In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast

Episode 76: Coyote Photo Adventures, Origins of Social Media, Best Cape Cod Beaches, Jamestown RI, Back to the Future(7-7-2022)

July 07, 2022 Christopher Setterlund Season 1 Episode 76
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast
Episode 76: Coyote Photo Adventures, Origins of Social Media, Best Cape Cod Beaches, Jamestown RI, Back to the Future(7-7-2022)
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod & New England Podcast
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Show Notes Transcript

Episode 76 begins with the fourth Dedication to the Craft photography segment.  Sunset and night photography is fun and can create some beautiful everlasting images.  However something else that enjoys being out after dark is the coyote.  This segment details some examples of when night photography meets a coyote, or several.
This week's Road Trip takes us to the island escape of Jamestown, Rhode Island. While others might flock to Newport, Narragansett, or Providence, Jamestown holds its own with beautiful panoramic views, wide open spaces, historic forts, lighthouses, great food, and more.  Get a little teaser as to why you should pay this island a visit.
Though it is always changing and evolving it is hard to believe that social media, for better or worse, is now a quarter-century old.  We go way Back in the Day to the origins of social media, including some of the OG sites, like Friendster and MySpace, and what happened to them as times continued to change.
Summer is in full swing and since Cape Cod is a vacation destination what better way to celebrate than with a new countdown of the Top 5 Cape Cod Beaches. Are any of these on your list?
There is of course a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the release of the all-time classic movie Back to the Future.

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Listen to Episode 75 here.

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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 76. The real true summer season has started now as we've passed Fourth of July weekend. And episode 76 has got a lot of fun stuff on it. Starting with dedication to the craft Part Four coyote adventures which are pretty crazy. We're going to take a road trip to the beautiful island town of Jamestown, Rhode Island. We are going to go way way back in the day as we look at the dawn, the origins of social media, there's going to be a brand new top five, these are the top five Cape Cod beaches just in time for the summer rush. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 76 of the in my footsteps podcast. So here we go. Summer is in full swing, the heat, the humidity, all of the vacationers coming to hopefully spend some good money and help the people that live on Cape Cod year round. I don't know where you are from, who are listening to this right now. But it's kind of the double-edged sword of Cape Cod. It's a beautiful place to live. I grew up here, obviously. But that being said, being a beautiful place to live means a lot of people want to come and visit. A lot of people want to build a second home here and clog up some of the beautiful views with these terrible McMansions. But then you got the other side of the coin, where if you're in a place that nobody wants to visit, I'm not going to name any. But then it's kind of the other side. Do you want to live in a beautiful place that everyone wants to go? Or a terrible place that nobody wants to go? I wanted to give a special thank you to everyone who's been listening to the podcast. June was my best month ever for the podcast for downloads, including the best week ever. When I'm well over a year and a half into doing this and I'm setting bests for downloads that's really encouraging because I love doing these like I always say, and I have so much more to share in terms of history, travel, lifestyle, nostalgia. So if you enjoy it, keep on listening, share it, you can donate if you want, buy me a coffee go to buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast. Whatever donations come I use for advertising the podcast, plus a shout out whoever donates. I'll remind you that if you're going to be on Cape Cod in the province town area later this month, July 26, there's going to be at least one showing of the lady of the dunes documentary on the 26th which is in conjunction with the anniversary of the day that the body of the lady of the dunes was found in Provincetown. Don't quote me on it, but I believe it's at Water's Edge cinema on commercial street. It's going to be very symbolic to have it on that day. And it will be a lot of fun because I know I'm going I can't speak for anyone else that's in the film. And obviously I'll have way more information as we get closer, but just save the date. And if there's more than one showing, obviously I'll let you know that too. And before we get started on Episode 76, I definitely wanted to give another shout-out to my oldest niece Kaleigh who graduated from Bridgewater state this would have been a little less than two weeks ago when this podcast drops. It was so much fun, although it was hot as hell 90 degrees at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, but worth every moment all the sweat and all of us in the family that were there are so proud and all the family that wanted to go but couldn't make it are so proud. Kaleigh is the OG of the next generation in the family, the first of my six pack of nieces and nephews. I don't have any kids on my own. Maybe I will someday, but she definitely changed my view on the world and life in general when she was born. I mentioned it to her that she has no idea the importance of her birth and the impact she had on me the family all that way back in episode 22. I told the story of my own battles with depression. And one story in particular, where I had this horrible reaction being on three different antidepressants all at once. That gave me a GI bleed. Kaleigh was three years old at the time and her reaction to me having to get wheeled out on a stretcher. Her horror it's seeing that made me quit all those drugs, cold turkey, which you're not supposed to do, but that's how important it was. For me that she didn't have to deal with things like that, seeing things like that. So this all circles back around to the pride I have, and being there to see her graduate college and to be there for whatever her next step is. I don't want to get too sappy and emotional. But we all love you. And we're all very proud. So let's dive right in now to Episode 76. Go into the other side of the spectrum as we go to dedication to the craft, my adventures with coyotes, and yes, there has been more than one incident. So let's jump right into it right now on episode 76 of the in my footsteps podcast.

