that trip. And the McLean house at the Appomattox Courthouse National Park is another example where I ran up, I videotaped it, I took photos, and I ran back to my car and I got the hell out of there. And I didn't get to enjoy what I saw until I looked at the photos, watch the video afterward. And I was like, Wow, imagine where I was this historic spot where the Civil War surrender was signed. But don't be like me, if you're going to go down there, go and spend a couple of days in the Appomattox area and the surrounding area to actually soak it in Appomattox is very much classic small-town America, check out Appomattox chamber.org. To get a better idea of some of the businesses down there. You can spend the night at the Appomattox Inn and Suites located at 447 Old Courthouse Road. Or if you prefer a bed and breakfast, you can stay at the Babcock house at 250 Oakley Avenue. They also have a highly rated restaurant inside the b&b and you can see all about it at Babcock house.com. They've been a bed and breakfast and restaurant since 1996. But the house itself dates back to 1884. So it's a cool slice of today and yesterday. If you want to venture outside of the Babcock house, you can also get something to eat at granny B's. It's a classic breakfast, lunch and dinner diner, American style. It's just got that classic feel there 179 Main Street and Granny bs.com. And like I say, with all these places that I visit, whether it's New England or whether it's across the East Coast, go there and find your own way. Don't just go with my recommendations because my tastes might not match yours. So the best way to check out Appomattox or any of the other places that I've described is to just go there, find your own way, point the car and just let it take you where it takes you. That wraps up this week's road trip to Appomattox, Virginia. Come back next week and there'll be another one as we continue on my epic 2019 road trip that I can't wait to do again Sunday.
Sponsor: Wear Your Wish
November is here. That's the month that has Thanksgiving in it. And there's so much to be thankful for health, friends, family, but it's also the birth month of the Creator, owner CEO of Wear your wish Katie marks. Katie has worked so hard on her clothing accessory apparel line and so much more. There's always new things to check out at wear your wishes.com They've got new boho T shirts, check out the double-layer feather anklet in the jewelry. There's so much more there for bracelets for T shirts, and sweatshirts. There are fashions for all ages, all genders all times of year for gifts for yourself. All of it high-quality merchandise created with love straight from the mind of Katie marks. Anything from joggers, and sweatpants, to tote bags to tabletop fountains and there's always new stuff coming out. Whatever I mentioned now for November, there's going to be new stuff coming out in the next weeks. Things for Thanksgiving for Christmas for New Year's for spring. It's all there. There's wearable aromatherapy, sacred chakra wellness stone kit, there are things you wouldn't even think of if you go to Wear your wishes.com and check out the Wear your wish brand you're going to find something you want for yourself or something that you want to give to others. And that is the whole point. Giving something wonderful to someone wonderful. And Katie marks at Wear your wish does that. So visit them today Wear your wishes.com and find that special something for that special someone.
This Week In History
This week in history, we go back 97 years this week, November 1 1924 and the founding of the NHL Boston Bruins. The 1924 25 Boston Bruins season was the team's first in the National Hockey League. Along with the Montreal maroons. The Bruins were the first expansion franchise in the NHL and the league's first American based club, but like any good expansion team that you've ever seen in any of the major sports, the Bruins did not do well. They finished last in the league with a record of six and 24 and did not qualify for the playoffs. The Bruins team had their first practice on November 15 1924 and played their first game on Thanksgiving Day November 27 1924. It was an exhibition game against the Saskatoon sheiks of the Western Canada Hockey League, in which the Bruins lost two to one. That first year the Bruins had a brown and yellow jersey brown and yellow stripe with white numbers a small bear with the Boston Bruins on it. The color scheme was from the first national stores a grocery store chain owned by the Bruins owner Charles Adams. That first year was the only year that the Bruins wore those jerseys. The Bruins played their first games in Boston arena later known as Matthews Arena. It is now home to the Northeastern University men's hockey team and has been since their program was formed in 1929. The Bruins did however, when their very first game their home opener against the Montreal maroons in a nearly sold-out Boston arena two to one. The first goal in the history of the franchise was scored by smokey Harris, while Carson Cooper, who assisted on Harris's goal scored the game-winner. After that incredible first win, the Bruins would then go on to lose their next 11 games in a row. However, it wasn't all bad as the Bruins did go on to kind of be a good team one of the original six, they won their first of six Stanley Cups in 1929. Their last one came in 2011. And they've had some legendary