Episode 49 brings the gross out humor to the Holiday season. For a brief time in the 1980's Garbage Pail Kids took the youth of America by storm. At first these stickers were seen as a disgusting spin on Cabbage Patch Kids. What was it that caused their downfall? What was it like to be a kid when these first came out?
For 35 years a beautifully stoic building has been slowly decaying on Rt. 28 in West Dennis. An eyesore today it was once a family homestead and at its peak it was a restaurant and swinging jazz club. Learn the long story of The Columns in this week's episode.
We return to the Outer Banks this week for a Road Trip to Southern Shores, North Carolina. The Outer Banks was the crown jewel of my 2019 road trip and will be featured heavily on the next few episodes.
There's a new Top 5 this week featuring Christmas season toys. The biggest selling toys of the Holiday season, which toys and which years made the list?
There's a new This Week In History featuring the birth of seer Nostradamus and a special birthday Time Capsule as well.
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 after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 48 here.
Episode 49 brings the gross out humor to the Holiday season. For a brief time in the 1980's Garbage Pail Kids took the youth of America by storm. At first these stickers were seen as a disgusting spin on Cabbage Patch Kids. What was it that caused their downfall? What was it like to be a kid when these first came out?
For 35 years a beautifully stoic building has been slowly decaying on Rt. 28 in West Dennis. An eyesore today it was once a family homestead and at its peak it was a restaurant and swinging jazz club. Learn the long story of The Columns in this week's episode.
We return to the Outer Banks this week for a Road Trip to Southern Shores, North Carolina. The Outer Banks was the crown jewel of my 2019 road trip and will be featured heavily on the next few episodes.
There's a new Top 5 this week featuring Christmas season toys. The biggest selling toys of the Holiday season, which toys and which years made the list?
There's a new This Week In History featuring the birth of seer Nostradamus and a special birthday Time Capsule as well.
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 after they've finished.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 48 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, and this is episode 49. You folks out there voted and this week we're going to start off by diving into the story of an old Cape Cod icon with a long and interesting story. It'll be the Columns former restaurant, home, etc. In West Dennis, we're going to take a road trip as we go to the small town of Southern Shores, North Carolina located on the Outer Banks. We're gonna go way way back in the day as we look at what it was like to collect the classic staple of my childhood the Garbage Pail Kids cards is going to be a new top five the top five best Christmas season toys in my lifetime is going to be a new this week in history and Time Capsule again. All coming up right now on episode 49 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome everyone. I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season. I don't know if wherever you're listening from you've gotten any snow yet. We got a few flakes so far. I'm not looking forward to major snowstorms, but maybe a nice little coating to make everything look nice. My carefree days of loving having a lot of snow. They died when I got out of high school and I became an adult that had to go to work in the snow shoveling the snow. Now it's not as much fun. But the photography is still great, especially on Cape Cod. Have you gotten your shopping done? By the time this podcast drops, we'll be a little over a week away from Christmas. My shopping has been a little bit easier the last few years, I guess it's a good thing and a bad thing that five out of my six nieces and nephews are now of the age where it's better to get them money or gift cards rather than buying them actual presents. But I do love the fact that my littlest niece who's not even three years old yet I can still get her presents and I got her something great that I can't wait. My siblings will appreciate it. I'm excited to see what her reaction will be to it. I'm excited because this is also the time of year when we're getting the word Christmas parties. So we're having a Christmas dinner for my work. By the time this goes live. We will have just done it. So I don't I can't tell you how it was because it hasn't happened yet. It's a fun little paradox. But I'm sure it'll be great. Do you folks out there at your jobs? Do you have Christmas parties? And are they fun? At a job I used to work at, we would have these elaborate Christmas parties, which used to be fun, until we realize that we got the Christmas party instead of the Christmas bonuses that we were promised. So then they weren't as much fun. A little housekeeping before we get started. Next week is going to be a special bonus episode, episode 50. So it's going to be kind of a year in review and overall podcast retrospective, which will be fun, I've got a lot of fun stuff to talk about. But that's going to wrap up the year Next week, episode 50. It's going to wrap up the year for the podcast. So the week after which is right before New Year's, there won't be a show but the week after will start 2022 strong. So I hope you'll stick with me and tune in as we go into the third year of the podcast. I mean, granted, the first year was two months, but still 2020 to 2021. Now 2022. This should be fun though, we put out the vote just like I did a few weeks ago, I gave you a couple of ideas of things asking you what you wanted to hear about on the podcast this week. And once again, you all voted overwhelmingly. So we're gonna dive in right now to the story of the Columns, which is a building that I see almost every day in my life and I have for a long time. And so the story of it goes back more than 150 years and you're gonna really enjoy it. It's so much more than meets the eyes, especially for those of you that are younger and don't know what it used to be and think it's just some decaying old building. So let's dive in right now to the story of the Columns on episode 49 of the in my footsteps podcast.