Dedication to the Craft IV: Coyote Adventures

All right, well, this is the fourth installment of the dedication to the craft series of photography segments on the podcast. If any of you out there that listen to the podcast, follow me on Instagram, you see how much I like sunset photography. In the last few years when I upgraded my camera to something much better. I started really getting into night photography and long-exposure photography. The thing about sunsets and night photography is you have to do the shoots at dusk and after dark. And you may not know this, but there are animals that come out at dusk and after dark that aren't normally visible during the day. And me and my buddy Steve when we go to do sunset shoots after dark, you know long exposure shoots. We don't think about running into animals or running into any dangerous situations. We think about getting the photo, dedication to the craft. I definitely way more than Steve have less regard for my own safety when getting a good shot. I've had times that I've gone places and gotten some pretty cool shots. When I look back after the fact that I could have been seriously hurt or killed. I talked about the West Barnstable brick factory back in episode 68. I don't think I mentioned the fact that when I first went to go to find the remains of the factory itself, I ended up scaling this tree and I was a good 20 feet up in the air above all the vines and such trying to find the facade of this factory and I ended up almost slipping I was hanging on to the branch. I could have easily dropped and been killed and nobody would have found me forever because I was just deep in the overgrown woods. So this dedication to the craft Part four is going to look at one specific danger. One specific animal that I have had several run-ins with during my photography career. And that is the lovely Coyote. A quick overview of coyote is a canine. It's a relative of the wolf, it's smaller, they typically topped out at like 50 pounds, but they can be bigger than that. They normally shy away from humans, but there have been videos and such of coyotes kind of stalking people. So they're not something to be messed with. They eat both animals and plants. They're common now on Cape Cod more so than I remember when I was a kid growing up. It seems like growing up in the 80s. There were few if any, coyotes, seals, turkeys and sharks but they're everywhere. Now, when looking for sunset spots, places to shoot, especially in the summer, where there are people everywhere, you have to kind of go off the beaten path and find places that people don't frequent or don't know about. Typically these are heavily wooded, which means they're home to coyotes. So this leads to the first of my coyote encounters. It's a place in Brewster along the bayside beaches, it's a lesser-known trail. But when you hike out there, it's a little over half a mile to get out there. But you get to these bluffs that overlook the sunset is always good. They're based on the position of the trail and Cape Cod Bay and such. But this story, I remember Steve and I both went out there. Typically for sunset shots, we look to get out there, half hour, 20 minutes before the sun goes down. That's when you really get the colors, especially if you got clouds. It's amazing. And what you do is you take a few photos, wait a few minutes, watch the sky change, take a few more etcetera. Shooting sunsets is not difficult. It's just a matter of going out and actually doing it. When you go to the beach. If you're someone that likes to go and view the sunsets you'll notice at the beach parking lots. There are a lot of people there standing with their phones in front of their faces, which is how everyone thinks they're professional photographers these days. But what you'll notice is when the sun gets right to the end, when it sinks below the skyline, that's when people will leave. And that's where the people that know about sunsets and sunset photography, that's where they really make their money. So my buddy Steve and I will always wait 20 minutes after sunset before we leave, you get the afterglow? Well, the afterglow, happens obviously after the sun sets at dusk, and at dusk, that's when the coyote start to come out. So Steve and I got done shooting, it's pretty much almost dark out. Now, we're hiking back down the trail. It's a half a mile in the dark, essentially, to get back to my car. And that's when we start to hear the coyotes howling. And not just one, but at least half a dozen howling and talking to each other, and it's dark, so you don't know where exactly they are. All we could figure out was that the sound was between us and my car. So there's nothing that will put a chill up your spine, then a whole bunch of coyotes howling and knowing that there's a chance you may have to go through them to get back to safety. Obviously, nothing happened on that trip. I believe I said something sweet to Steve like, oh, I'll just outrun you so the coyotes can catch you, which is there's the All for one one for all dedication to the craft, but it was scary in the dark with the coyotes like that, man. Sometimes, though, interactions with coyotes, they're not as scary because you're not up close, but they're nonetheless kind of bone-chilling. I did a shoot after dark at the Cape Cod canal on the cape side. So you go up to sandwich there's the canal visitor's center. It's