players like Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, Phil Esposito, Cam Neely, Johnny Bucyk, and countless more. They are truly an icon of the NHL and of Boston sports. And their journey into history began 97 years ago this week in history, November 1 1924. And speaking of beginning their journeys into history, this week in history, November 2 1977, the host of the in my footsteps podcast was born. And this is a special time capsule to let you all know what was going on on my birthday. So let's dive into it. The number one song was you light up my life by Debbie Boone. The song spent 10 weeks at number one and earned Debbie Boone a Grammy for Best New Artist. The song was originally written by Joseph Brooks and was used in a movie with the title of the same name, you light up my life. When Debbie Boone covered it, she was very deep in her Christian faith and took it as a song about God. What you think it's about is all up to you. But as far as Debbie Boone went, she ended up getting more into country and Christian country and scored four top 10 contemporary Christian albums and two more Grammys after this song. The number one movie was Oh God, starring George Burns, John Denver, and Terry gar George Burns plays God who picks John Denver, who's a supermarket manager to spread His word. It made $51 million at the box office and currently has 74% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it's pretty funny, so you should definitely check it out. The number one TV show was Laverne and Shirley, starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, and their escapades as roommates and best friends, and they work at the shots brewery in Milwaukee. And if you don't know the show, you probably know the theme song, making our dreams come true. It's iconic. And the beginning of the show is iconic. It ran for eight seasons, and 178 episodes between 1976 and 1983. And if you were brand new parents, November 2 1977, like mine, Laurie and Jack, and you were looking for a night out, dropping off your newborn son with either his Nana or his Nina and grandpa. You were looking to have a nice dinner away from a screaming and crying newborn child, you could go to the red coach grill and get a delicious prime rib dinner with baked potato and vegetables for 6.95 which when adjusted for inflation is about $31. So it was a pretty good deal back then, if you can find a red coach grill now. You can't because they don't exist. That's how old I am. But that'll do it for this week's time capsule, my birthday time capsule. I hope you enjoyed it. But now we're going to dive into a new top five that will make you laugh. It's the top five funniest As Seen on TV products that are coming up right now.
Top 5: Funniest As-Seen-On-TV Products
I will tell you that since starting to do the top five lists on the podcast, I've had some lists where it's harder to find five to include, let alone five with a few honorable mentions this list there was no such problem. The top five funniest As Seen on TV products. Oh my god, I had at least 20 That just cracked me up. And I had to slice it down to get five and then a few honorable mentions. So what happens here, these are the ones that just made me laugh. Not the best, not the worst, but the funniest. The ones that when I tell you about them, you'll probably know some, but there might be others that you don't know about. And those are the ones that will make you laugh, you'll have to go look them up. But let's give you the honorable mentions. So honorable mentions for the funniest As Seen on TV products include the potty putter, which is literally like a putting green for you sitting on the toilet, Mind Control lip balm, which is like chapstick that will help you control people's minds. The fat magnet, which is something that you're supposed to wave above your food and it will suck the fat off it when it's like if you cook a steak and it's got fat and you wave it and it's gonna suck the fat off it and finally for honorable mentions is dumped dinners, which is a cookbook with mouthwatering meals but still when it says dumped dinners. You have to look it up. It's all real. But let's get into the top five. Top five. Funniest As Seen on TV products. Number one is great-looking hair, aka spray-on hair. This one you've got if you haven't seen it, you might know it. It's literally like a spray paint can that will be able to spray and cover your bald spot. It was created by Ranko in the 1980s under Jlh nine great looking hair number nine it was on all the infomercials a few kids in the 80s like me stayed home from school I'm sure you saw that spray on hair that supposedly had real light fibers in it to make it look like your hair was thicker. I don't know anyone who used it though. And if you had that great-looking hair then you needed funniest As Seen on TV product number two the Flowbee which was like a vacuum attachment hair cut combination. It was created by Rick II hunts and has been on sale since 1988. This one was funny and successful because as of 2000 2 million Flo bees had been sold. I still don't know anyone that had one just like the spray-on hair. Number three is a more recent One, the Shake Weight. Which, if you saw the South Park episode, I mean, how could you not laugh at that thing, where it's literally, infomercials marketed towards women where they're just literally shaking the weight. I mean, what does the weight