The Columns, West Dennis
Elegant, beautiful, mysterious, and charming. These words all describe the historic Greek Revival-style house situated at 401 route 28 and West Denis. The story of that building is a tale of three chapters in the history of the structure. For many of the younger generation on Cape Cod, this white building and his decaying facade and unkempt landscape is an eyesore, something that could be seen as a place where scary movies take place. It's a spot to be observed from further away with a wary eye. For generations long gone. This was something completely different. This was the stately home of Captain Obed L Baker. Way before 1000s of vehicles passed by this home daily, Captain Obed Baker lived there. He was born in 1817 and went to sea at an early age. He was a ship captain by the age of 20. His legacy upon the ocean is undeniable. At the age of 32. Baker became a master mariner, a highly regarded term used from the 13th century in England and his territories depicting someone as a master of their craft. In this case, seamanship Obed, Baker commanded a three-masted schooner named Luther child, it was owned by the Philadelphia Steamship Line, and was the first American ship to visit Malta harbor off the coast of Italy. In 1862, Captain Baker built the home that is now known as the Columns on 15 acres of property. The more than 5000 square foot home was originally known as elm gate. Inside it was complete with marble fireplace mantles French chandeliers and an elegant carved wooden staircase banister, which led to the second floor, delightfully colored carpeting, damask draperies, and Brussels lace curtains, outside the building showcased a gable roof and most striking of all a half round portico of Columns, which was shipped down from Boston and freight cars. The home was the site to the marriage of Captain Baker's daughter, Rebecca Mae in 1890, to the captain would pass away in 1895, and Rebecca added glass wings to the house just after the turn of the 20th century. She lived in the house until her death in 1957. The property was sold several years later, and led the stylish yet residential home to be transformed into something completely different. So for those of you thinking about it, the building the Columns was actually a residential home for almost a century. The middle chapter of the three chapters of the history of the Columns that's probably the most well-known of the three, and it began in 1961 when Stuart Wallen formerly of Wellesley, Massachusetts purchased the Elm gate property, which had been owned by the Baker family. Wallen, who had previously run the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City was the one that christened the home the Columns and reopened it as a restaurant in the summer of 1962. Most of the artifacts and furnishings from the Baker family home were actually preserved by Wallen in a museum at the new restaurant, he tried to stay faithful to the Baker family out of respect. The Columns serve dinner in the elegant first-floor dining area, and they would alert people passing by on route 28 with a sign outside that read serving the evening meal. Wallen held on to the Columns until 1970 When he sold it to jazz aficionado Warren Mattos. This transaction took the restaurant into a whole new stratosphere of popularity and began to shift the aspect of what the Columns was where it went more towards entertainment and less towards dining. And this change surpassed what Walton had been able to do with the Columns as a restaurant. With Warren Madhouse and his wife burls connection to jazz music, Mattos turned the Columns into a swinging jazz club. He hired Marie Marcus to be the music director of his new enterprise, and Marcus was known as Cape Cod's first lady of jazz. She had even appeared on the original Tonight Show with Steve Allen in the 1950s. She will likely get her own segment on the podcast at some point because she has a deep connection to Cape Cod music entertainment and to my family through my grandparents. Marie Marcus had played at another legendary establishment Mildred Chowder House in Hyannis in 1963. For a short time with Jim Blackmore, whom she had met doing a show at the Hakuna Messick club in Falmouth. Bringing her on board was a huge coup, because her star power led to many well-established jazz artists coming to play shows that the Columns mostly in the Victorian cocktail lounge names like pianists Dave McKenna, and Earl Fatha. Hines and Teddy Wilson. saxophonist Scott Hamilton and trumpeter Lou Colombo, all performed on the ballroom floor at one point or another. Owner Matt Al's would even join Dave McKenna onstage at times to sing as he did have a fabulous voice. From 1970 to 1976. The Columns was the place to be for great jazz on Cape Cod. It was even home to an annual jazz festival during that time. However, the establishment could not see that many people even after an outdoor tent and deck section was added by Mattos in 1977. So the small crowds in the cramped area, coupled with patrons who got mad that Mattos was charging a small entertainment fee a little cover charge meant that there was not enough money being made from the jazz shows to pay for such great entertainers, and it would be the beginning of the end for the Columns. Warren Mattos died after a long battle with lymphoma in August 1978 At the young age of 51. This led his wife burl to sell the Columns to jazz bassist and Boston native Ron Ormsby. In 1979. Ormsby would push the jazz club side of the Columns again, immediately promoting a return of live jazz weekly on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But the same problems popped up. Ormsby tried he ran the restaurant and jazz club for a few years before it was sold at auction in 1986. For 35 years, the building has sat there decaying. And despite extensive restorations having been done in the years since that sale in 1986. The Columns building itself has never been reopened for anything. I know that in the time since there had been people that have bought