Episode 71 begins by taking a trip back 50 years ago to the week and Cape Cod's very own Woodstock concert. Held in Provincetown in 1972 it had big aspirations and noble intentions. Who organized it? Who played it? What is its legacy?
Head up north to the middle of New Hampshire and a Road Trip to the charming little town of New London. Wide open spaces, mountains, authentic farm stands, even luxury resorts, there is so much that makes New London a place worth the drive from wherever you are in New England.
We take a journey way Back In the Day to the sugary sweet days of the trip to the candy store in the 1980's. Back when penny candy was actually a penny, there is a lot of great memories to be uncovered as we walk the aisles and pick out our favorites. Just remember to brush your teeth after.
There's a brand new Top 5 featuring musical artists I wish I could have seen in concert. Some of them will be obvious, some might be a little surprising, all of them would have been amazing for me to see live.
There's also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the death of Helen Keller.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 70 here.
Episode 71 begins by taking a trip back 50 years ago to the week and Cape Cod's very own Woodstock concert. Held in Provincetown in 1972 it had big aspirations and noble intentions. Who organized it? Who played it? What is its legacy?
Head up north to the middle of New Hampshire and a Road Trip to the charming little town of New London. Wide open spaces, mountains, authentic farm stands, even luxury resorts, there is so much that makes New London a place worth the drive from wherever you are in New England.
We take a journey way Back In the Day to the sugary sweet days of the trip to the candy store in the 1980's. Back when penny candy was actually a penny, there is a lot of great memories to be uncovered as we walk the aisles and pick out our favorites. Just remember to brush your teeth after.
There's a brand new Top 5 featuring musical artists I wish I could have seen in concert. Some of them will be obvious, some might be a little surprising, all of them would have been amazing for me to see live.
There's also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the death of Helen Keller.
Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)
Listen to Episode 70 here.
Intro
Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 71. This week's gonna be a really fun show. We're going to start it off with a slice of Cape Cod history going back 50 years ago this week to an event that looked to change the world did it. Who knows but it's the story of Cape Cod's Woodstock concert in Provincetown. We're going to take a road trip up north to the small town of New London, New Hampshire, the site of my original travel blog road trip. We're gonna go way, way back in the day and reminisce about the sugary treats that we used to get at the candy store in the 1980s is going to be a brand new top five, including the top five musical acts. I wish I could have seen live. There'll be a brand new this week in history and time capital all coming up right now on episode 71 of the in my footsteps podcast. Welcome in everybody. Welcome to June, soon enough, it's going to be summer Memorial Day weekend has just passed, this is going to be a big month. I got some fun shows planned. So hopefully you'll stick around and check those out as well to all of you that are tuning in now or have tuned in in the past and are coming back around. Thank you so much. You're the reason why I keep doing this. I have fun doing it. But it always is better when people actually listen and tell you they listen and what they like about the podcast you do. Hopefully, you all get a chance to be outside in the nice weather and travel a little I know gas prices are the worst they've ever been. So I think traveling is a little harder. But there's so much beauty and so much fun and so much to see even close by I mean, I'm speaking of those in the wheelhouse of this podcast in New England and that surrounding area. Even taking a few minutes to just walk outside, enjoy the green, go to the beach, and enjoy the salty air. This is the best time of year to do all of that. And I'll try my best on the road trip segments going forward in the summer to send you to places that you can go and enjoy and appreciate. But like I said, this is a big month. A lot of fun stuff coming up. It's a big birthday month. So when this podcast goes live a few days ago will have been my oldest niece Kaleigh’s birthday. Looking forward a few days my brother Matt's birthday, enjoy your last year in your 30s and then you can come to sit at the table the 40s table with me and your sister Kate, my buddy John's birthday is coming up. We're going back 30 years you and I it was great to get to celebrate a little with you earlier this year. And some point we'll celebrate again. The month ends with my niece Kaleigh’s college graduation. So I mean, there's a lot coming up family-wise, friend-wise, and podcast-wise. I've got a few things cooking as far as the lady of the dunes book project goes nothing I can really share too much detail on now, not to risk jinxing it, but there are some things going so hopefully in the weeks and months ahead. I'll have some more good news about that. But that's all in the future. And right now, let's jump into Episode 71 of the podcast. This is going to be a great story here to kick off going back 50 years ago this week and an event that I'm sure at the time they thought would change the world. Did it really well. You're gonna have to listen now and find out. But this is the story of Cape Cod's biggest music festival, their own Woodstock-type concert, how it came to be who performed there and the aftermath. All that coming up right now on episode 71 of the in my footsteps podcast.
