In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 131: Cape Cod's Resort Hotel on the Water; Sports Illustrated; Top 5 Stupid Inventions; the Importance of Bob Marley(2-7-2024)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 131

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It is the dead of winter and Episode 131 will try to bring the warmth. It begins with a trip back to a long-since-forgotten Cape Cod establishment. The Chequesset Inn of Wellfleet, the Grand Resort of the Outer Cape, was an oasis of luxury in the late 19th and early 20th century. However, it has been all but lost to time. We'll look back at its story this week.
For 70 years one magazine has captured the world of athletics better than all others. Sports Illustrated has been more than just a sports magazine, it became a cultural institution. Anyone who is anyone in sports has been either on the cover or extensively written about in the magazine. With questions looming about its future it's appropriate to go Back In the Day and cover the legacy of Sports Illustrated.
There is a fine line between innovative and impractical. This week's Top 5 is going to cross way over that line as we look at some of the most ridiculous, dangerous, and downright stupid inventions ever.
On a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule we look at the importance of Bob Marley. Few people have transcended their industry to become a cultural icon in quite the way Bob Marley did and we'll look at some reasons why.
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Speaker 00:

Hello, world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 131. We're going to start this week's show off with one of my favorite Cape Cod history stories, that being the story behind Cape Cod's luxury hotel on the water known as the Chequesset Inn of Wealth. We're going to go way, way back in the day with a topic that is very relevant at this point in time, that being the history of Sports Illustrated magazine and the swimsuit issue for kids that grew up in the 80s and 90s. There's going to be a brand new top five that are the top five stupidest, most foolish inventions ever. I hope none of you had any of these. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule featuring the birth of the legend of reggae himself, Bob Marley, all coming up right now on episode Episode 131 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Valentine's Day is a week away, at least when this podcast goes live. I didn't realize that next week being the 14th, the podcast will go live on Valentine's Day. That means I'm going to have to come up with some kind of Valentine's Day subject. But until then, we'll just celebrate the dead of winter. Have you folks, wherever you're listening from, whether it's in the United States or anywhere across the world, how has your winter been, assuming it's winter where you are? It's been an interesting winter on Cape Cod. As we get cold, but then when it's time for precipitation, it warms up just enough that we get either slush or rain. I don't need us to have tons of snow. But it's almost like you want some so that when it becomes springtime, you feel like you've earned the spring weather. I'm really excited because coming up on Sunday, the 11th, I'm having a huge Lady of the Dunes book event at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth. As it's the 50th anniversary of that infamous Cape Cod crime, I'm really leaning heavy into doing events centered around the story. You can get your own copy of Searching for the Lady of the Dunes, the book that I put together based around Frank Durant's awesome documentary at theladyofthedunes.com. You can also watch the documentary there. I highly recommend it. Naturally, I will keep you all informed as more events come up into my schedule throughout the spring and summer. either for Searching for the Lady of the Dunes or my other two books that were released last year, the second version of my Cape Cod Travel Guide and Cape Cod Beyond the Beach, my photography book. As I've been saying a lot during this year of the podcast, 2024, I've been working hard on my YouTube channel, my YouTube video making skills, and I hope that you have enjoyed the recent ones that I've been putting up that have been connected to the podcast segments from the show that then also have some nice video visually appealing. I've also started doing neat little chunks of retro countdown videos. They're almost like smaller versions of the time capsule that I do for the podcast. So all of you Gen Xers out there, if you like reminiscing about the old days, check those out. I'll link to one in the description of the podcast, just in case. But go subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'm close to being able to monetize it, so every one of you that goes and subscribes really helps me out. Right now, let's kick this show off with one of my favorite Cape Cod history stories and one of the stories that got me into history in general. As we look at Cape Cod's luxury hotel on the water, the story of Wellfleet's Chequesset Inn coming up right now. When I was in college, there were two stories about Cape Cod that really got me interested in history. One of them was the story of Billingsgate Island, which I literally put in episode two of the podcast. I couldn't wait to share it. The other one is the story I'm about to share right now, and that's the story of the Chequesset