it. And they had done some work in there with good intentions, hopes of I don't know what they wanted to open up in there, but nothing ever came of it. So think about it. For those of you that are younger that are in your early 30s. You've seen the Columns for all that time, it's just been sitting there. And it looks like some old decaying home, which it is. But it's hard to believe that for about two decades, a little more than that. It was one of the hottest swinging nightspots on Cape Cod. And my parents and my grandparents would tell me stories of going in there. And just how classy it was. It looked on the inside how it looked on the outside before when it was at its peak. And even today, there's something mystical about the building something that draws your eyes to it, it doesn't look like what you see on route 28, or any other main road. It doesn't have to be Cape Cod. And it's actually finally been sold in 2021. And I'm hoping that something is done with it there. I've seen trucks there. But I'm just hoping that it gets a chance to have a fourth chapter of its existence. Because it was a family home. It was a restaurant and jazz club. And now it's been this abandoned eyesore for 35 years. But who knows though, maybe when 2022 is over, we'll be talking about Chapter Four of the Columns in some way shape or form.
Road Trip: Southern Shores, NC
It is road trip time again, and we are staying on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as we have finally arrived there on my 2019 2100-mile road trip. Much like that road trip. It was a long journey to get to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And once I got there, it was time to relax and stay a while. And that's what we're gonna do on the segments on the podcast. We're going to stay on the Outer Banks for a little while. Last week, we're in the small town of Duck. And this week, we're going right next door for the slightly larger but still small town of Southern Shores. Southern Shores is about 75 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia, as of 2019, Southern Shores has a population of right around 2900 people. And it's about double the size of Duck as far as square miles go. So it's just over four square miles, which again is not big in actual physical size, but it makes up for it because there's beach on all sides. There are tons of restaurants, and shopping attractions, a slight advantage that it has over towns like duck and Corolla to the north on the Outer Banks is that it is right on US Route 158. So when you're coming south from Virginia or through North Carolina to get to the Outer Banks and you cross 158 over the right Memorial Bridge on Currituck Sound, when you cross right there when you get off that is the town of Southern Shores to the north. And I'm living proof that it's helpful to be right off the bridge because all I did was take a left when I got off of the right Memorial Bridge on 158 guys could see the ocean I said I gotta find a place so that I can actually stand in front of the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in several days. And there is no shortage of beaches in Southern Shores. A fun little story. Basically, when I think of Southern Shores, I think of this story. So it was kind of cloudy the day when I got down there and I'm just driving through the neighborhoods you could see the water essentially the whole time or you were like right there. You knew it was right on the other side of a few houses. And I may or may not have parked at a beach that said residents only and things like that. But hey, you know, I had to see the beach. So I walked out there with my camera to get some photos, the waves are crashing in, it really looked great. But being a tourist in North Carolina, I wasn't sure of the ins and outs of the beach as far as the actual makeup of the beach, the sand. So what I'm saying is I got down to where I thought was the edge of the shore, to take some cool photos of the waves crashing. And I didn't expect these waves to crash and then shoot right up the sand at me. And before I could get out of the way my shoes and pants like at my ankles were soaked with saltwater. Oh my God, it was like, that's how that was my introduction to the Outer Banks was getting soaked. And at that point, after driving for so long to get there, I was like that hell with it. Because I did have another pair of shoes. I brought running shoes with me, just in case I wanted to go for a run on my vacation, which ended up not happening. So there's this video from back then that I shot that I put up on my Instagram story of me wringing out my socks in the parking lot because they were so I took my socks and shoes and threw them in my trunk. That was how I began my time on the Outer Banks. Southern Shores may not be on travel channel's list of best beaches or anything like that. But literally, it's right there on the Outer Banks. It's all the same stretch of beach, I find that interesting how duck can be on that list. But Southern Shores isn't despite the fact that if you walk the beach, you can go from one town to the other. The population is small, but naturally, it swells during the summer, much like on Cape Cod. So I'm used to it. I know what they go through the locals down there. Much like in Duck, there's not much in the way of hotels in town. So you're looking more at vacation rental properties. And there are plenty of companies down there that rent property, you'd be better off checking air b&b, or outer banks.com. Like I mentioned during my duct segment last week. It's interesting because Southern Shores was only founded as a town in 1979. And the area the name, the resort of Southern Shores didn't exist until 1946. Because before that, for decades, Southern Shores was considered just part of Kitty Hawk. And in the 1940s, there was a parcel of area that consisted of duck Woods Kitty Hawk forest and some oceanfront beaches that became designated as the resort of Southern Shores. Way back before it was even a town Southern Shores was home