Cape Cod’s Woodstock
The original Woodstock Music Festival is widely considered to be one of the most important moments in the history of music between August 15 and 18th in 1969, an estimated 400,000 people crowded on to Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York. The list of musical acts that played during the festival reads like a who's who of icons and music history. legends like Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills Nash and Young, The Who and many more graced the stages in throwing the crowd. Fast forward to two years later in August 1971 and former Beatle George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar organized a concert for Bangladesh. This took place in New York City's Madison Square Garden, and was a pair of benefit shows to raise money and awareness for the refugees of East Pakistan. Following the Bangladesh liberation war-related genocide. Those shows were attended by 40,000 people. And by 1985. Those concerts and the subsequent investments had raised nearly $12 million. One year from that, in May 1972. Those first two events Woodstock and the concerts for Bangladesh collided in the dunes of Provincetown on Cape Cod 50 years ago this week in history, even though this isn't a this week in history segment. An idea was hatched for a Woodstock-type concert benefiting Bangladesh, who organized it, who played it, and was it a success? Well, this here is the story of Cape Cod's very own Woodstock. The roots of this event began in December 1965 With the creation of the Provincetown Academy of living arts. This was a nonprofit year-round Art Center, where students and professional artists alike could study and perform. However, after two years, the organization was still looking for a physical home base for operations. In 1969, they expanded their operations and began holding and sponsoring art festivals. Things came together when 20-year-old Harwich resident David Blackmore pitched the idea of the daylong outdoors, Music and Arts Festival to the organization in early 1972. It was to be a Free Music and Arts Festival with hopeful donations from attendees going to support Bangladesh. Although there was some minor resistance from locals, the Cape Cod National Seashore eventually granted the festival. It was dubbed the Provincetown Music and Arts Festival. It was promoted throughout New England by Blackmore, something beyond what the National Seashore had anticipated. Despite all of that promotion, Blackmore still only expected somewhere between 1,000-1,500 people to show up. The location chosen for the event was the province lands amphitheater, which could see about 700 and the date was chosen of Sunday, May 28 1972. It was scheduled during one of the busiest weekend's OF THE YEAR Memorial Day weekend. It was a nearly perfect weekend weather-wise, not only was the event given the green light by the National Seashore, but a section of dunes on Race Point Beach was opened up to allow concertgoers who could not find accommodations, a place to sleep. On that day, people cars, motorcycles, and more line the dunes in the streets of Providence town. It was a far larger crowd and Blackboard had anticipated filled with hippies, Hells Angels and more. And with more people than were expected, rumors began to permeate through the crowd in the time leading up to the show of potential big-name acts at the event all the way up to a potential Beatles reunion. None of those rumors came to pass though. The show began at 10am on Sunday, and was packed with bands from Cape Cod and Boston, the top performer as far as Cape Codders go was Marie Marcus, who was the Cape's first lady of jazz. However, the top performer as far as connections to that present days music was the Daddy Warbucks band. As at the time they had toured with Rod Stewart. Two of the members of that band were Marshall Bruce Mathers and his wife Debbie, their son, who was born only a few months after the show went on to become iconic rapper, Eminem. So yes, Eminem’s parents played in a band that was at Cape Cod's, Woodstock. The other acts on the bill of Cape Cod's Woodstock were albatross who were from Falmouth flight, a brass band from Springfield, Keith troop, a newly formed band in the Harwich Chatham area LZ band, a blues and jazz band from Boston and sadbird who had recently played the game roguery in Boston. As I said earlier, Blackmore thought there'd be about 1000 to maybe 1500 people to show up at Cape Cod's Woodstock. Well, all in all, somewhere between 8-12,000 people crowded in and around the Race Point amphitheater, to hear the live music and show their support. Any of you that are familiar with the province lands area that amphitheater. If you can picture it in your mind and then picture 12,000 people in that area, there are photos from it, and I will try to post them on social media so you can see it, but it's a wild scene. But despite the large crowd, unfortunately, the lively crowd for the event did not translate to large donations for Bangladesh. Before the festival was over, it was announced that a mere $100 had been collected from those in attendance or roughly $1 for every 120 people. It didn't stop there either. As in the aftermath of the show, it was revealed by Provincetown police chief Jimmy Meads that the festival may have been more harm than good. A large number of people in and around the dunes caused extensive damage. The night before many had torn up beach fencing and shingles from National Seashore buildings to burn for warmth. Drug and alcohol use ran rampant before and during the event. And at one point, part of the province lands visitors center roof was set on fire. The end result was chief Meads proclaiming that he would go to federal court to file an injunction if another similar festival was ever planned. So Cape Cod's Woodstock was a one-time-only event. In spite of all of that, then superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore, Lesley Hornberger, applauded the efforts of the park rangers and the members of the US Park Police that had been dispatched from Washington DC for keeping the enormous festival relatively contained. It's a crazy story to think of 50 years ago this week that it was a Woodstock slash concert for Bangladesh with up to 12,000 people in those dunes in Provincetown, with only $100 of donations. It's just a wild story. That seems like it couldn't be real. But like I said, there's photo evidence of it. Looking back, it was a moment in history of Cape Cod and the youth of the early 1970s. It was an event not likely to ever be duplicated or even allowed on Cape Cod again, and chief Meads basically had said that wouldn't happen. But for one day, in May 1972, 50 years ago, this week in history, Woodstock, Bangladesh, and Cape Cod culture all converged in the dunes of Provincetown.