look like, and they're shaking it with it. I can't even get through it without laughing. But it gets supposedly could sculpt your arms, it's still on sale, they have it at Walmart, I can see it right now on their website. But it is still around, it's sold by a company called fitness IQ that you can find on websites, you can still buy it. Now if you want to shake weight. Number four is the poo trap. Now when I say that, you're probably thinking of something like a net to catch everything in the toilet. But it's not. It's literally, if you see the pictures, it's a bag. It's a dog poop bag, but it's basically tied to them. So it's just like stuck to their butt. So you don't have to clean it, they just poop into the bag. There's literally a harness that it's ridiculous looking, it's a harness you put on the dog with the dog poop bag attached. But this is another one, it's still it's real. It's these a lot of these look like something that you would see on Saturday Night Live when they would do their fake commercials. But these are all too real that people actually invented these and that people buy them. Last but not least in the list of the top five, funniest As Seen on TV products. And these are in no particular order. But number five is the better marriage blanket. So where do I start with this. So the better marriage blanket basically, it is a fart-proof blanket, so that it has activated carbon fabric that is supposed to absorb foul odors. So literally, I don't know where to go with this. Anyone out there ever had one or tried one, and tried to prove if it works, but it was invented just over 10 years ago, you can still get it now. So if you feel the need to have a better marriage, if you can't stop farting in bed, there's the better marriage blanket right there waiting for you. And if you want some more of these products, I'm going to do obviously the best and worst as well as far as As Seen on TV products. But if you can't wait and you need some more, go to mental floss.com. And there's an article on their 15 classic Seen on TV products, you can read that and they've got embedded videos, a lot of the infomercials that will just make you laugh. And I'll put the link in the description of the podcast if you want to click on it. But there you go. The top five funniest As Seen on TV products. Great looking hair, aka the spray on hair, the Flowbee the shake, wait, the poo trap, and the better marriage blanket? Do you have any of these? Have you even heard of any of these? And now are you going to go get any of them because I've sold you so well on them. We'll come back next week for the next episode. And I'll have another top five, who knows what we'll do now.
Back In the Day: Hair-Coloring Follies
As I said at the top of the podcast, this is my birthday week. It's the start of year two of the podcast. So like I said, I've been doing a lot of looking back a lot of looking within. So that includes looking back at a lot of old photos over the last four decades of life. And one thing that I noticed looking back over my life is how much my hair has changed color style. So I've wanted to go back in the day and share a little bit of embarrassing stuff. But hey, we're all friends here. This will give me some laughs So this retro segment looking back is going to be all about times that I colored my hair. So get ready for some laughs I know my sisters and brothers are waiting to laugh at this. So here we go. When I was little, my hair was white, blonde and straight. Because I've got Scandinavian blood. Swedish is my most percentage-wise nationality. So I had this nice straight blonde hair. But an interesting thing happened and I think it happens with all kids. Once you start to cut it. It grows in darker it happened with two of my nephews I told my sister Lindsay that her two boys, they had the same thing. Well, Theirs was a little wavier. But they had this nice blonde hair and once it started getting cut, it would come in darker. And now her oldest son, my nephew, Liam, his hair is really dark brown. And her other son my nephew Lucas, his hair is light brown, but it used to be really nice and white blonde. Over the years. Mine got darker and darker. And another thing was that it lost the straightness it didn't become curly. It became this wavy bird's nest massive hair, and I didn't like it from the time I was 11-12 years old, I did not like my hair, I would have to soak it down and comb it. So I'd have the stupid part in my hair on one side, I've got school photos like that. And when my hair got long enough when I was in between haircuts like I said, it grew wavy, so it was tough to curl up on the edges. So even if I wore a baseball hat, I would have these wings of hair that would come up from under the hat. It was so bad. That's a reason it's a big reason why I have no hair. Now, I keep it as short as humanly possible, because I just don't like what happens to it when it gets long. Another thing that happened as I got into my later teens and early 20s, was that I didn't like the color. I didn't like it being dark brown, I longed for the days that it was that light blonde hair. I can't remember what age I was when I first went into CVS and bought some hair coloring. But I will tell you, I had no knowledge of how hair coloring products worked. What I bought was the color that I wanted my hair to be not realizing that just because you buy a kind of a dirty blonde