to one of the US life-saving services original Outer Banks stations. And on Cape Cod, we used to have lots of those Coast Guard stations. So naturally, the Outer Banks had a bunch too. It was home to the Paul Gamiels Hill lifesaving station. It was built in 1878, and remodeled in 1909. And it was instrumental in both world wars. But once the more modern Coast Guard facilities came around, it was deserted and eventually burned down in the 1960s. And there's really little evidence that was there. Southern Shores has a small strip mall that's got pizza and Chinese food and ice cream. But I think going to the Outer Banks, especially the smaller towns like duck and Southern Shores and Corolla, you're going there more for the scenery. And if you like hiking, and you're not a big fan of the beach, I mean, you're kind of in the wrong area. But you are in luck in Southern Shores. There's this extensive walking path that goes parallel to highway 12. And it's shaded by oak and cedar trees, and it allows you to get a glimpse of the old maritime forest, but you're still not far from the ocean because I'm figuring everyone that goes to the Outer Banks must love the beach because you can't escape it there. There's golfing nearby. And like I mentioned last week, there's the duck Jazz Festival in October, which is literally right next door. And even though I'm trying to keep the segments contained, I can't talk about Southern Shores without like I said mentioning duck but then mentioning Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills with the Wright brothers and going down to Cape Hatteras. We'll get into those as we go along. And there's really no bad time to go down and visit Southern Shores and visit the Outer Banks. Even in January, the average high is in the low 50s. And that's not bad living on Cape Cod. I'll take the low 50s in January and I'll go to the beach and hang out there. But if you love the beach, if you love strolling the sandy shores or hiking in the maritime forest, you definitely will want to visit Southern Shores. Go to Airbnb, check for any vacation rentals, go to outer banks.com As I mentioned, I would be leaving things out if I didn't mention to go visit the OBX state ballroom at One Ocean Boulevard, this kind of saving the best for last. It's hard to explain it without you actually seeing it and being there but there are five themed escape rooms like a living, breathing adventure game. And it must be a fun and wild adventure because you have to basically sign a waiver to play visit them at OB xscape rooms.com. That's OB X S C A P E, and just have fun when you go to Southern Shores. Do like I did point your car just go wherever eat stay, go to the escape room. Just be aware of the waves when you get too close to the ocean, bring an extra pair of shoes and I'll be back in 2022 the first episode of 2022 and episode 51 We're going to continue our trip on the Outer Banks I'm super excited for that one. We're going to do a double whammy of Kill Devil Hill and Kitty Hawk. So be sure to come back for more road trip Adventures in 2022.
Sponsor: Wear Your Wish
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This Week In History
This week in history, we're going way back in the day when I talked about back in the day we're going way further than I go in my retro segments. We are going back 518 years, December 14 1503 and the birth of the famed Seer Nostradamus, Nostradamus was born in ceremi, France, and he was a noted French astrologer and physician. But obviously, those of you that hear the name Nostradamus, you know that he was known more for his visions, the quatrains the predictions of the future, many of which actually came true. By the mid-1540s. Nostradamus was more well-known for his medical treatments, and he didn't start making any of these predictions until 1547. So he was already in his mid-40s. Hell, he was basically my age. His visions were published in a book in 1555, called centuries, and the work consisted of rhymed quatrains put in groups of 100. Thus centuries, and even back then some of his prophecies have appeared to be fulfilled, so much so that he was invited to the court of Catherine dim Medici where he did the horoscopes for her children. These days, the prophecies that came true basically, in our time were predictions such as the death of King Henry the second of France, who was a personal friend of Nostradamus, the Great Fire of London in 1666. The coming up and rise of Adolf Hitler, the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and many more. When I was a kid, hearing about Nostradamus I was terrified hearing about the predictions that had purportedly come true. I was terrified to hear about things that hadn't happened yet. If you've never heard of Nostradamus and you're more curious about his quatrains and predictions, there's plenty of sites to look him up. It has been reported by some people that as many as 70% of Nostradamus, his predictions have come true. That all depends on who you look at. And if you are wondering, for 2021 Thankfully, now the year is almost over. Nostradamus basically predicted great trouble for humanity, which you could consider to be COVID. But it could also be sort of like a regular horoscope, or it's just specific enough but mostly vague, so you can kind of interpret it as you want. But whether you believe Nostradamus was an all-powerful seer and predictor of the future, or just someone who got lucky many, many times over the centuries, he was born and came into this world and started his legacy 518 years ago, this week in history in 1503. And now it's time for a new time capsule, this will likely be the most recent time capsule that I have ever done. This time capsule has basically had very little time to even sit in the ground and it's already been dug up. We're going back 14 years ago, this week in history to December 18 2007. The number one song was no one by Alicia Keys. This was off of her third album as I am, the song was number one for five weeks. Overall, it was the sixth