Road Trip: New London, NH
All right, it is road trip time again. And I have chosen a spot that is near and dear to my heart. Kind of the OG of my travel trips. As we drive up north, at least from where I am to the small town of New London, New Hampshire. It's no secret if you've listened to the podcast, what a huge fan I am of northern New England, specifically New Hampshire and Maine. Even though there aren't that many big cities in New England, it still is nice to go up north where things are more spaced out. That was why I started doing my travel blog way back at the beginning of 2010. To give me an excuse to go and explore all of these places. It began close to home, going to the next town over two towns over places within a half-hour drive, taking pictures, writing articles about them and sharing them. But eventually, you've got to go further. And although the states are relatively small, it is still New England is a pretty large area. To get from where I am on Cape Cod to the northern tip of Maine, you're looking at about nine hours to drive that far. So that's pretty good driving distance for my first big travel trip where I had to drive several hours to get to a place. I chose New London, New Hampshire because it was in the middle of the state. And it sort of served as a home base because I wanted to go to the flume Park and the old man in the Mountain State Park, way up north in Lincoln, New Hampshire. And I did Lincoln New Hampshire on a road trip segment way back in episode eight if you want to hear more about that part of this trip, but New London seemed like the perfect home base. It's 100 miles northwest of Boston. and about 25 miles east of the Vermont border to kind of give you an idea of where it's located. It's a relatively small town, with a population in 2018, being 4461 people. And despite that being kind of a small year-round population, it can kind of be deceiving, because it's also a college town with the campus of Colby Sawyer college being located there. In the wintertime, it's a really popular ski area with Mount Kerr saij being to the east, and then the hugely popular mount Sunapee being to the West. I'm not much of a skier. But obviously, I could see the appeal for skiers to go up there and have all these options of places to go. The highest point of Mount Sunapee is just over 2700 feet in elevation. If you want to get more information about the actual skiing and how to go out there, check out ski and h.com Because like I said, I'm not really a skier, so I won't be able to do justice to what it's like to go there, you'd be more apt to ask my buddy Steve about it. When I went up there the first time to visit New London, New Hampshire, it was in the late summer. So we're talking the first couple weeks of September. And my first big takeaway, it wasn't my first ever overnight trip for my travel blog. So naturally, you've got to have a place to stay. And I was doing my research. And I came across this place called the Lamplighter Motor Inn. That was just the perfect combination of being obviously in a nice area, everything in New London is really a nice area. But it was also affordable, which was very important for me. So I sent an email to the motel, and just essentially told the management what I was doing, I said I was writing an article for my travel blog. I didn't make it seem like I was any sort of big celebrity or something. But the owner was so nice. He gave me a business rate on my room. Me I was nobody. So that really stuck with me. And that's a big reason why I'm including them in the road trip. They're located at 34, Newport road, and Lamplighter motor inn.com. It's a small motel 14 rooms, and I'm not going to blow smoke and say it's some five-star resort. It's a nice place, it'll get the job done for you. But the fact that the management was so nice and accommodating to me really sticks with me. So I think that kind of service would make your experience there better than the sum of its parts. When I was there in the middle of New Hampshire, I