where the bike trail along the canal begins. And I wanted to get a shot of the power plant and with the Sagamore Bridge in the background. If you're not familiar with the canal, all these descriptions aren't going to make much sense to you. Just know that I was up there way after dark with my camera with my tripod. And I'm just taking shots, long exposures, seeing how they look. This was probably late fall, so it wasn't that late. But across the canal on the mainland side is a place called Scusset beach, it's a big beach park camping area. It's really nice, but it's also really desolate over there. And I'm on my side just shooting the power plant shooting the bridge. From across the canal, you hear the sound of coyote soon followed by a sound of something getting killed. I mean, probably a rabbit, but it was just awful to hear the sound of this thing getting ripped to shreds, even though it was a couple 100 feet away across the water. Even now like because I can hear the noise of the rabbit just being ripped to shreds. More recently, I was at Englewood Beach, which is in West Yarmouth. Again after dark, just taking up some shots of the boats that are now there on the docks. And Englewood Beach is part of Lewis Bay. So the bay kind of circles around to great Island. And along the water. There are obviously homes from the real rich people that put their McMansions on the coastline here on Cape Cod now. So we're talking several 100 yards away on the other side of the water. I start hearing the coyotes at least three of them just howling to each other. And in my mind, I'm starting to figure out how far they are and how long it would take them even at a full sprint to get to where I was. And I figured I had a good four or five minutes if they came charging me but they didn't know I was there. And why didn't they know I was there? Because some little miniature dog or something like that started yipping at them from outside wherever the house was that the dog lived. So now we got three coyotes yelling at this little dog, that's yipping back at them. And I'm thinking back to the rabbit story. So I'm waiting to hear this dog get ripped to shreds and it goes on for a couple minutes before finally the owner of the dog came out. You could hear the guy yell. So the dog finally shuts up. He brings it inside and that dog was lucky. Three coyotes. Whoo. And no, they didn't charge me They probably went the other way. My king of coyote stories that I dealt with during my photography trips has to be my Highland light story from Toro. That place is very desolate after dark. It's on a golf course. But that's the National Seashore. So there's lots and lots of open land. I took my camera my tripod, walked way out towards the bluffs and just taking photos of the lighthouse. At first it was right at sunset and to my right. I could hear probably a dozen coyotes just howling and yipping at the sunset. At least then it was laid out a little bit but oh my god, like you're way out there. Like I said in between me and my car, probably 1000 feet, and you could hear a dozen coyotes yipping. So I wanted to go back to my car and warm up a little and wait for it to get really dark so I could get some long exposure shots of the lighthouse. So I went back and sat in my car for probably 2025 minutes. I had my flashlight when I walked back out as I took the trail behind the lighthouse, it's bordered by a fence on either side, you go out to where the observation deck is like that area, if you're familiar with Highland lighthouse, so I'm out there doing now long exposure shoots, 15 seconds, 20 seconds. And during one, it must have been a 30 second shoot. And I'm just waiting for the timer for the shutter to go off. And that's when I hear the same coyotes at least a dozen. But this time, they're now on my left and not my right. This means that in the time that I was in my car, they all migrated across the golf course. And I don't know how long it was after I walked back or how soon before I came back out that they did that. But it's pretty bone-chilling to know that all those coyotes were in your vicinity and they basically could have crossed your path at any time. So I'm waiting for the shutter to go off as I hear the coyotes like come on, come on, because I don't know how far away they are. Because you can't see him it's night. But it wouldn't have done me any good. If it doesn't. Coyotes came after me. There was nobody near there. I could have screamed all I wanted. Nobody would have heard me that it just found my camera and my close. That's definitely the scariest one. That's one of the scariest shoots I've ever been on. Have you ever dealt with coyotes up close? Or have you ever dealt with any other animals? And I mean vicious ones, not ones like deer that if you look at them wrong, they run away. There was a time that I was waiting to go live when I used to do my live streams for the podcast that I was outside in my car and a coyote walked by my car at dusk and literally took a dump in the yard and stared at me while I was waiting to go live. There's nothing creepier than a big coyote staring at you all it takes a crap and your yard. But there you go. That is dedication to the craft. Number four, the coyote tales. Let me know if you dealt with any vicious animals like coyotes or maybe a rabbit was vicious and chewed at your feet. Who knows? Maybe you catch him on a bad day.