biggest hit song of the 2000s with the single itself selling 5.6 million copies worldwide. And the song was so big that the only song that could knock it out of number one was Alicia Keys's next song like you'll never see me again. The number one movie was I Am Legend starring Will Smith. It was a post-apocalyptic action thriller loosely based on a book of the same name by Richard Matheson from 1954 where a virus that was created to cure cancer instead wiped out most of humanity leaving Will Smith and his dog is the only people still alive in New York. It made $585 million at the box office on a budget of 150 million and has a 68% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes I definitely enjoy this movie so I would recommend checking it out. And surprisingly or fittingly, the number one TV show much like last week was not an actual TV show. It was a football game. NBC Sunday night football. I found it fitting because last week's time capsule it was the same thing. It was a football game. So this one the week of December 18 2007. It was a game between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants, which Washington won 22 to 10. Washington had such stars as quarterback Todd Collins, running back Clinton Portis and wide receiver Santana Moss, while the giants who would go on to end the Patriots' undefeated season, which is still a sore spot, but they had quarterback Eli Manning, running back, Brandon Jacobs, wide receiver, Plaxico Burress and on defense Michael Strahan, and if you were a kid back then or an adult back then and 2007, and you wanted an iPod touch an eight gigabyte one would set you back $229 And I brought that up because I had one of those. But most importantly, December 18 2007 was the birth date of my middle nephew Landon, who I can't believe he's 14 years old. I can't believe he's so much taller than me has better hair than me is better at baseball than I ever could have been. And even is now playing manhunt with my old Jason mask better than I could. It is fitting though each generation gets a little bit better. So I hope you have a happy birthday. I'm very proud of who you have become more so than just as a baseball player but just as a person. That's why I bequeath my treasured JSON mask to you. And if you all go back to Episode 11 of the podcast, you can hear me talk about playing manhunt, which was basically hide and seek in the dark and I had this old glow-in-the-dark Jason Friday the 13th hockey mask. That is what Landon uses now and his birthday was 14 years ago this week. And I feel old but that's fine. It'll wrap up another time capsule another this week in history. And I will see you again in 2022 as we go back in the day again, for more fun looks back at history and how things were going way back then. But now it's time for a new top five as we continue the holiday spirit. This is going to be the top five best Christmas season toys of my life. It’s time so let's get ready for that cue the fun holiday music
Top 5: Christmas Toys of My Lifetime
This is going to be a fun and very subjective. top five list, the top five best Christmas season toys of my lifetime. So what does that mean? I did my research to look up what was the highest-selling toy of every year that I've been alive. So there you go. A lot of these that made the top five and the honorable mentions you will recognize especially if you're of my age group, or even a little bit younger, especially younger, I think you'll know them more. But it seems like every year there's one toy that takes the world by storm, and everyone has to have. So I'm going to give you the names of the toys and the year that they were out to kind of give you flashbacks. If you were a kid and got them you'll probably be excited. If you're a parent and had to go buy them you're going to have PTSD of being assaulted in the store, maybe let's dive into it. Top Five Best Christmas season toys in my lifetime. First, we've got to dive into the honorable mentions. And they are transformers toys from 1984, the Furby from 1998 Care bears from 1985, the iPod Touch from 2007, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys from 1990. Those are the honorable mentions. And it was tough. This list had a lot of good ones, not necessarily ones that I remember or I wanted, but ones that I can remember how big they were. So enough of the anticipation let's jump into the actual top five remember these are in no particular order. My list is going to cause enough chatter as it is. But here we go. Best Christmas season toys of my lifetime. Number one was the Star Wars toys of 1977. These were made by Kenner action figures from the Star Wars movie, the original with Luke Skywalker Han Solo Darth Vader Princess Leia C3PO, R2D2, and then the Millennium Falcon and some of the other Empire ships. You couldn't keep these on the shelves. And interestingly, if you have these originals in the packages, they are worth a ton, with some rare ones being worth anywhere from 1000 to $10,000. Number two is the Rubik's Cube from 1980. This was a multicolored puzzle game. It was a cube obviously and you had to twist the sides up down side to side to get all the colors to match up. It was invented by a man named Erno Rubik in Budapest, Hungary in 1974, and broke through in 1980. It was originally called Magic cube and then was renamed Rubik's cube. And how popular was it between 1980 and 1982, more than 100 million Rubik's Cubes were sold. And I know I had one. Number three was Cabbage Patch Kids from 1983. These were the plush dolls with a harder head that guess looked like I had a cabbage. They were invented by a folk artist named Xavier Roberts in 1976. And didn't become reality until 1983 When Colico put them out. And they were so big that they cause riots. This was the original fighting at Christmas time to get the toys because the supply not that it was low. It's just that it was so popular, there was no way to keep them in stock. Some of the issues were the fact that they were going for retail price of about $21. And