Inn. Ironically, both of these stories are from Wellfleet. On a curve along Kendrick Avenue in Wellfleet, just beyond Mayo Beach, sits a plaque. It is nestled in the shadows of the Wellfleeter condominiums, and if one isn't looking for that plaque, it will be passed without a thought. However, this plaque is in memory of one of the original bastions of tourism on Cape Cod. It is a reminder of a legendary resort hotel long since vanished. It is a tribute to the Chequesset Inn. The Grand Resort of the Outer Cape came about through the success of Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker. Baker was a native of Wellfleet, having been born at Boundbrook Island on March 15, 1840. His formative years were spent boating and fishing, ultimately becoming captain of the schooner Robert D. Rhodes in 1861. Baker struck it rich by importing bananas from Jamaica during the 1870s. It was said that for many years, Baker was the most well-known American man in Jamaica as he resided at a winter home there near the town of Kingston. From his dalliances in bananas, Baker created the Boston Fruit Company, which became the United Fruit Company in 1899, and today it is well known as Chiquita. So yes, Baker started the Chiquita Banana Company. During this rise to prominence, Baker built his summer estate called Belvernon, on five acres west of Commercial Street in Wellfleet on what is now fittingly called Baker Avenue. He continued by purchasing the 400-foot-long mercantile wharf located just west of Mayo Beach in 1885. Wellfleet had been predominantly known as a fishing village in the latter part of the 19th century, and as the fishing industry winded down, Baker wanted to increase the town's appeal. to make it more than just a former fishing village. He achieved this in spades with the construction of his Hotel Over the Sea, christened the Chequesset Inn in 1886. The 62-room, four-story resort quickly turned Wellfleet into a summer resort town. Visitors arrived mostly via the new spoke of the Old Colony Railroad, which had been finished in 1870. These guests at the Chequesset Inn were treated to high-end luxury in more than one area. Some of the amenities included both sea and freshwater fishing, boating, tennis, billiards, and bowling. The meals included music played by a live orchestra and vegetables grown from the inn's own gardens. Guests could even be carraged off to nearby ponds or walk down Kendrick Avenue to soak up the sun at Mayo Beach. By the turn of the 20th century, Captain Baker had succeeded in making Wellfleet a desirable summer destination. The Chequesset Inn changed with the times as well, bringing in electric lights during the 1890s and welcoming the new automobile crowd during the first decade of the 1900s. He would also headquarter the Wellfleet Yacht Club at the inn. One of his last contributions of his life came in 1902 when Captain Baker created the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries, Shellfish Laboratory, and Quahog Hatchery, also on Mercantile Wharf. The Chequesset Inn's popularity resulted in extensive additions, most specifically prior to the 1903 season. Seventeen new guest rooms were built, with many including private baths. The dining and reception rooms were enlarged. Electric power was a big selling point, with electric laundry drying, electric-powered showers, and most important to Captain Baker, a big electric sign showcasing the hotel's name. Captain Baker died on June 21st, 1908, at the age of 68, with his hotel resort running strong as a booming success. He was buried at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Wellfleet alongside his wife Martha, who had passed away in 1903. His four children, specifically his son Lorenzo Baker Jr., took over the day-to-day operations of the resort. The cracks in the Chequesset Inn's business were few, the one began to rear its head. There was no alcohol allowed at the resort, and this became a big selling point for new competing resorts like the Chatham Bars Inn, which opened in 1914. As the inn made it into its fourth decade, some physical cracks began to appear. The wharf was being damaged by the harsh New England winters. This problem was alleviated for a time when in 1928, lumber purchased from the recently decommissioned Chatham Naval Station was used to shore up some of the weaknesses at Mercantile Wharf. However, the repairs were not permanent. During a particularly frigid winter where Wellfleet Harbor was packed with ice, it appeared as though the Chequesset Inn would not survive to see another season. During a strong winter storm, chunks of ice became free and destroyed parts of the wharf and caused the partial collapse of the inn. Luckily, being a summer resort, nobody was hurt in the collapse. The prognosis looked dire. For three weeks, the ice continued to be a threat. That being said, in early March 1934... The man who had worked on repairing the inn's wharf, E.W. Oliver, said that he believed that the worst was behind as far as the Chequesset Inn went as temperatures rose and the ice melted. The inn did not open for the season in 1934. Was this the end? From the time of its creation, the inn had been in the hands of Captain Baker and then his estate after his death. However, it was in late June 1934 that the property was sold to Reginald Moulton of Eastham. It was Moulton who ultimately made the call to permanently close the Chequesset Inn. It truly