Road Trip: Jamestown, RI

It's an island. It's a town. It's an escape within an escape in the middle of the state of Rhode Island. And this week's road trip takes us to the town Island escape known as Jamestown, Rhode Island. This is another place where yeah, there's a lot to see and do. But it's great to just get in your car go there and kind of explore. And when I talk about doing that Jamestown is one of those exhibit A's where I actually did that. In terms of geography. Jamestown is about 30 miles south of Providence, and about 80 miles south of Boston. And when I say it's an island in the state of Rhode Island, it's legit. You can only get there via bridge or ferry. There's the Clairborne Pell Newport Bridge, which connects the town of Newport to Jamestown from the east. And then there's the Jamestown Verrazano Bridge, which connects Jamestown to North Kingstown to the west. The island itself is an easy day trip from most places in New England and it's worth the drive. For me it's closer to two hours to get there based on having to go up and down and around different places to get over to the island. Jamestown is just over 35 square miles in size with a population of 5559 as of 2020. So just by that math, it's kind of rural places are spread out. There's a lot of area to explore where there's really nobody. But if you've listened to this podcast at all, you know that a lot of my road trips are centered around lighthouses and this is no different. The main reason I first visited Jamestown was Beavertail lighthouse and Beavertail State Park. It's on beaver tail road and it's in the far southwest corner of Jamestown. It's a little bit of a hike to get there because it's very rural but the drive out there is incredible. So it's worth it. The lighthouse is part of Beavertail State Park which is more than 150 acres. And when you get there it's a rocky coastline so you'll get people that are fishing on the coast. The lighthouse itself is kind of a rectangle shape. This current Lighthouse dates to 1856 and it's the entrance kind of the gateway to Narragansett Bay. There are no shortage of great photo opportunities here. As obviously the lighthouse makes a great backdrop But there's more. There are the remains of Fort Burnside, which was a World War II era coastal fortification, and there are hiking trails and the lighthouse museum also. But if you like forts, in addition to Fort Burnside, there are two other forts on the island of Jamestown. There's fort Weatherill State Park on Fort Weatherill road, and that's more in the southeastern corner of the island. There are great views of Fort Adams in Newport also, it's less than a mile across the water in between the two forts. This area is a little over 60 acres in size. It's great to watch ships pass by. And it's great for picnicking, and sightseeing photography, but it's interesting. It's also used for scuba diving, with different diving clubs from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York all coming there and diving around the boat ramp and the fort. And finally, on the drive to Beavertail lighthouse, there's fort Getty. This was also in use from the turn of the 20th century through World War Two. It's now more for camping. For more information on all of these forts check out visit Rhode island.com or Jamestown ri.gov. Because like I said, with these road trip segments, I can't give you super in-depth stuff of everything to do about the places I talk about, because there's only so much time I can dedicate to it. These are meant to be teasers to get you to go there, so hopefully you do. For even more history on Jamestown go and check out the Jamestown windmill on North Road. The windmill it can't be missed. If you're driving on North Road, it stands out because there's a lot of open land farmland in the area. So you'll see the windmill. It was built in 1787 and was in service all the way up until 1896. And it's just part of the beautiful scenery of Jamestown. It's interesting because it's a little bit clustered with people right around the area of the bridges that bring you to the island. But then the further you get away is where it really gets spread out. And you can just enjoy the scenery. But in order to see all those places you got to get fueled up. And you can do just that at slice of heaven. Located at 32 Narragansett Avenue. It's a family-owned breakfast and lunch cafe. So this will be where you start your day. They've got the typical pastries, coffees, breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, it's a great spot to start your adventure on Jamestown. There's also the East ferry market and deli located at 47 Conanicus Avenue, and East ferry deli.com. They're also a breakfast and lunch place with soups, sandwiches, salads, breakfast sandwiches, all that good stuff, muffins, pastries. And although I've given you a lot of places that I recommend you go check out on Jamestown, it's best like I said to just cross one of the bridges and just explore. The first time I went there, I saw the places I wanted to see beaver tail and the forts. And then I just drove I went north past the windmill and eventually came to this. I don't think it was a private neighborhood because it wasn't gated or anything but it was one of those wink-wink private neighborhoods. But out by the main road, there was this little pond with a couple of trees next to it, and this big rock in the middle of it. And on a warm summer day. It was just this beautiful scene, it looked like a painting. And I stopped and took a picture of it. It's still one of my favorite photos. I can remember that scene it looks like something out of Tom Sawyer, like you'd expect a little boy in overalls with a straw hat to be sitting under the tree. And last year, I went back and recreated the photo although on that day, it was kinda cloudy out so it didn't look quite as good. But when I wanted to do Jamestown for the podcast, the first thing I thought of after Beavertail lighthouse was that seen the pond and the tree and how I got there by just pointing my car and going. And that's what's great about these places. I might give you some teasers to get you to go there, but you very well could end up finding something totally different totally off the beaten path that I didn't even know about. So like I said check out visit Rhode island.com to get a better idea of some things to see on Jamestown and make a day out of it, it's 35 square miles so there's only so far you can go but explore every nook and cranny you can because it's worth it. You'll get a lot of people will go to Newport, a lot will go to Narragansett, a lot will go to Providence. So Jamestown is kind of an escape. It's sort of hidden. I'm sure I'll be returning there sometime this summer. So if you go let me know what you think of Jamestown, Rhode Island, and I will be back next week for a brand new road trip to tempt you to go to one of these beautiful places that the six states of New England and beyond has to offer.