was able to go to the beach, I went to Bucklin Beach, which is right on little son puppy lake on little son puppy road. It's a small beach, it's a lake beach, so not an ocean one. And I believe in the summer during summer hours and such it's a residence beach. So just be aware if you're going to go there. Like I've said with other places, don't just park your car and leave it to make sure that you're allowed to because the last thing I wanted to send you somewhere and have you get like a ticket on your car. If you're not looking to go to the beach while in the mountains, you can visit the Fells and the John Hay estate. This is at 456 route 103 A. It's in the neighboring town of Newbury to the south. It's not far though, New London and places in northern New Hampshire. Like I said, everything is spaced out. So you may have to drive places to get to see other stuff. But it's 83 and a half acres of woodland trails and gardens. And it also has the home the summer estate of diplomat and statesman John Hay, go to the fells.org and just look at the photos of the estate, the trails, the gardens, you'll definitely want to go and like I said it's just to the south, the next town south from New London, so it's not a far drive. That's why I included it. And of course there are lots of farms with all that wide open space. So you can go and check out spring ledge farm at 37 Main Street in New London or spring ledge farm.com It's just beautiful scenery with mountains all around it. They've got all sorts of vegetables, corn, strawberries flowers, shopping at an authentic farm stand in the middle of New Hampshire is just a beautiful experience. So I highly recommend it even if you're not a big fan of checking out farms I mean, I don't know why you wouldn't be but just go and look anyway. If buying your own produce from Spring ledge farm isn't what you're looking for as far as meals go. You can always check out oak and grain At 853 Pleasant Street Suite D, it is a part of the end that pleasant lake. So visit in at Pleasant lake.com To get a better idea of open grain, but it's fine dining dinner brunch, the view of the lake. So it's just a perfect encapsulation of that area of New Hampshire all in one. They're open Wednesday through Sunday and reservations are required. So if you head up to that area and you want to go to Open grain, make sure that you call ahead, check out Lake Sunapee region chamber.com to get more of an overview of New London and the surrounding area. Because I like I said, I only give little bits and pieces like teasers to get you to go there. And hopefully, you do. The big overarching thing I remember about my time in New London, New Hampshire is just the beautiful scenery, the wide open green, with the mountains, just surrounding you everywhere. I went to the Historical Society, I would just drive the back roads and find the little plaques that a lot of towns have that tell you history that happened there. Because that kind of stuff interests me. In all of my 10s of 1000s of photos from my travel trips, I have so many that are plaques from different towns, just in case I ever want to research what happened there. But I can't recommend enough going up there go up in the summertime when it's all green to visit New London, New Hampshire and just see what it is there. It's kind of like pointing your car and going don't specifically go. If you don't want to go to Mount Sunapee or Bucklin beach or spring ledge farm, just get up there, find a home base and then just drive around and just soak in the scenery. That's kind of the main point of this is to get out and see things. So hopefully, you'll go and check out New London, New Hampshire. If you go and stay at the Lamplighter Motor Inn, tell them that I sent you, they'll have no idea who I am. But still, it'd be nice to send someone up there. And I'll be back next week with a brand new road trip as I send you to another one of the hundreds and hundreds of beautiful, amazing places located in the six states of New England and beyond.