color. If your hair is dark, dark brown, it's not going to get to that color. It's almost like you have to go too far lighter for it to actually get to the color you want. What ended up happening and I think this happened a few times was that I would get that dirty blonde color, and color my hair and what ended up happening was, it wasn't blonde, it was more orangey brown, like a rusty color. And it was something it was so bad. But back then when I was in my early to mid 20s I was just happy that it wasn't dark brown. And then my hair was still longer. So it was it would be this wavy bird's nest garbage-looking hair, but then it was also like rusty orange-brown color. You want to talk about looking classy. Going out on the town, there's a picture of me and my sister Kate Right after a while this was probably six months after she had her oldest daughter. And we went out to kind of just get her out of the house so she could celebrate life a little she had spent six months every day and night with Kaleigh. But there's a picture of us going out for that night. And God Do I look awful. And it's one of her favorite photos to laugh at. But there I am with my rusty orange-brown hair, I always say look like 10 pounds of crap and a five-pound bag. Eventually I gave up on coloring my hair like that. But then something else happened as I got later in my 20s. I used to always have this chin strap beard with the goatee. And I'm sure you guys can picture it in your head what it looked like. But it was starting to get it wasn't the same color. I had patches of different color in my beard, some gray, some lighter color, some darker color. So there's a point where I decided to try just for men coloring your beard. And being an idiot not understanding hair coloring Still, despite my rusty orange hair, I went and I got the darkest hair color I could and colored my beard in. And it looked like a black shoe polish beard. And there's I think there's like one photo of me at work with this really black beard that just does not match. And it was funny because when I was using the little brush to color the hair in it was brushing along the skin. So I had to work hard to get patches of like rubbed in look like shoe polish on my cheeks. Oh my God, it was so bad. Needless to say that was a one-shot deal. Later on in life, I actually would use peroxide. In my hair. I only did this a couple times. This was to color my hair before races. I did this one where I ran two races in the same day. And so what I did was I had a mohawk shaved into my head. And I ran the first race with a normal color like dark dark brown Mohawk. And then I went home and I put peroxide in my hair. So I had a blonde Mohawk for the second race that actually looked pretty good. I wouldn't recommend using peroxide a lot. I've heard if you use it a lot, it really damages your hair. So I stopped doing that too. But I wanted to save the best story for last and it's actually the first one it was one of those repressed memories that popped back in my head as I was doing some introspective thinking of coloring my hair. This we go back to when I was probably 14 years old. And there was a girl I've mentioned before, one of my first crushes I had she used to come down in the summer from Worcester and her grandparents had a house across the street from mine and I wanted to impress her so bad and I don't know where I got the hair color. I don't know if one of my sisters had it. And I just was like here let's try this. But it was a hair color that you could shampoo it out. So it was really temporary. But the color was not blonde, it was not brown, it was red. I don't know if I thought I wanted to be a punk rocker or something to go with my whole grunge persona of the time. But I use this red hair color. And I'm talking not quite blood red, a little bit lighter than that. But I wasn't thinking with my brain at the time, I was just thinking of impressing this girl. So I went along with it, I colored my hair. And it was this awful, pastel red. And I just remember getting done with it and thinking how horrible it looked and wanting to immediately shampoo it out. But I was like I went this far. So I decided to go outside with it. In the middle of summer with this terrible red hair, I must have looked like a clown. So what I did was, I went outside, this is all true. I had a towel wrapped around my head like women do with their long hair to dry it. But I kept this towel on my head. And I went outside, I took my basketball and I went to my basketball hoop and I think I did one shot with the basketball like a layup. So she could see I was outside but she never saw the hair because I was so embarrassed and it was too late. So I went outside, did a layup with my basketball with a towel on my head and immediately ran back inside went in the shower, and washed it off. So the hair color was terrible. I never even showed the girl I was trying to impress and it was washed out within like a half hour. So there was my introduction to coloring my hair. And I should have known better these days. Now I just keep it as short as I can. It's a mix of dark brown and salt and pepper gray which happens but I don't care as much I can just keep shaving it off. But there are some laughs for you as we go back in the day. And I talk about all those times coloring my hair and looking at a complete idiot. So I hope you had some laughs at my expense with that one.