This Week In History

This week in history, we are going back 37 years ago this week to July 3 1985, and the release of one of my favorite movies of all time, the classic Back to the Future. If you don't know this movie, I'll try to sum it up real quick. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and centers around a high school student named Marty who ends up accidentally going back to the past to 1955 where he meets his parents before they have him while they were in high school. And it's all about him trying to get back to the future. While also not trying to break up his parents before they get together. This movie was a monster hit. It was number one for 10 Total weeks and spawned two really successful sequels as well. It was also such a big part of my life growing up that I mentioned in Episode 70 of the podcast that my buddy John and I essentially recreated the entire movie on audio cassette because we loved it so much. It's 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is no surprise. And it made the DeLorean car which the company was basically dead by then. And it made the DeLorean an icon. They're also making a Back to the Future musical that's going to be debuting in 2023. So that'll be interesting to see how that comes about. The original Back to the Future made $389 million on a budget of 19 million. That 389 million when adjusted for inflation is just over a billion dollars in today's money. So that'll give you an idea of how successful this film was. And one of the big trivia pieces of Back to the Future is the fact that Michael J Fox was not originally the star it was Eric Stoltz. And they actually had filmed scenes with him in it. So the story is I believe they wanted Michael J. Fox from the beginning, but his scheduling conflicts with the TV show family ties made where he wasn't sure if he could do it. So they got Eric Stoltz on board, film some scenes and then Michael J. Fox became available so they kicked Eric Stoltz out. The movie is iconic, the music is iconic, and it leads right into this week's time capsule. Because the number one movie in America this week, July 3 1985, was back to the future. And like I said, It spawned two sequels Back to the Future two is where they actually went to the future to 2015, which is now seven years ago. We have hoverboards, but they are crap compared to what the movie said. We don't have self-driving flying cars yet. We don't have Jaws 19. But the Cubs did win the World Series and a baseball team ended up in Florida and of course Back to the Future III is where they go way back to the past to 1885. If you haven't seen these movies, I don't know where you've been. I can watch Back to the Future any of the three all the time. It's like Star Wars for me. I never get tired of them. But there was more going on this week in history, with the number one song being sussudio by Phil Collins. This was from his album, no jacket required. And this was in the time where Phil Collins was making hits on his own and with the band Genesis, so he was double dipping with success. Interestingly, if anyone was wondering what sussudio means because the song is about a girl that he's interested in, but Phil Collins says it's a meaningless word that he just made up so there's no deep meaning it doesn't have like any real person in mind. It's just a made-up word he did for the song. The number one TV show was actually a TV movie called policewoman centerfold, which made me laugh as soon as I saw it. It's based on a true story about a policewoman who is recently divorced, and she poses nude for a magazine. And when that's found out she loses her job. It starred melody Anderson, Ed Marinaro and Greg Monahan. The movie is based on the story of Barbara Shands who posed for Playboy in May 1982. And in the true story, she was not the centerfold, but one of the other associated pictorials from it. And if you were around back then July 3 1985, and you were coming out of Back to the Future, and you wanted a Pepsi free, or just something without any sugar in it, you could save 55 cents on any two, two or three liter remember three-liter bottles of soda, but you could say 55 cents on any to two or three liter bottles of Diet Pepsi or Pepsi free, which is what Marty looks for when he's in the diner. These coupons were in the newspaper, but you gotta hurry. They're only good until October 31 1985. So if you hear this and you've got a time machine, go back to the future and get some Pepsi free and then watch the movie. And that'll wrap up another this week in history, another time capsule and we're going to head into a top five now because it's summer season, it's beach season, and like I said Cape Cod's a vacation destination. So let's dive into the top five Cape Cod beaches, to give you newbies to the Cape ideas of places to go and crowd and get your slice of sand.