was the end of an era. The raising of the Chequesset Inn took place in the days following Labor Day in September 1934. Fixtures and lumber from Wellfleet's Grand Hotel were sold on the spot, with the last remnants being sold by Thanksgiving. The dismantling of the inn also left the Wellfleet Yacht Club without their headquarters. Today, it is mostly just memories which remain of the Chequesset Inn. It can seem at times as if it was only a figment of one's imagination. However, physical proof of the old mercantile wharf appears occasionally during particularly low tides when some of the old wharf pilings become visible. Proof of the former Chequesset Inn can also be found. After its demise, some of the lumber was taken by parishioners to Orleans to help create the Church of the Holy Spirit, which still stands today. Otherwise, the Chequesset Inn joins a rather large group of vanished Wellfleet history, alongside Mayo Beach Lighthouse, Billingsgate Island, and the Marconi Wireless Station. It is kind of ironic that so much of the vanished Cape Cod history consists in the town of Wellfleet. This Week in History, we are going back 79 years ago this week to February 6th, 1945 and the birth of the legend, the icon, Bob Marley. I'll start off this Week in History segment by admitting I'm not the foremost expert on Bob Marley the man or even Bob Marley the music. I know a lot of his stuff. I love a lot of his stuff. But I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you that I know everything about him. That's where the advantage of research comes in. This segment about Bob Marley is going to remind me of a quote from my old friend and second father, Maui, who used to tell me when we worked in the restaurants together, take your time, but hurry up. I'm going to try to give you as much as I can about Bob Marley in his little time so that it flows. Bob Marley was born in Nine Mile, St. Ann Parish on the island of Jamaica. He would emerge as one of the most influential figures in the history of music. A lot of that music was influenced by his early life that was marked by poverty and struggle, growing up in a small rural village. He was raised by his mother, Sedila Booker, and Bob Marley's early exposure to music was through the local church and the sounds of ska and rocksteady that echoed through the streets of Kingston. It was in the late 1960s that Marley formed the Wailers with his friends Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and their music evolved from ska to reggae, and they quickly gained popularity in Jamaica. It wasn't until the early 1970s when Marley embraced Rastafarianism that his music took on a new depth, blending the reggae rhythm with messages of love, peace, and social justice. His breakthrough came with the album Catch a Fire that was released in 1973. This showcased that reggae sound and introduced him to an international audience. He solidified that status as a global icon with subsequent albums like Burnin', Natty Dread, and Rastaman Vibration. His songs, No Woman, No Cry, Buffalo Soldier, One Love, Jamming, Could You Be Loved, which that's my favorite of his songs, but they resonated with audiences. You didn't have to be from Jamaica or have deep knowledge of reggae. or even have gone through the same struggles that Bob Marley did to understand and appreciate his music. But the music wasn't just melody and rhythm. It was powerful messages of political activism, social consciousness. He addressed the issues of poverty, inequality, and oppression using that platform he had gained as a global icon of music to advocate for change. The influence of Bob Marley extended way past music. He became a cultural and spiritual figure, representing the struggle for freedom and equality, distinct voice, distinct sound. Like I said, I'm no expert on Bob Marley. but I understand what he represented and what he still represents. He passed away 43 years ago, and yet his music is still as relevant today as it was when he was at his peak in the mid-70s. Bob Marley's importance in music lies not only in his exceptional talent as a musician, but also that ability to use his music as a medium for social and political change. His songs are anthems of hope, love, and resistance. And his influence on reggae music is immeasurable. Most people consider reggae and Bob Marley the same thing, as if he basically invented it. Bob Marley's enduring legacy is a testament to the universal appeal of his music and the lasting impact of his messages. And the legend himself, Bob Marley, was born 79 years ago this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. Let's make everybody feel old as we go all the way back 25 years to February 9th, 1999. That's right, the 90s ended 25 years ago. Let's see what was going on back then in pop culture. The number one song was Angel of Mine by Monica. This song was originally recorded by British R&B girl group Eternal in 1997, with Monica recording it for her album The Boy Is Mine and having the song go to number one for four weeks. An interesting fact is that Monica did not know that that song was actually recorded by someone else until she recorded her version of it. She thought that it was written exclusively for her. The number one movie was Message in a Bottle, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing on average $5.06. This movie starred Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Paul Newman, and is about