some places were trying to price gouge and sell them for as high as $50. Which would mean back in 1983. That's a lot more money. By 1999 more than 95 million Cabbage Patch dolls had been adopted all around the world. Number four was the Tickle Me Elmo doll of 1996. Here's another one where he was just riots for this doll that Elmo from Sesame Street, the red monster, and the kids would tickle him and he would just laugh nonstop just crazy. They were originally produced by Tyco preschool toys. And were the natural progression of the tickles the chimp toy, which I've never heard of, but tickles the chimp. These were the king of price gouging. So the retail price was 2899. And this was where people would buy them and scalp them online because the internet was starting to really gain traction in 1996. So the Tickle Me Elmo doll was being sold for as high as $1,500, or about 51 times higher than their normal price being originally released in July of 1996, by the end of the year, more than a million Tickle Me Elmo had been sold. And number five on the list of Best Christmas season toys of my lifetime, was the beanie babies of 1995. Beanie Babies were and I guess still are a line of small stuffed plush toys created by a man named H. Ty Warner. And these were considered to be the next wave of huge, highly collectible toys. And I know from my family, I still have a collection of Beanie Babies that I thought were going to be the retirement fund for me or something that I could leave to the family. I don't know, I was still in high school. And then right after high school, they were still big. My mother's got a lot of them. Some of them the rare ones are actually worth money, but the majority of them because of the fact that they were so popular, it pushed them to make more. So then it got the market got over-saturated. So the Beanie Babies are not worth what you thought they'd be 25 years ago, Beanie Babies are seen as the first internet sensation, where the net kind of made something popular. You could even say that eBay really made its mark with people reselling Beanie Babies on there. It is tough, though, during my research to see that they were internet sensations because in 1995, only 1.4% of Americans had the internet. So that's not a lot of people. And then there came knockoffs. So it kind of watered down the market. But for a time there, the Beanie Babies were huge. And that's it. That is the top five best Christmas season toys in my lifetime. Do you have any of those? I mean, everything still basically gets made. None of these are obsolete. Star Wars toys, the Rubik's Cube, Cabbage Patch Kids, the Tickle Me Elmo doll, and Beanie Babies. Do you have any of those? There were a lot more. So the site that I went to to check it out, it was called Pocket lynda.com. And so it goes through the years and I started the year I was born and just looked at all of them and said, holy Lord, I remember those. So go and check them out. And let me know what ones you really like and which ones you didn't like, shoot me a message Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. And let me know what you thought of the top five best Christmas season toys of my lifetime.
Back In the Day: Garbage Pail Kids
When I was a kid growing up, I got really into baseball cards and collecting them. Especially amazingly when I was about eight years old was when it really started for me, starting with the local team, the Boston Red Sox and getting the team set. And at that time, there were only topps Fleer and Donruss for cards. But the trading card industry went way beyond sports cards. And I want to talk about probably the most famous non-sports card trading cards ever. And we just in the top five segment talked about Cabbage Patch Kids, and I couldn't mention them without mentioning their counterparts, I guess, the Garbage Pail Kids cards. For those of you that are my age around my age, I mentioned Garbage Pail Kids, you immediately know what I mean. You can close your eyes and see the cards. These were huge as big as Cabbage Patch Kids Garbage Pail Kids weren't as big, but they got big because of the fact that they were knockoffs of Cabbage Patch Kids. They first came out in 1985. And they were created by Topps the same card company where I collected the baseball cards from, so they had a legit backer. For those of you that have no idea what Garbage Pail Kids are, they were cartoon characters with the Cabbage Patch Kid face that I can't describe the face fat cheeks with the dimples the kind of oval-ish head, but instead of being cute with pigtails and dresses or things like that, they were horrible and nasty and gross on the other side. They were huge. They were sticker cards, so you could put them everywhere and naturally being kids in school when they came out in 1985. You'd see them stuck on street signs or walls or stores. Kids had them in their lockers. The people who came up with the original Garbage Pail Kids were Mark Newgarden Art Spiegelman, John pound and Tom Buck. Okay, those are the four men that created these cards. I don't remember them being banned in my school, but I know that some schools banned them because they were seen as gross. A lot of bodily fluid, gross-out humor, snots, and pee. I still remember going to the little corner store. And there was the box with atom bomb was the name of the one who was the garbage pail kid that it was like he was sitting there with a detonator blowing his own head up like a nuclear bomb. And it was mind-blowing as a kid to get these packs. I think there were 25 cents for a pack. But getting these ones with these faces on them. I have had a blast going on to a website called gpk.com. That's G P K, which is everything you could want to know about Garbage Pail Kids, and you talk about diving back into a great part of my childhood. The very first garbage pail kid ever series one card 1A was Nasty Nick, who was a vampire. Luckily, he was going to suck the blood out of a Barbie doll. These ones the first series in the second series were the