Top 5: Cape Cod Beaches

This week's Top Five was simple to make, yet complicated to make. As it's a subject I know very well, that being Cape Cod beaches, but when it came down to it, trying to figure out a top five with some honorable mentions was actually really difficult. So I'll put it right out there the one criteria when it comes to the Cape Cod beaches these are going to be mostly more commonly known public beaches I'm going to refrain from giving away secret beaches, lesser-known beaches. As now in the day and age of GPS there aren't really many secret places but I can do my best to protect what little privacy we year-round Cape Codders have, but don't be upset because we're going to have some great beaches right here. Honorable Mentions for the best Cape Cod beaches include South Cape Beach, which is in Mashpee, Craigville/Long Beach which is in Centerville, Nauset beach in Orleans, and Sandy Neck Beach in West Barnstable/Sandwich. Those are some great ones right there as honorable mentions. So that means the top five must be good. And as I typically say these are in no particular order. And being that it's July it's summer you could literally listen to this podcast and go visit all these beaches today. Although it will cost you a pretty penny in the summer. So let's kick it off with number one. Chapin beach in Dennis. This is a little bit out of the way at the end of shaping beach road. It easily gets packed in the summer it's one of those that if you're not there very early, you will likely not find a parking spot. Granted right across the water is bass hole slash grades beach and because of the shifting sands the erosion when it's low tide that little creek gets filled with sand. So technically you could park at grays beach and walk across to Chapin, but I wouldn't recommend it. This is a brilliant sunset spot great for walks. And it's basically connected to most of the other North Side Dennis beaches so you could start walking and shaping and end up walking down through Mayflower beach etc. Number two is great island beach in Wellfleet. This is way out of the way you will likely not have much cell phone service if you get out there. There are the great Island Trails that you can hike which is great but bring tons of bugs spray. The beach itself is a lesser-known gem on Cape Cod. So lesser known that even on Fourth of July weekend several years ago I went there and there was maybe a dozen people on the entire beach. The major deterrents are the fact that it's a long drive to get out to this beach. And then there is a parking lot but you have to walk several 100 yards to get to the beach. But that shouldn't stop you from going if you can. It's beautiful and it's usually pretty secluded, which slices of beach that are not crowded are so hard to find in the summer on Cape Cod. Number three is Race Point Beach in Provincetown. This is highly popular. It's right at the top of the fist of Cape Cod. There's great fishing there you can see the whales passing by in the spring, you can drive out to Race Point Lighthouse on the RV trail. It also has the RV trail that leads out to the dune shacks. But those are more for if you're renting them. So don't drive out there. If you're not intending to rent a place, it's crowded. It's also large enough that it can be secluded if you hike enough away from where the people are. So it's like the best of both worlds. Number four is white crest beach in Wellfleet. This is on the ocean side. There's these amazing high cliff bluffs, which it's a double-edged sword because of erosion. The parking lot at White crest beach, near the edge of the Dunes is close to going over the edge. There's another parking lot across the street. So it's important here if you're hiking down to the beach, which it's a good 50 feet maybe to get down to the beach, but just walk on the trails that are designated for people to protect the dunes. An interesting fact is that if you go to either Race Point Beach or white crest beach, you can walk the beach to the other one. It's that great outer beach that Henry David Thoreau hiked and wrote about in his book, Cape Cod, and being part of the National Seashore, it's been virtually undisturbed by development for the last 60 years. And finally, number five on my list of top five Cape Cod beaches is Hardings beach in Chatham. This is another one where the main parking lot is and it can be crowded. But then there's more than a mile of beach that stretches to the east that goes all the way to stage harbor and stage harbor lighthouse. So you can get away from the crowds and you can hike out there. Look at the lighthouse that has no lantern, or the people that are fishing. It's an interesting little escape despite being right near all these crowded areas. And I'm sure a lot of you out there to the bend to the cape or live on the cable have a totally different top five and honorable mentions. But these are just the ones that spoke to me right away. So there you have it, the top five Cape Cod beaches. Have you been to any of these? Or do you plan on visiting them this summer on Cape Cod, Chapin Beach, great island beach, Race Point Beach, white crest beach or Hardings beach. You can't go wrong with any of them or any of the honorable mentions or any of the dozens of more beaches that are located on Cape Cod. That'll wrap up the top five. I'll return next week with a brand new top five. That'll be just as random as I can possibly make.

Back In the Day: The Origins of Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and so many others today are as commonplace as rotary telephones and the phonebook were to people 40 years ago, when it comes to communication. Social media allows all to have a voice and an opinion, which makes connecting with friends, colleagues and strangers easier than ever before in the history of mankind. It seems like every day a new social media platform is being created and unleashed. However, as Reddit, Pinterest, Twitch, even business sites like LinkedIn, become part of everyday life, the entire idea of social media had to begin somewhere. And that's what we're going to look at now is we go way way back in the day to the dawn of social media. The concept of social media had been forming as early as 1969. With the creation of ARPANET through the government agency, Advanced Research Projects Agency, that's the ARP in ARPANET. It was not until 1991, though that the internet itself became publicly available. On August 7 1991. Tim Berners Lee, a graduate of Oxford University first made public his World Wide Web that he had invented in 1989. Although America Online became an icon of early Internet availability, it was actually CompuServe that was the first major commercial internet provider in the United States. It was founded in 1969 and remained a major part of the early world wide web revolution with AOL and prodigy. Prodigy shut down in 1999 While CompuServe was purchased by America Online in 1998, most people myself included who got their starts on the internet in the mid 1990s. Remember the classic dial-up modem noise as AOL loaded, revealing several happy, faceless figures when the connection was complete, as one of five kids that were between the ages of 11 and 18. When we got our first gateway computer and internet in late 95, early 1996, it was a battle for screen time, and a battle to use the telephone, which the computer modem was connected to. I spoke a little bit about this on the internet in the 1990 segment of the podcast a few weeks ago, but I also remember the massive Free Trial CD ROMs, allowing people to go online without commitment. It began with a partnership with Blockbuster Video and exploded thereafter. While they definitely helped bring AOL to the masses, the former Chief Marketing Officer of AOL, Jan Brandt said in 2015, that the company spent more than $300 million on those free trials. The discs were 500, 750, or 1000 hours, and opened up the mid-1990s to more than just a passing fad, which is what some people thought the internet was going to be back then, kids and adults alike were given the keys to things like chat rooms, where you could meet people from all over the world. Granted, many of us created wacky screen names for inside the rooms for AIM, which was AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ. And others. Research for school or pleasure became instantly easier with the advent of the search engine. And before Google became the big boss, there were others like Lycos, Ask Jeeves, excite and Yahoo. As research and communication got easier. A new outlet for people in the internet age came about and that was social media. It began as a cross between a biography a bedroom wall and a school locker. These were sites that were a way to express your individuality, while also coming together with like-minded individuals. The first true social media site as we'd come to know it today, was born in 1997. It was six degrees.com. Founded by New Yorker Andrew Weinreich. It was the originator when it came to social media, profiles, friends lists, school affiliations, these were all rolled into one with six degrees, and the name was a play on the six degrees of separation theory of Frigyes Karinthy in 1929. Weinreich even received the first patent for social media. Though not fully understood at the time, like most of the internet, the idea of social media was groundbreaking. The only problem was the timing. In 1997, the Internet was not nearly as widely available as it is in 2022. Simple things by today's standards, like uploading photos was way more difficult as digital cameras weren't common back then. So he would have needed a scanner to scan in your photos man that must have been rough. Ironically, despite that, and more than a million people signed up on six degrees. Yet many of those profiles will remain inactive as some were likely created through free AOL trials that then went by the wayside. Six Degrees was sold to youth stream media networks in 1999 for $125 million and closed in 2000. It has been relaunched since but nowhere near the numbers that had before. After the birth of social media and the demise of six degrees, the landscape was ripe for a new leader, and that came in 2002 with the creation of Friendster. It was intended to be only a dating site, but its popularity soared with things like status updates and connecting with friends of friends of friends. Launching in March 2002. And created by Jonathan Abrams and Peter chin. It took the six degrees concept to the next level. And it was this site that was my own personal introduction to social media, I was on Friendster. The swell of new profiles cause major problems for the site performance-wise, and that made its reign at the top of social media very brief. These problems were the reason that I and many others migrated to what most would remember as the first giant of social media and that was MySpace. coming into existence in August 2003. MySpace was different in that it had public profiles or at least profile pictures differing from Friendster being private for registered users. I'll be it's safer in the same vein, my spacers fondly remember creating a profile and immediately having Tom as their friend. Do you remember Tom? If you were on MySpace, I think I kept them as a friend for a while, but I'm sure many deleted them quickly, like that free album that you to put on your iTunes and 2014, which I enjoyed, but I could see not wanting to have that if you're not a fan. So Tom, last name, Anderson was one of the creators of the site that included music capabilities for your profile as well as band pages, and the site was a monster. In 2007, the site was valued at $12 billion. By 2005, Myspace had 25 million users, known as a place for friends. MySpace, having public profiles, did allow you the ability to check out anyone you wanted to which some certainly did in a nefarious way. Although the site's parent company, being sold to News Corp in 2005, did not immediately start a downward trend. It definitely made the site feel more corporate than social. Increasing problems with sketchy people prowling MySpace coupled with an increase in corporate policies from News Corp, eventually spelled the end of myspace's reign. In April 2008. A new number one social media site was crowned. Facebook had originally been launched by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. And began a slow steady climb to the top, I remember joining in spring of 2007. And any status updates would be it would start with so and so like your name is dot, dot dot. And you would just put like what you were doing. Now when my Facebook memories come up from 2007-2008. They're just choppy bits of thoughts. For example, a memory from August 2007 just said 'done' was very important stuff I was sharing that I felt the world needed to hear as MySpace faded, other sites came along, including YouTube and LinkedIn, which was the first business networking site that launched in May 2003. Facebook has been the king for over a decade with everyone from ages eight to 80, seemingly having a profile. I know that it had more than 1.6 billion users in 2020. But the question is, how much longer will it remain at the top? I remember when I thought MySpace would be the trendsetter forever. And it's actually still online today. But it's completely different is way more of a corporate shill site like what we had thought it was becoming? Will there be another new kid on the block like tick tock or another yet unknown social media app that will become the next big thing? Who knows? Probably likely, what was your introduction to the internet though and social media? Like I said, I did the internet in the 90s segment on the podcast a few weeks ago. I'm sure I'll do a part two of that. But talking about the beginnings of social media, it's a trip down memory lane that I didn't realize it was that old when you realize this 25 years a quarter century ago that the first social media site came around. Did you have a six degrees account? I'd never heard of them till I did the research for this segment. But what's your favorite social media platform? I mean, mine honestly is Instagram. I love photography. But drop me a line let me know your Introduction to Social Media and what your favorite site was what it is. And like I say go find me all over my social media.

Closing

And that'll wrap up episode 76 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in if this is your first time checking me out. Thank you. If you've been here through all 70 Plus episodes before thank you even more. Find me all over social media, Twitter, Instagram, my Facebook fan page, YouTube, the in my footsteps podcast blog, my homepage, Christopher setterlund.com. Find me at Mind Body spine chiropractic for my day job as a personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist, and medical fitness specialist. All those things. I'll have more information about the upcoming showings of the lady of the dunes documentary in Provincetown at the end of the month, but I want to get that bug in your ear. Hopefully some of you will go and see it. Visit Kiwis Kustoms both with K’s at etsy.com There's a link in the description of the podcast. There's a lot of handcrafted work there. Cat and Dog sweaters, hats, gloves, and soon I believe there will be handcrafted stuffies is what they call stuffed animals now that's different from when I was a kid, visit Kaleigh Marks’ store, you can always send requests, she takes requests. She's extremely talented and she's honing her craft. So it's only going to get even better. There's only so much that my descriptions on the podcast will do. Just go and visit the site and see if there's anything you like. And then shoot her a message, kiwis Kustoms at etsy.com. Check it out. Next week, I'll be back with the podcast for episode 77. It's going to kick off with the story of the unsolved murder. Nearly a century old of Falmouth, Massachusetts resident Clarence Parker, this one is very interesting and weird. We're going to take a road trip up north to the smallest capital city of any state in the union, Montpelier, Vermont, we're going to go way, way back in the day to the early to mid-1980s, when sugar cereals went extinct, meaning the word sugar in the title, there'll be a brand new top five that are my picks for the top five funniest current stand up comedians, I'm sure that won't create any debate. And of course, there'll be brand new this week in history and Time Capsule coming up next week on episode 77 of the in my footsteps podcast. And like I always say at this point, when I'm wrapping up, focus on your mental health, because the way the world is currently, it feels like we're going backward at some points as a society. So it's important to find the things find the people that make you happy and lean more into that. If you need to take breaks from social media, God knows that can help you out. Doom scrolling seems to be something that's a popular phrase. Now. The weather is beautiful, go outside, enjoy walking in the woods, going to the beach, things that make your heart and soul happy. This podcast in and of itself is one of those types of releases for me. And knowing that some of you are loyal listeners that tune in and this gives you kind of a brief escape. That's one of those things that I don't take for granted, even on days or weeks where I feel like it can be a bit of a chore to come up with information for the podcast research it recorded, edited, I think of some of you that were you look at me as an escape and to make your mental health better. And that's what keeps me going at those times. It's kind of an obligation but in a good way. And I do thank all of you that tune in that shoot me messages that let me know what you enjoy, or give recommendations on things you might want to hear about. shoot me a message always at Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. And as I said, I'll be back next week. But before then remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and leave the biggest footprint you can because you never know what tomorrow brings. So once again, thank you all for tuning in to Episode 76 This was the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. I will talk to you all again soon.