a woman that finds a tragic love letter in a bottle and falls in love with the person who wrote it and is determined to find them. This is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks, who wrote a lot of those romantic movies, including The Notebook. It made $118 million at the box office on a budget of about $30 million, and currently is 32% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's kind of a mixed bag. The number one TV show was ER. Because of course, it's the 90s. It's ER is number one in the 90s. Anytime I do a 1980s time capsule, it's The Cosby Show. Anytime I do a 1970s time capsule, it's All in the Family, almost exclusively. This is the famed medical drama TV show created by Michael Crichton that was on for 15 seasons from 1994 to 2009 and 331 total episodes. In its duration, ER received 124 Emmy nominations, winning 23 Emmys and 116 total awards during the time it was on the air. And if you were around back then, February 9th, 1999, I feel fairly comfortable saying most of you were, sorry, and you were into video games, you're a gamer, You've got an N64. Well, you can reserve your copy of Pokemon, the special Pikachu edition. Just put $10 down at your local electronics boutique to guarantee your copy. There was also Pokemon Pinball for Game Boy Color, Pokemon Snap for N64, as well as a tease for coming soon, Pokemon Stadium for the N64. That'll wrap up another This Week in History, another time capsule. Let's get into inventions that I hope none of you out there ever owned as we dive into a brand new top five that are the stupidest inventions ever, at least some of them, and at least in my opinion. So let's check them out. This is one of those top fives that I had so much fun putting it together, just shaking my head in amazement at some of these things that were invented and even might have been popular for a little while. I know that stupidest inventions or worst inventions can be subjective, especially if you're the one who invented it. You may not think your invention is stupid. I tried to stick to inventions that were quirky, unusual, but also totally impractical, sometimes dangerous. And you'll see there's a fine line between innovation and impracticality. But enough of the setup. Let's get to the punchline. As always, there are some honorable mentions to kind of get your mind going as to what I consider stupid and practical inventions. So, honorable mentions include... The Ford Nucleon from 1958, which was a concept car designed by Ford that was intended to be powered by a small nuclear reactor. Obviously, it was scrapped due to safety concerns. There were air-conditioned shoes, which you can still find variations on this, but literally shoes with built-in air-conditioning units meant to keep your feet cool. There was the revolving ice cream cone. which was a plastic cone with a motorized platform designed to rotate the ice cream for even licking. There have been different variations on this over the decades. I mean, how lazy do you have to be that you can't turn your wrist to lick ice cream? Speaking of insanely ridiculous, there was also the butter stick, which is a stick of butter that looks like either chapstick or a glue stick that you would put on your toast or whatever. This was from 2007. It was criticized for being A, unnecessary, and B, unhygienic. And there was also the TV hat from the 1990s, which was a wearable hat with a built-in visor and magnifying screen so you could watch TV privately. It looks like a hat with a big old shower curtain around it. It's so bad. But those are just the honorable mentions. Can you imagine what's coming up now in the actual top five? As per usual, these top five are in no particular order. Let's start it off with number one, the Baby Mop from 2012. This is the most recent one on this list, so you might be familiar with it. But if you're not, It's basically a onesie for your child that has a mop on the bottom or mop-like fabric on the bottom so that you could turn your baby into a mop, push your child around the kitchen floor to clean up spills. This is still made and you can go get it on Amazon or you can go to the company's website, babymop.com, where it says it's perfect for a crawling baby. It's like you're already trying to give your child a job at three months old. Go clean the floor by crawling on it. It is seen as impractical and potentially unsafe. But hey, it could be worse. They could have given you a stick with it too to just push the child around with the mop onesie. Number two is the Smell-O-Vision from 1960. What's better than television? How about Smell-O-Vision? This was a system aiming to add sense to films to provide that extra sensory dimension to movie watching. This process was developed by a man named Hans Loeb, L-A-U-B-E, and made its one and only appearance for the 1960 movie Scent of Mystery. The process of smell-o-vision for this movie would introduce 30 different scents into the theater when specifically triggered by the movie's soundtrack. But if you're thinking, oh man, those fools back 60-something years ago doing something like smell-o-vision, in 2001, there was the iSmell, which was a device aimed to add a sense of smell to the internet. It was a personal scent synthesizer developed by Digisense Incorporated, and it could be connected to your computer through a USB port. It's weird looking. It looks like a little triangle gray shark's fin with a bunch of little holes in the side where the scent must come from. I don't know. I had never even heard of this until I started researching this topic. But wait, let's keep getting really crazy with number three, the Dimple Maker from 1936. God. If you have not heard of this, and I wouldn't blame you if you haven't, pause this podcast and go Google Dimple Maker from 1936. It's literally a device that was intended to create dimples on a person's face. It had these small knobs that... into your cheeks. They say it was more of a novelty than an actual beauty aid. But some of the black and white photos, it looks like someone bent a wire hanger around their face and put marbles on their cheeks to just squish. The product was invented by Isabella Gilbert of Rochester, New York. And you were supposed to wear this thing for five minutes at a time, two to three times a day to get yourself the dimples that your DNA didn't give you. Man, some wacky stuff. But wait, number four is one you probably have seen photos of, and that is the baby cage from 1937. If you don't know what this is, it's insanity. It's literally a wire cage that could be attached to apartment windows, allowing urban parents to let their babies have fresh air by shoving them out the window into this cage. Some of the pictures it looks like a crate that you would put a dog in but yet instead of there being a dog there's a baby in a bassinet or just on a blanket out the window. Naturally this was discontinued due to safety concerns. You know how hard it is just to put things together normally with an instruction manual? Can you imagine creating this baby cage and trying to attach it to your window and saying, well, that's close enough, we'll see what happens, and then putting your child in it and then it just falls out the window? Just nuts. But wait, we've got one more. In the honorable mentions, I mentioned the TV hat. There was a toss-up between that and this number five as far as what made the countdown itself. So number five is the isolator helmet from 1925. The images of this look like something straight out of Nightmare Fuel. It's a helmet that was designed to increase focus and concentration by blocking out external distractions. Okay, that makes sense right there. But if you look up photos of this isolator helmet, it looks like a big scuba diving, like a dive suit helmet. with an air filter air hole on it so you can breathe. It's so big and cumbersome and ridiculous. The reason though that this made the top five instead of the TV hat is the fact that the isolator helmet is meant to be worn out in public in a library. You imagine going to the library in the 1920s and there's some guy with this giant helmet on trying to read. At least the TV hat is meant to be in your own home so you don't bother others. But there you have it. Five of the stupidest, most impractical, and sometimes dangerous inventions ever. There may be a part two to this coming up. There were so many that I whittled out. But how many of these have you heard of? I'm figuring none of you had really any of these because a lot of them were from the early 20th century. But who knows, maybe if you go look up in the attic, maybe there's an isolator helmet there that you can put up on eBay. For decades, for generations, Sports Illustrated magazine has been a major part of American culture. Anyone who was anyone in the world of sports over the last 70 years has either appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated or had in-depth articles about them written in there. Every major sporting event since its establishment in 1954 has been in Sports Illustrated. I've wanted to do a back in the day segment about Sports Illustrated and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue for a while. It seems really appropriate to do it now with the news that came out last month of the mass layoffs from Sports Illustrated, where as we stand currently now in the first week of February, it's unknown what the future is for Sports Illustrated. Some say it could recover and come back. Others say it's dead already. The website is still going. It's still being updated. But either way, I felt it was appropriate to kind of... do a deep dive into the history of Sports Illustrated, its importance, and of course the swimsuit issue for all of us kids from the 80s and 90s. Sports Illustrated magazine was established, like I said, in 1954. It was the brainchild of Henry Lucey. L-U-C-E. I hope I said his name right. He envisioned a magazine that would celebrate the drama and spectacle of sports, and it did. If we pause right now and you close your eyes and think of Sports Illustrated magazine, I'm sure you've got covers in your mind. You maybe even have some that are in your attic or packed away that you've saved. The very first issue of Sports Illustrated hit the stands on August 16th, 1954, and it had Milwaukee Braves baseball player Eddie Matthews at bat on the cover. But this magazine wasn't meant to be a typical sports section from a newspaper. It focused a lot on the humans behind the athletes. And that's kind of what endeared Sports Illustrated to all of the generations. People that grew up in the 50s all the way up until recently. I became a sports fan in 1986. And only a few years later, I actually had somewhat disposable income that I could buy magazines for. And anytime there were major events in sports, especially locally, the Boston area, I would go to the bookstore or convenience store to go to the magazine rack and see what the cover of Sports Illustrated was. In my mom's basement, I have boxes of old belongings. I have loads of magazines. I was a hoarder back in the 90s, not throwing anything away. So I have dozens of old Sports Illustrateds. Besides the look at the humans behind the athletes, the photography of Sports Illustrated is probably what stands out most. There are tens of thousands of incredible photos that were in Sports Illustrated magazine. If you go to their website, assuming it's still up by the time you listen to this podcast, there is an article, the 100 best photos ever from Sports Illustrated. I'll throw a link to it in the description of the podcast if you want to check it out. And there are dozens, probably hundreds of famous covers because of the fact that it's a weekly magazine. Well, that was until 2020 when it became a monthly publication. But think about how many issues that is. I've been trying to research the numbers, but if you're looking at roughly 50 issues a year between 1954 and 2020... Just that alone gives you 3,300 issues, not including any special issues, the swimsuit issue. I'm sure all of you out there who have read Sports Illustrated, who are fans of it, have your own personal favorite cover, whether it's the dream team basketball team in 1992. That's the one I go to when I think of my favorite cover ever, because that's just such a great era of sports in my life. Between the years of 1954 to 2016, Michael Jordan was on the cover the most with 50 covers of Sports Illustrated. Second was Muhammad Ali with 40. But the photos and the covers catch your eye and they bring you in. Inside, you needed to have great reporting. And that's where you got to learn about the actual humans behind the athletes and their personalities and the challenges they faced. And oh boy, there were tons of famous writers. Frank DeFord, he's one of the first ones that pops up. Dan Jenkins. Maybe you preferred Dr. Z. Paul Zimmerman, his football picks. I always remember that, Dr. Z. There was Rick Riley, Sally Jenkins, even Peter Gammons. It's hard to narrow that down. I could spend most of this segment just talking about the famous writers. But like I said, any major sporting event, any major sporting personality who played from 1954 to the present day has been featured in Sports Illustrated. There would be the famous commercials, usually around Christmas, where you could buy people a subscription to it. You'd get typically a telephone shaped like something else, usually a football or something, if you ordered S.I.

Speaker 01:

Of course,

Speaker 00:

I've gone about six minutes into this segment, and I haven't spoken about what was going to be originally the main talking point of this, and that was the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. It is annually the most popular issue from Sports Illustrated. Babette March was the first woman ever to be the swimsuit cover model for Sports Illustrated in 1964. Of course, this stirred controversy to have a swimsuit edition of a sports magazine. But what it did was help broaden the magazine's appeal beyond just sports. It crossed it into mainstream fashion. And it made those swimsuit cover models household names. I grew up in the 80s, child of the 80s, teenager of the 90s. I can still rattle off tons of swimsuit models I remember from those issues. Cheryl Teagues, Christy Brinkley, Elle MacPherson, Kathy Ireland, Rachel Hunter, Tyra Banks. Those are just the first ones that popped into my mind. I was trying to find some sort of statistics on how popular the swimsuit issue is. I found this stat from 2013. Businessinsider.com says that the average swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated sells more than 1 million copies. And that's just on newsstands. And that is 10 to 15 times more than the average Sports Illustrated issue. That says nothing about people that might subscribe just so they could get that issue. For me as a kid, the swimsuit issue was sort of a coming-of-age moment, I guess. Being 11, 12, 13 years old, seeing these beautifully bikini-clad women on the cover inside the pages. Now, I don't think there were any restrictions on teenagers buying that magazine. I don't think if you went to a convenience store if you were 12 and the swimsuit issue was there, that if you went to try to buy it, they would stop you. That being said, I don't remember how I got to see those issues when I was a kid. I don't remember if I bought it or my friend Matt or maybe Hassan or Tim. Any of you out there, do you guys remember it if you're listening? Because I was always shy and introverted. So are you going to go up to the counter with this magazine with Elle MacPherson in a bikini and try to buy it? I'd have almost felt more comfortable trying to go up and buy a six pack of beer than the swimsuit issue. Elle MacPherson currently holds the record having been on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition five times. Her appearance in 1994, I think, is the one that I remember most vividly because I think that was one that I actually bought. And in later years, there were actual athletes that would be in the swimsuit edition, which I think helped to influence ESPN the magazine, where they had their body issues, which they did from 2009 to 2019. It's amazing when you think of the influence that Sports Illustrated had