ones that I really remember being just mind-blowing, because you open up these cards, and this one's like up shock. And it's just a baby throwing up stuff because they had real names but it would just be like a double entendre. I could literally just scroll through these and just read them off to you and you that are my age would just have flashbacks, dead Ted, who was the zombie ashcan Andy, who was a trashcan robot that I thought looked like our two D two, so that one was cool. These were special because they had a and b cards. So you get one with one name and one with another, but they'd be the same illustration. And they had checklists, so you could make sure that you had all of them. Series One was 41 cards, A and B. So 82 cards. Somewhere likely at my mother's house, I have this huge photo album that's filled with them. I collected these more than I collected Beanie Babies, you talk about collectible items. And it was fun to find Garbage Pail Kids that had your name. In series Two, they had Chris hiss, who was basically like an old-school greaser. And he's got the slicked-back 50s hairdo with a chain and a switchblade. And in series seven, they had Chris Mess who looked like a bank-robbing Santa Claus. I wanted to find ones of me, or then ones of my siblings that were gross, like leaky Lindsay, who was just covered with snot, and just show it like, look, it's you covered with snot. As they went on, though, after the third series, they actually got sued by the Cabbage Patch Kids saying that it was a copyright infringement. And the Garbage Pail Kids people said it was fair use it was a parody. And it's hard not to see the similarities. They literally look like illustrated Cabbage Patch Kids just in really gross or weird situations. The big thing that you'll notice that was one of the things that came from the settlement of this lawsuit was the change in the design logo. The original ones had kind of a rounded, bumpy logo that said Garbage Pail Kids, which looked very similar to Cabbage Patch Kids. In 1987, though, they changed it to where it's more of a straight-line logo. It's very subtle, but I even as a kid noticed it that it was changed. And they had to draw them differently, change them, so they didn't look so much like Cabbage Patch Kids. They were similar, but they had to have different eyes and joints and four fingers and hair was all changed. So didn't look as much like the Cabbage Patch dolls and more like something totally different. And as you would expect, and it happened with me, the changes made them so they weren't as special kids my age and around my age, we started to outgrow the fad, because they released 15 series of Garbage Pail Kids between 1985 and 1988. And you do start to run out of ideas. Because there's only so far gross-out humor can go before there's a line you can't cross. And then when you get kind of handcuffed by the lawsuit, it really puts a damper on what you can put out there. Interestingly, Topps decided to cancel the Garbage Pail Kids while they were in the production of series 16. And if you go to gk.com, they've got some of the original artwork for what would have been series 16. And I can already see some that would not have gone over well, and they're probably lucky they didn't get released. Some of them were funny, but the rest It's kind of like you can see the time has passed. As I said there was a line you couldn't cross. That being said though, Garbage Pail Kids, you know, 30 years later, they're still a big part of pop culture for kids of my generation. The first few series I would say the first three or four were excellent. And I love them. And they some of them are valuable. Some of these Garbage Pail Kids mint condition are worth hundreds or even 1000s of dollars. Go to old sports cards.com and look up Garbage Pail Kids, they have an article about the 15 most valuable Garbage Pail Kids. And I'm not going to go through all of them. I already did a top five list no need for a top 15 But the number one most valuable garbage pail kid is a nasty Nick which was one a the very first card from series one in perfect 10 mint condition is valued at $7,500. And the reason being that it's rare to find one that's imperfect mint condition because it was the first card in the upper left corner of the printing sheet, which would mean it was often caught uneven or had some irregularities to it. And of course I couldn't finish off this back-in-the-day segment without talking about the very, very awful Garbage Pail Kids movie with animatronic Garbage Pail Kids. God it was so bad. The movie came out in 1987. It has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It made a whopping $660,000 at the box office. I saw some of it and couldn't watch the end it was so god-awful. It's widely considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. I would recommend not going to watch it. But if you're curious which Garbage Pail Kids were in it, they include foul Phil, alli gator Messi, Tessie, windy Winston greaser Greg, I would focus on the cards if you're interested in them. As I said, Gpk.com is amazing. Those guys did a great job with that page, I will post a link in the description for the podcast so you can go to it. You can find these cards on eBay all over, you could find anyone that you want. When you start to look up the old series and find ones with your own name, or famous ones like atom bomb, you can check out throwbacks.com Where they've got a list of the top 25 grossest Garbage Pail Kids or most disturbing, like juicy Jessica, where the venus flytrap is eating one or upset Tommy, where he's in a bathtub of his own puke. These some of these, I have to laugh, these were huge. And my descriptions won't do them justice Go and see for yourself why. And imagine being a kid in the 80s. And having these unleashed upon you. I was eight years old and saw these. And I'll be back in 2022 for a lot more back in the day segment as the past gets further away with every passing day, but we can always relive it and laugh and smile.