This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 54 years ago this week, June 1 1968, and the death of the legendary author, and activist disability rights advocate, Helen Keller. She has just an incredible story. If you don't know it, you should definitely look into it. I'll try to sum it up here. Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At the age of 19 months, she lost her sight and her hearing after an illness. And I can't imagine losing either one of those senses, let alone both and living a life where she lived to be 87 years old, most of that time without sight or hearing. She went to college, she attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and I got a Bachelor of Arts degree. She wrote 14 books and loads of essays and articles, 14 books and she couldn't see or hear. And then I look at myself and the measly seven books I have out right now. And I say wow, you know, it's incredible the talent she had with what was taken away from her. Another part of the reason why I wanted to share the story of Helen Keller on This Week in history is because for those of you that are from Cape Cod or visited Cape Cod, Helen Keller had a deep connection to the Cape, which I didn't know about, specifically the town of Brewster. It was in 1888 that Helen Keller's mother and her teacher and Sullivan, who was also nearly blind, brought Helen to Brewster specifically the Elijah Cobb house, which is located on lower road in Brewster. Helen Keller would write about her time on Cape Cod in her biography, the story of my life that she wrote in 1903. She also returned to visit again in 1892 in 1896. From what she wrote in her biography, she loved her time on Cape Cod, so that's always a good endorsement. If you visit Cape Cod museum trail.com and look up Helen Keller, you can read a little more in-depth about her time on Cape Cod. But I always find it fascinating that she had a connection here and I wanted to share it right now. Helen Keller's birthplace in Alabama is now a historic place registered as a historic place. And she lived a long, amazing life doing so much for the rights of the disabled. women's suffrage, labor rights, all this amazing stuff, all doing it well deaf and blind, which is just amazing, the will of the human spirit. And we celebrate the life of Helen Keller, which ended 54 years ago this week in history in the town of Easton, Connecticut. And now it's time for another time capsule. What we're going to do is we're going to stick with the same day, June 1 1968, and see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel. The song was from Simon and Garfunkel is fourth album, bookends. It was Simon and Garfunkel second number-one song. It was the first rock song to win Album of the Year Grammy. The song was also released on its own EP Mrs. Robinson, and it was also released for the movie that was number one that week as well the graduate these two the graduate movie and Mrs. Robinson, the song are forever entwined. The graduate is a comedy-drama starring Dustin Hoffman as a recent college graduate with no real direction in life. He gets seduced by the aforementioned Mrs. Robinson played by Anne Bancroft, but Dustin Hoffman's character then falls for Mrs. Robinson, his daughter, played by Katharine Ross. The movie received seven Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Director. It made $105 million on a budget of $3 million and has an 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is one of those seminal movies I remember seeing it in college, ironically, and I think everyone needs to see this movie. When you're of that age, college age or just out of college. It's very timeless despite some 60s-type pop culture. The number one TV show was the Andy Griffith Show, and I'm sure you can hear the theme song with that whistling in it. The show starring Andy Griffith Don Knotts, Ron Howard, with Andy Griffith’s character being the Sheriff of the sleepy town of Mayberry in North Carolina. It ran for eight seasons, and 249 Total episodes, with The irony being that the show had already ended in April 1968. So two months before this, but the reruns were still coming in at number one. So it's interesting that the show ended they probably could have gone another season. And if you were around back then June 1 1968, and you just made a run to the supermarket you got some stuff you need to keep cold. If you were down on Cape Cod, you could go to Cape and vineyard electric company and get yourself a GE no-frost fridge for $299 or about $2,500 when adjusted for inflation. And if you checked that week's local paper, it was Dagwood days. The ad for this just made me laugh. So I said this has to go in the time capsule Dagwood from the Blondie comics and Dagwood days meant you got $15 worth of frozen food coupons along with your fridge. So what a deal too bad it was 54 years ago. But that'll do it for another time capsule and other this week in history. We'll do it all again next week. But right now we're going to jump into a brand new top five. As I get sad and reminisce about the musical acts I wish I could have seen in concert. Some will be pretty obvious Some may surprise you. But they're all coming up right now.
Top 5: Musical Acts I Wish I Could Have Seen Live