with something like that body issue from ESPN. but also general sporting magazines, because there were other famous magazines that came out around then or after then, like the Sporting News, or other magazines geared towards one specific sport, like Baseball Digest or Golf Digest or Slam Magazine. There's even Sports Illustrated Kids that began in 1989. It's bimonthly. So I was around 12 when it came out. So I think I didn't want to be seen as a kid. So I don't think I ever really read Sports Illustrated Kids. Sports Illustrated Magazine stands as a testament to the enduring power of sports storytelling. And through its history, innovative approach, and cultural impact, it left an indelible mark on the world of sports journalism through most of the 20th century. And whether that legacy now is coming to an end or whether there's a fourth quarter comeback from Sports Illustrated, the magazine and website, I felt it was a perfect time on this week's episode of the podcast to do a deep dive into Sports Illustrated and its impact on me and its impact on generations of people who love sports. And that's going to wrap up episode 131 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to all of you who listen to the show, who share it. A huge thank you to my Patreon subscribers, Leo, Laurie, Mary Lou, and Ashley. If you want a shout out, go become a subscriber at Patreon or at Buzzsprout. It gives you access to member-only bonus podcast episodes, my fever dream look at my initial impressions blog from 2010. The fifth bonus podcast went up last week, February 1st. You get some digital art. You get early access to other episodes of the podcast. I'm still trying to figure out other things I can do to make becoming a subscriber more intriguing to those out there. But if becoming a subscriber on Patreon just isn't feasible, and I totally understand that, listening, sharing, subscribing to the podcast, leaving five-star reviews on Apple, subscribing to the YouTube channel where there's a lot of crossover with the podcast, those things go a long way to help. You'd be surprised on how... Other people's reviews help people want to tune into the show. Or seeing a certain number of likes on a YouTube video or a view count really help. Sometimes it's less about the content you put out and whether other people are listening or watching. It's wild. Yes, go subscribe on YouTube. If you enjoy me and my content, you can find me all over social media. on Instagram, threads, X. I'm constantly sharing stuff about the podcast, my other content, and some great photos on Instagram, just gonna say. Next week is episode 132, and it falls on Valentine's Day. So I guess we'll try to make that episode all about love. Does that sound good to everyone out there? Valentine's Day is a hit or miss for me. I haven't had reasons to really celebrate over the last several years, so it's kind of like, eh. But I know a lot of people enjoy it. It's an excuse to show your partner, if you have one, how much they mean to you. Although you shouldn't really need an excuse like Valentine's Day, but I won't get all preachy about that. You can show me that you love me and the podcast by subscribing. All right, I'm sorry. I'll try to edit that part out. Visit my website, ChristopherSatterlund.com. It's got links to all nine of my books so far. I don't have any plans to work on any new books in 2024. I'm trying to kind of reap the harvest of having three books come out last year. But you never know how quickly I'll go back on that. And whether Valentine's Day is your favorite day of the year, or whether you hate it with a passion... Whether you think winter is the best season or whether you hate that with a passion, try your best to take care of your mental health. Lean into the things that make you happy. If you hate winter and hate snow and it's all around you outside, put on some Hawaiian music and watch travel videos from all the tropical areas you want to visit. Of course, if you enjoy the outdoors, you can take my podcast with you. They're perfect walking length videos. 45, 50, 55 minutes. That'll give you enough time to do a couple miles. I recently started race training for the first time in almost seven years. And it's amazing how having a purpose, a goal, something you're aiming for, it's amazing how that can increase your self-confidence, your self-worth. Now, I'm not saying everyone needs to go out there and start race training. But it's more a metaphor of finding a purpose, finding something that keeps you going daily. I plan on running a 5K race the first week of May. That's my big comeback. And whether it's a one and done just to prove to myself I can do it, or if it starts a whole new chapter of my running life, having that goal has really reinvigorated me. So I wanted to share that with anyone out there who might feel that they're kind of drifting. You never know when inspiration will strike. Something will come along to just light a fire under you. And if you have that currently, good luck with whatever it is that is your goal. And if you don't have one, I hope that you find one. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again to all of you who tuned into episode 131 or have listened to any episode in the past. I appreciate all of you. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew me. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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