Closing
And that's going to put a wrap on episode 49 of the podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who's been listening, I would probably still be doing these anyway because I enjoy creating this content, but it makes me feel a lot better. When I see people are actually listening and interacting with me on social media and the live streams. Check out the without a map live streams on Instagram Fridays at 8pm. We dive deeper into the podcast and we also I mean, it goes off the rail all the times but in a great way where I get family and friends and a lot of people in the chat and it's a lot of fun. I really like live streams. That's a big thing that's come along and 2021 for me is the creation of that live stream. If you are interested, you can get any of my six books that are currently out go to my website Christopher setterlund.com created and run and updated by my oldest friend Barry Menard, a great graphic designer and an even better human. You can also find them all on Amazon. You can get the in my footsteps travel guides through Schiffer books. You can get my Cape Cod history trilogy through the history press as well. If you're looking to get fit in the New Year find me at Mind Body spine chiropractic on Route six A and Brewster I do my personal training there now I do some in home too but at Mind Body spine with the amazing Dr. Michael singleton and coach KO Kaylin Orr we're helping people live their best lives getting them back to being the best they can be in their daily lives. I don't look to train bodybuilders or marathon runners anymore. I look to give people the best overall daily life. If you want to buy me a coffee you can go to buy me a coffee.com and Find the in my footsteps podcast any donations I get go to advertising the podcast and reinvesting in my work. And I love all the work the content creation. I love this type of stuff. It's flexing mental muscle, I enjoy this more than anything else. I love my personal training. But this the creation, the podcast, writing the blog, any videos I do on YouTube, there's nothing more satisfying than having something as a seed in your brain and then having an out in the universe. And I'm so appreciative to everyone who listens, everyone who watches the videos, and I'm hoping that you'll stick around and 2022 I've got possibly two new books, I'm going to have dozens of more podcasts, and there could be some other things coming up. But I don't want to give too much away. There's always something new on the horizon. And that's what makes life exciting. And like I said, at the top of the podcast next week is episode 50. It'll be the last one of 2021. It's a special bonus episode, it's going to be a mash-up of a year in review, and a look back at the podcasts on my favorite segments and what's coming up in the podcast. So I hope you'll check that out just in time for the Christmas holiday. And if you want to look way into the future to the first episode of 2022, I can tell you you heard on the road trip segment, we're going to be in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina for the new road trip. But I'm really excited about an interview I'm doing with a dear old friend Crystal Joy Smith, I'm going to be interviewing her about her upcoming cookbook Kiki's Cape Cod kitchen, and I'm gonna get to sample some of her work. And there'll be a video to come with that. So that's going to be dropping the first episode of 2022. And I hope you're all getting to enjoy the holiday season. Whether it's Christmas parties at home, work Christmas parties, or just getting to go out and enjoy the lights that people have in their yards or town decorations. I can't recommend enough going to Providence town to check out the way the monument is decorated. Or the lobster pot Christmas tree that's out there and one of the dwarfs or East Ham with the buoy Christmas tree and the antique fire engine decorated and Christmas lights. That's if you're a cape cod or if not, I don't think you're going to drive all the way down here to see them. I can't explain enough how good enjoying the holiday season is for your own mental health. Spending time with friends and family getting gifts for those that matter to you. Because this time of year can be tough. Like I've said before if you're by yourself, or it's just bad weather and that gets dark early. So like I've always said lean into the things that make you happy, whatever it is, and just enjoy the season, because it's my favorite time of year. And remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can because you never know when that light goes out. And that is the end. Thank you again to everyone who was tuned in, check out the live stream Friday at eight, check out episode 50 The urine review podcast review next week. And otherwise have a great weekend and a great week and I will talk to you all again soon.