I've been lucky enough to see a lot of amazing musical acts in concert during my lifetime. Incredible bands like you to AC/DC, REM, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters Red Hot Chili Peppers. But as with anything, there's always what could have been and the wishes and the dreams. And so this week's Top Five I'm going to look at the bands and the artists that I wish I could have seen. So the criteria for this week's Top Five is that there has to be no way that I could see these musical artists live now. So even though I'm pretty sure I'll never see Paul McCartney or Elton John live in concert, I still theoretically could because they are still touring, which unfortunately means that all of these ones I'm going to name have members or people that have passed away. So let's jump in with some honorable mentions to kind of get the engine running. Honorable mentions of the musical acts I wish I could have seen in concert include Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Soundgarden, and Earth, Wind and Fire. So that should give you an idea of where we're going with this. So let's start the actual countdown with number one, Nirvana. This is the least surprising and most obvious for anyone that knows me, or anyone who has listened to the podcast at all. Nirvana. Kurt Cobain, the song Smells Like Teen Spirit. They all had such a huge impact on my formative years, 13-14 years old, that it was obvious that I wanted to see them in concert. And sadly, plans were in place to go to the Lollapalooza tour in 1994, when Nirvana was going to be the headlining act. It would have been my very first concert ever. But then Nirvana pulled out a few weeks I think it was before Kurt Cobain ultimately killed himself. So another time another place, I would have gotten to see Nirvana and it would have been my first concert and it would have been the perfect serendipitous moment of life, but it did not end up happening. Number two, the Beatles. Here's another one where it's real obvious, low-hanging fruit. The Beatles are, if not the most influential musical act ever. They are, at least in the top few, I guess, depending on your musical taste. But the Beatles were a cultural revolution in the 1960s their concerts, even though they stopped touring, basically after 1966 I believe their concerts were events with 1000s of screaming young girls, but the thing was all of them all the musicians McCartney, Ringo, George Harrison, John Lennon, were all incredibly accomplished singer-songwriters, they weren't the theoretical typical boy band like you got in the 90s, where none of them could play instruments. They were just good-looking guys that could sing and dance. The Beatles were the total package. And who knows if Lennon hadn't been murdered in 1980. Maybe the Beatles would have reunited maybe they would have kept playing together after the anthology came out in 1995. And maybe I would have gotten to see them later in high school. I doubt I would have been able to afford the tickets. Could you imagine how much a Beatles reunion tour tickets would have cost? I'd have had a better chance of getting a mortgage on a house. Speaking of high-priced tickets, number three, Michael Jackson, another one where if he's not one of the top most influential musical acts, I mean, he's right up there. His career spanned over 40 years. He started as a child singer with his brothers. His Thriller album was a seminal moment of my life, my childhood. All of his music videos became these must-see events on MTV. So just getting to go to a concert and see him perform all of those songs live and all the dance moves live, even if he did lip sync a lot of his songs when he performed live. But again, it was like he stopped touring for many years when I would have gone to see a concert. And then right as he was making his comeback tour in 2009, he passed away. And if he had lived, he probably would have come back and toured America. And like I said, Imagine how much the tickets would have been for that. Again, car payment house payment. Who knows? Number four is queen. I knew a little bit about the band Queen growing up mostly from we will rock you and another one bites the dust. And then I heard Bohemian Rhapsody in the Wayne's World movie, the original Wayne's World and was totally taken aback with the amazing vocal composition of the band, the music and Freddie Mercury's vocal range which is unlike pretty much anyone else. He was like an opera singer in rock and roll. If you've never heard queen, I mean you have to have but if you haven't, go find on YouTube. I think they've got videos just isolating Freddie Mercury's vocals and just listen to that range and imagine getting to see them live and hear all those amazing songs. But again, I was way He too young when they would have still been touring. And then by the end when Freddie Mercury was really sick with AIDS, he wasn't touring. And then when Wayne's World came out, and I got to get introduced to Bohemian Rhapsody, he had already passed away. So that's another born too late to see that show. And finally, number five is Pink Floyd. Classic Rock, one of the best classic rock bands ever. This is one where they stopped touring, right about the time that I would have started going to concerts like 16 like 1994. That was when the Division Bell in that last tour went at my high school, my English teacher that I had sophomore and senior year, I think he taught a section of the curriculum was about Pink Floyd and their music, which is definitely different from what you would typically learn, but it got me into their music and wanting to see them live, but obviously, it was too late. The band ended up feuding. So Roger Waters left so you had Pink Floyd, but it wasn't the full band. Although they were still really good. With David Gilmour, it would have been kind of like seeing smashing pumpkins with just Billy Corgan, or Guns and Roses when it was Axl and a bunch of replacement players. So Close, but no cigar as they say. And that's my top five. What are your top fives or what are the bands that you wish you could have seen live, or any of them on my list? My list was Nirvana, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Queen and Pink Floyd. Shoot me an email at Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. Or find me on social media and let me know what your picks were. For bands you wish you could have seen live. And I'll be back next week with a new top five to start some more fun discussions.