Closing
And that's going to wrap up episode 43 of the in my footsteps podcast, the first episode of year two of the podcast, my birthday week podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who has tuned in. Thank you for sticking with the podcast, especially this episode because a lot of it was recorded during a power outage from a huge storm that we had in the Northeast. So I'm hoping that it all sounds good flows together well, but mainly thank you for sticking with this podcast through the first year. There have been growing pains, I've tweaked things as I've gone. And I've gotten a little more comfortable with the whole setup, how to create a podcast, edit the episodes and all that and try to give the most interesting content that I can for all of you that listen, I had said at the beginning of doing this podcast in November of 2020 that if I didn't do any more research, I'd have enough content to make the podcast for four years. Well, one year is down. I would say I probably have enough to do another four still because I keep doing more research. So we'll see how far this goes. If you like it and want to see it keep going just spread the word. Tell anyone that likes podcasts, if you like New England travel, lifestyle, nostalgia history, top five lists, you know, retro topics, all that stuff. I got it here. If you ever have any questions you want to share on the podcast, I've been trying to get a q&a going for a while but you know, we'll see. You can always shoot me a message either on Twitter, or Instagram direct message. I have a Facebook fan page for the podcast you can check out find me on Instagram Live for the without a map weekly podcast. Now granted, this past week I couldn't do it because I had no power. But hopefully, there won't be any more power outages and I can keep checking in with you guys Fridays at 8pm on Instagram. We're smack dab in my favorite time of year. November especially, would be my favorite month. I mean obviously like I've mentioned before, it's my birthday this week, but my mother's birthday comes up in a couple of weeks. And as you heard in the advertisement, my sister Kate it's her birthday later this month and of course Thanksgiving which is an excuse to just eat until you pass out which I always enjoy. Check out my website Christopher setterlund.com to see any of my first six books which are on sale up there and anything else links to my in my footsteps podcast blog are on there which I try to update as much as I can. If you want to buy me a coffee you can go to buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast, any donations go into advertising the podcast, and trying to spread the word, but like I said the best way to support the podcast is by sharing it and spreading the word sharing the episodes wherever you can telling people to check it out. I've got 43 episodes now that are up. So I don't see any signs of slowing down. That leads into next week coming up is episode 44. It's going to be loaded. We're going to talk about the original Cape Cod canal bridges, which were draw bridges and are a pretty cool story. There'll be another road trip segment. This time it's going to be Lynchburg, Virginia, we're going to go way way back in the day as I gush, all about Tecmo Super Bowl from the Nintendo Entertainment System, one of my favorite video games of all time for legendary Bo Jackson and Lawrence Taylor. Oh, it's going to be fun. There's going to be another new top five lists. This will be my top five favorite main towns, my favorites, see if any of your favorites are on that list to all that and another time capsule this week in history coming up next week on episode 44. Speaking of 44 that is my age now as you're listening to that, so it kind of segues in pretty well. One thing I've learned through all these years is you're always learning something new. And it's just a matter of going easy on yourself. Doing what makes you happy and leaning into that it's a matter of mental health, your mental health and mental well-being should top everything. If this podcast and anything I talk about on it gives you some sort of peace of mind and good vibes that I am doing my job. I do this because I like it and I'm enjoying just sharing this stuff. But if other people enjoy it, too, that makes it even better. But as I always say, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey that we call life. Because you never know when the next sunset may be the last sunset. You never know when the next power outage might be the final one. So enjoy every moment you can like today, tomorrow the next day, and come back again next week because I will be here again to chat with you then. Have a great week and I'll talk to you all again soon.