Back In the Day: Old School Trips to the Candy Store
Growing up in the 1980s, I was lucky enough to be in an area where it was only a half a mile or so walk to get to the local corner store. And back then, me my friends, my brother and sisters, we could just leave the house and walk it was a much different time than it is today. And maybe you worked and earned money did chores around the house got an allowance. But there was nothing cooler than walking to the corner store with your own money and buying something nice. And way back in the day when I was 10, 11, 12 years old. The stuff that I wanted to buy was the sweetest the sugary highest candy I could get. So I want to talk about what it was like the trips to the candy store back then I'll probably need to brush my teeth right after talking about this. There are still candy stores around now. But it's not the same as it was back then. Maybe I'm just getting old. If you're a child of the 80s, maybe 90s. And going back further 60s and 70s. You know what I'm talking about? Everyone had their favorite candies that they wanted to get. Even when I was a kid, they still have the actual authentic penny candy that literally cost a penny. Now I think they have things called penny candy but it's not pennies. It's like inflation hit the penny candy market. The penny candy thing that I always remember getting was the like sheet of wax paper with dots on it just sugar dots. Does anyone remember those? I think they were different flavors, but they were just sugar, like grainy against your teeth when you chew them. But when doing some research for this segment of the podcast because I would tend to forget all the candies I used to get what is considered penny candy. It includes things like those candy necklaces, pixie sticks, gumballs, Tootsie Rolls, peppermints, things like that, you can kind of see where I'm going. One neat thing that I found, if I find that place inside you that makes you want to go and get candy and ruin your teeth. They have a website old time candy.com You can get all that stuff. Now granted, you got to get it shipped to you so it's not going to be a penny. But go there and just look at what they have. And just start dreaming of being a kid again. I'm old enough to remember when they still had candy cigarettes and you would have them like you were cool to smoke. When we put like three or four in our mouths mill Yeah, look at us or put them between our fingers like yeah, I'm smoking four cigarettes at once. They never really tasted good. They were kinda like gum and chewy and they had like that powder are on them. So it was more like, yeah, look, I'm cool smoking, they weren't actually good-tasting candy. I think they still have them. But does anyone remember those wax bottles that were kind of they would be like soda bottles, little tiny ones, and you'd chew the top off, and there'd be two drops of something that tasted like cola inside it, you'd either have to have the patience to chew the top and drink it, or just pop it in your mouth and just chew it and have the cola flavor just burst out of it. You could go into these candy stores or a corner store like I did as a kid with $1 and come out with so much stuff, that it really made that walk to the store worthwhile and you get a huge sugar rush from it. But it was also neat, because you could get a lot of candy for a little bit of money so you could share with friends. So it was also like a bonding experience. Now today getting a candy bar that's like $3. You don't want to share that. But if you get a Hershey's Kiss, that's a penny or a nickel. You could get a bunch and share them was a different time. I keep saying that. What was your favorite candy bar? See, I used to gravitate towards the watch them I call it I think because I liked the name and they tasted good. Even in the high school days, I would still get those the stuff that I ate in high school. If I ate that stuff now I'd be so bloated and lethargic. Whatchamacallit candy bars, snowballs Twinkies, Doritos, Mountain Dew, good lord. One candy that always brings me back to those days are caramel creams. And I think the main reason is that one of my oldest friends Hasan, he loved the caramel creams. So it's funny, that was the main thing he wanted. So we'd always get them and share them. But they always remind me of him. And that's another thing about these formative years and going to the candy store, that a lot of the candies bring back memories of moments and people, I always bring it back to that where it's more than just, I ate candy. It's more of the people that were there, and the memories and moments from that. That's why I love these retro segments, you start to you start off talking about penny candy and you think about the meaning of life. And then we go off the rails and dive into mega warheads. Maybe that was more of an early to mid 90s thing. But the mega warheads, especially the sour, the hot ones, you'd have a minute or two of sucking on those things that were just horrible and painful. But then you'd break through that seal of heat or sour. And then it was just a normal lozenge. Or maybe you wanted to skip the hot and sour and just go right to the sweet and get Jolly Ranchers or Starburst. Back when you can get individual ones and you didn't have to get a package or the sleeve of them. Did anybody out there? Or do you like jelly beans. So there was a store, it's probably still there in Hyannis near me on Cape Cod, where you could go in and they had the scoops in the different flavors of jelly beans. And it's one of those things that you don't realize that these things cost money and it's by weight. So I remember going there one time with my friends John and Barry in high school, and just trying sampling all the different jelly beans and ending up leaving there with like a pound and a half bag of jelly beans, which let's be honest, nobody needs a pound and a half of jelly beans ever unless you're sharing them at a party. But these were for ourselves. Maybe you wanted to just go straight to the sugar and do as much damage to your teeth as you could as possible. And get nerds, those little rock-looking things that were just pure sugar compressed together. Oh my God, just thinking about them. Now my teeth hurt. Because you would get the little boxes that had usually two flavors. One on each side, you could pop the top, but you just dump them all in your mouth and chew them and it's like, you could hear your dentist rubbing their hands together, knowing they're gonna have to fill your teeth. They even made a nerd cereal can you imagine? I don't think it was as sugary as the candy. But still one of those neat things about the penny candy and how cheap candy was in the 80s and early 90s. Was that you could experiment. You could spend your money on something and try it and see if it was good. And it wasn't a waste of money. You know I'd get something like a jawbreaker and spend a quarter on it. And yeah, it would take you hours to eat it. You just suck on it until your jaw muscles hurt. But even if you hated it and wanted to spit it out, it was a quarter it was Unlike $10, and you wasted on it, or maybe you wanted your money to last longer, and you'd buy yourself some gum, like the old Big League Chew that you'd rip the top open to the package, and it was gum that was shredded. So it looked like you were eating grass. That was hugely popular during my baseball days, farm league Little League, somebody would have the Big League Chew that we all could chew on. It's like none of that stuff I can eat now, I mean, I could, but when you get older, your metabolism slows down, and you only get one set of adult teeth. So you want to kind of keep them as long as you can before they start falling out due to sugar. But for all of you that are feeling nostalgic, like I said, Go to old time candy.com And see what they've got there. I'll put a link in the description of the podcast. So you can, at your own discretion, go and buy some stuff. You can choose candy by decade. They even have pre-1920s. So if you want barley pops and anise squares, you can get them but they also you can go right into the 80s and dive in and get the stuff you remember as a kid. And let me know if you do order something from them and how it is maybe I'll be tempted. Get some caramel creams, find some old flimsy headphones, get my Sony Walkman that I've got and take a walk and eat some candy and remember what it was like being a kid back in the 1980s.
Closing
And that's going to wrap up episode 71 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you everybody for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Like I said, I always try to find topics that you will find interesting more than just me sharing my own memories of life. I try to make it all-encompassing, even last week's episode, the bonus one where I talked about me buying my camcorder. I hope that it wasn't just all inside jokes. If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee go to buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast. If you give a donation, it goes to advertising the podcast. And obviously, I'll shout you out on the podcast in a future episode. Find me all over social media, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, check out my homepage Christopher setterlund.com Check out the in my footsteps podcast blog@blogger.com I'm everywhere. I try to have as much content created as possible so that I'm just saturating the Google searches. Although I don't think there's too many other Setterlund is out there that do podcasts but who knows maybe I'm wrong. Come and check us out at Mind Body spine chiropractic on Route 6A in Brewster if you need an adjustment if you need wellness if you need rehab, or personal training, it's all there. Soon enough Cape kettlebell our sister gym will be opening. There's so much more common with that. Like I said at the top early happy birthdays to my brother Matt and one of my oldest friends, John. Hopefully, it'll be great days for both of you. And before I forget an early Happy birthday to my cousin Sarah. Hopefully some point soon. Maybe this summer we'll have a nice big family get-together. Time definitely flies way too quick. But I hope your birthday is awesome. I know you're not on Cape anymore. So have fun wherever you end up going for it. Tune in next week for episode 72 of the podcast. This one is going to be great. I am going to tell you the story of the wild nights at the Guido Murphy's nightclub in Hyannis names will be changed to protect the innocent. We're gonna take a road trip to the town of Groton, Connecticut. We're gonna go way back in the day and talk about the giant pizza wars between the Big Foot pizza, the dominator pizza, and the big big cheese from the early 1990s. There'll be a brand new top five that were the top five passing fads of the 1990s which will bring us some embarrassment of what used to be popular back then. And of course a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up next week on episode 72 of the in my footsteps podcast. And just remember to take an extra moment to hug those that matter to you with the horrific tragedies that happened in the last few weeks in Buffalo and Uvalde Texas with just unbelievably rotten human beings with their assault rifles that nobody needs taking innocent lives. It just makes you think and it makes me look at my nieces and nephews some of whom are the ages of the poor children that were killed And it just makes me wonder just how horrible how it would feel to lose them. So just hug those that matter and speak out for change. I know I am going to because, for your own mental health, it's good to take the time for those that matter to you, family and friends, because you never know like I say on this podcast, you never know what tomorrow brings. So love the ones that matter today. Because things can always change in an instant. But I thank you all so very much for tuning into this podcast. I hope that I bring some levity and some enjoyment to the day with my random foolishness and somewhat factual segments, road trips, history, all that good stuff and I'll be back next week. I'll keep pumping out the content as long as you keep tuning in. So with that said, Remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and leave the biggest footprint you can while you're here because you never know. This has been the in my footsteps podcast. I have been Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon.