In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast

Episode 81: Cape Cod's Tornadoes of 2019, Snipets PSAs, New Haven CT, OG Video Game Characters, Sports Illustrated(8-18-2022)

August 18, 2022 Christopher Setterlund Season 1 Episode 81
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast
Episode 81: Cape Cod's Tornadoes of 2019, Snipets PSAs, New Haven CT, OG Video Game Characters, Sports Illustrated(8-18-2022)
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod & New England Podcast
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Show Notes Transcript

Episode 81 begins with a look back three years to the day Cape Cod was hit with several tornadoes.  Although only minimal in intensity these storms left their mark on the peninsula.  I will tell the story of how the most intense of the three just happened to travel directly over where I worked at the time as well.
This week's Road Trip heads to the popular college city of New Haven, Connecticut.  Home to three colleges there is much to see and do here.  From beaches to museums, and even the place where the hamburger was invented.  Get a crash course in New Haven before you head there yourself.
Old school Public Service Announcements were a fun look at how some kids learned the basics of humanity like love, trust, fair play, and more.  One such series of PSAs were the popular Snipets of the 1970s and early 80s.  We go way Back In the Day to explain more about them for those that might have forgotten, or are too young to have seen them.
The nostalgia runs deep in this week's Top 5.  We look at some of the most iconic OG video game characters.  These were the first characters to be as well known as the games themselves.  Which of these was your favorite?
There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule that looks back at the premiere issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.

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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 81. Going to be a fun episode, we go back in time a lot this week, and we're going to kick it off by going back three years to the famous day that Cape Cod was hit by a tornado or several of them and what it was like when one of them went right over my work, we're going to take a road trip out to New Haven, Connecticut, will go way, way back in the day and look at the 1970s kids PSAs known as snippets. Taking a look at it by special request. In the brand new top five, we'll look at the top five OG video game characters. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 81 of the In My Footsteps podcast.

Oh, boy, it's getting close. It's nearing the end of August, kids are getting ready to go back to school, maybe where you are, they have gone back to school. Sorry, if I don't feel bad, I went through all my years of school, dreading the end of August knowing that it was time to go back to bed early, get your new clothes, and get ready for school. We'll do a much more deep dive next week in Episode 82. The bonus episode is going to be the very first memories we all have of going to school, that will be a lot of fun. But it's also that time of year when people start going back to where they're from, which clears out a lot of where I live on Cape Cod, the roads are starting to clear the beaches are starting to get less congested. Now all of us locals can kind of come out of hiding and enjoy this place we live. And the irony is as the people start to leave Cape Cod and go back home, I'm going to be leaving Cape Cod. And finally taking a new road trip. The last week of August is going to be my first big road trip since the famous one from 2019 that I did all those road trip segments on getting a week's paid vacation from work is a really good treat. But this time is not going to be 2100 Miles going all across the eastern United States, I'm going to stick closer to home, likely going up north Vermont, New Hampshire. So much has happened since that 2019 Road Trip besides just COVID changing jobs losing loved ones, you never know you're facing burnout until it's too late. It's kind of like dehydration, where by the time you feel dehydrated, it's way too late. So as much as this is going to be a fun trip to just get away and see things I either haven't seen in a while or haven't seen ever. It's also going to be a trip to kind of recenter myself, maybe find a spark that's been missing. I'm sure there are tons of others listening to this that are like me that have felt over the last few years that with COVID and everything else that's come with it. Just the instability of this country, that it's time the burnout is real. That's why I talk about mental health and taking care of it. Well, I'm going to take this road trip and take care of my mental health. And don't worry, there will be plenty of road trip segments from it. I'm sure I'll have stories coming from it when we reconvene. Because episode 82 Next week is the bonus one. So it'll be the week after episode 83 that will likely have a lot to do with this road trip. That'll be creating new memories. But we're going to kick off this week with some old memories that were kind of traumatic a few months before I took that road trip in 2019 when a series of tornadoes left their mark on Cape Cod. So let's jump right into Episode 81 with the Cape Cod tornadoes from July of 2019. And the one that went right over my work growing up on Cape Cod.

Cape Cod Tornadoes of 2019
I've gotten used to extreme weather where we get tropical storms hurricanes in the summer blizzards nor'easters in the winter. Sometimes we get both, you know in the seasons. In other years we don't get either. But that was the weather that's common here living in New England. And growing up things like earthquakes and wildfires were contained to the southwest. And tornadoes were basically contained to the Midwest, or at least that's what I thought as a kid growing up. Three years ago in July 2019, Cape Cod was hit by a couple of tornadoes. And one of them just happened to go right over the retirement home where I worked. So I got to experience firsthand what it was like to be in a tornado. According to the National Weather Service before the tornadoes that hit in July 2019, there had only been three documented tornadoes on Cape Cod ever. There was one that hit Marstons Mills, on August 9 1968, and one that hit West Yarmouth, on August 22 1977. And surprisingly one that hit Woods Hole on October 29 2018, which was less than a year before these tornadoes. Maybe I just forgot that story. But when researching this to talk about, I didn't know that when it hit Cape Cod, what, like nine months earlier. 

Now let's be straight up all these tornadoes, including the ones from 2019, were all f1. The f1 to F five is the Fujita scale is what it's called. Think of it along the same lines as hurricanes when they're category one through five, it's very similar. The F one, the wind speed is categorized as between 73 and 112 miles an hour. Of the three tornadoes that struck Cape Cod that day, the one that went over my work was the third and final one. Luckily the weakest of the three with winds that were clocked in at 90 miles an hour. For as big as this story was on Cape Cod in New England, and I don't know across America, Cape Cod, getting tornadoes, the whole thing lasted about 20 minutes. I am one of those, I have the Weather app on my phone, and you get a lot of severe weather, warnings, and watches. And a lot of the time nothing comes from it. So when you get something like a tornado watch, you're kind of like yeah, whatever. I believe it when I see it. But on this day, a Tuesday in July 2019, I was working in the kitchen at this retirement home. And all of a sudden, the Emergency Alert System is going off on all of our phones. So there's all the high-pitched beeping. And it was a cloudy day outside maybe a little bit of rain, but it was nothing different than any other stormy day. We also had TVs that were on out in the lobby of the retirement home. So I think that's where people got to see the radar. And our general manager kind of gave the word once the alert went off, she came in it was kind of like everyone needed to get away from the windows out of the kitchen out of the dining area into the center common area. For me, I never thought that I was in danger. So I was more fascinated with getting photos and seeing what it looked like not knowing that the tornado would literally go over the building. So it was right around noon when it got real. We had this courtyard, kind of in the middle of the retirement community where the people could go and walk. And that was when I knew that things were a little bit different. Because the wind really picked up fast, really fast. But then you start noticing the trees are all leaning one way. And then at one point, you see them straighten up and start to lean the other way. That's where you knew that this tornado had gone right over the building where the wind direction so fast, just switched from one to the other. And I'm standing at the window in the kitchen watching not thinking about what if a branch got set free and came flying through the window. I took a picture with my phone instead of shooting a video but that's fine. We then got the alert to get out of the kitchen, get out get into the common area. So he had to go through the dining room. And me. You've heard me talk about dedication to the craft. Well, how many chances do I have to get a photo inside a tornado? As the rest of the staff is heading down the hallway to go into the common area. I go over to the doors that lead outside of the courtyard and open one up and I'm trying to get my phone out to at least shoot a video in the middle of this. And here comes the chef yelling at me to shut that goddamn door. He basically was saying his only job was to make sure that we didn't do anything stupid and get hurt. And here I am trying to get outside in the tornado. So I relented I shut the door and went out. We all stood in the common area for 1520 minutes. Watch the TV with the radar. This tornado. So now the more I'm researching it, this was the first one, not the third one, not the weakest one. This one went I guess kind of Northeast if you're looking at a map from Kalmus Beach in Hyannis for those that know the area and kind of it didn't have a straight path and lifted up, touched back down lifted up, etc. But in total it was only a storm for like 10 minutes. After everything was over. They drew the weather people drew the lines kind of the pathways of the storms and that's when you could see that it went right over the building where I was working. The most famous and enduring part of those 2019 tornadoes has to be the video that was shot of the Cape Sands Inn, which is right on Route 28. In West Yarmouth. There's a video that was shot of the roof of one side of the hotel getting peeled off and just launched. That's across the street from where I worked. I guess our building was a little more structurally sound, with a roof that couldn't be peeled off like a can lid. Eventually, I went on break, we got 30-minute breaks during the shift where he had to punch out which was lame. But I went for a walk to see how everything looked. And that's when I didn't know about the motel we didn't know about it until later in the day. When we went across the street, there were police everywhere and electrical crews traffic was backed up. And that's when I saw the roof was gone. Parts of it got launched next door hitting the building next door. But it was madness right across the street. And you start to think about what if that tornado was a little stronger, or moved just a little bit in a different direction. The damage that could have caused. I shot lots of videos and got lots of photos from that day. But yeah, that was the first tornado that peeled the roof off the Cape Sands Inn so when I said before about the one being the weakest one that I was in. Turns out it was the opposite it was the strongest. So now I feel even better. I'm doing research as I go trying to get the exact stats times winds etc for you. But it was still an f1 Tornado. There was another that was in Harwich, that touchdown near the elementary school. That one luckily tore through the woods, but it was right along the bike trail. So if you went riding on the bike trail in the days and weeks after, you could see the path where all the trees were snapped. And again, it's really humbling to think of people that go through legit tornadoes, F three F four that just disintegrate houses and buildings. Because you look at the trees that were snapped or you look at the hotel that had its roof peeled off and you think about what could have been, there was no damage to the place where I worked no damage to any people's homes, people that I knew the cape sands inn motel that was the big deal from those storms. Luckily, the other two tornadoes were mostly in wooded areas. I do remember at the end of that day after my shift ended, going and taking a picture of this beautiful, pinkish sunset, which was such a stark contrast to earlier in the day with the tornadoes. But I'm taking pictures of this sunset at this pond and all around me is the sound of chainsaws, cutting trees and branches that had fallen down. It was just a weird end to a very surreal day. Because it's not often you can say you were in a tornado, not only in it but lived even though I mean it wasn't a serious one. The funny thing is that in the time that has passed, I think a couple of times we have had tornado watches on the cape. And I still am the same way or I'll believe it when I see it. One time I went down and had to go get in the basement just to be safe. But for the most part, again, it's hit or miss. We don't really get them. I'm more worried about blizzards and hurricanes coming up this way. But for those of you who are from Cape Cod, do you remember those tornadoes from 2019? Or do you remember the other ones that I mentioned at the beginning that hit the Cape in the past the other three times? I'll make sure that I share on social media the videos that I shot from that day so if you don't remember it, you can get a better picture of what it was like. On that day a tornado went over my work and tore the roof off of the hotel across the street from it. That was not an average work day for sure.

Road Trip: New Haven, CT

Alright, it is road trip time again. This week. For me at least we are heading west into the state of Connecticut to visit the college town well college city of New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven well the greater New Haven area is home to three different colleges. In the North Haven section it is home to Quinnipiac. It is also home to the very prestigious and very elite Yale University which was founded in 1701 and is the third oldest university in America. The only colleges that are older than Yale or Harvard and William and Mary. And much like Harvard Yale is part of the prestigious Ivy League. And thirdly, and most importantly to me in the West Haven section of the city is the University of New Haven, which is currently being attended by my niece, Emma. So that's the one that's most important to me as far as college cities go. New Haven is a good sized city right out in Central Connecticut with a population of 130,381 as of 2020. It is the second largest city in Connecticut behind only Bridgeport. The city itself is 140 miles, roughly southwest of Boston, and a little over 80 miles northeast of New York City. So it's closer to New York City than it is to Boston. Which means if you're looking to go pay a visit to New Haven, and you're in northern New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, it's gonna be a hike to get down there. But it'll be worth it if you do go. And luckily being such a big city, New Haven has its own airport, the Tweed New Haven Airport, and you can check out fly tweed.com. That's their website. And you can see if there are any flights that go into New Haven, from places in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, if you're from that area, New Haven itself is right on Long Island Sound, and the surrounding areas of East Haven, West Haven, they're all around the mouth of the Quinnipiac River. This means that there's plenty of beautiful waterfront parks to go and check out and just spend some time at to enjoy the scenery. East Shore Park is a pretty large one that will be fun to go and check out and Woodward Avenue and Tuttle Street. There's a playground and fields for baseball, soccer, tennis, all these walking paths along the Quinnipiac River. And just south of the park is Fort Nathan Hale, which if you're into history, like you know I am, that's a place that I check out. It's located at 36 Woodward Avenue if you're looking to throw that in the GPS, but for Nathan Hale and the accompanying Black Rock fort all in the same area, those facilities they played a role in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 all the way up into the Civil War. But if you're going to go to New Haven to check out history, you might as well go straight to the top and go to the New Haven Museum at 114 Whitney Avenue. This is the top of where to go. Currently, it's open Wednesday through Saturday, but go to New Haven museum.org. I'm not sure if these hours change seasonally. So that's something you'll have to check out. This museum will give you a better appreciation of how New Haven went from this small colonial village into this kind of powerhouse that it is in the state. There are many historic names and historic firsts that are associated with New Haven. They're featured in the museum names like Eli Whitney, Oliver Winchester, and Charles Goodyear. And firsts like the inventions of the corkscrew, lollipop, Frisbee, and even the hamburger. Yes, it was New Haven resident Louis Lassen who is credited with creating the hamburger in 1900. The story is that a customer asked him for something quick and delicious. And so he assembled a hamburger out of stuff that he would have used for a steak sandwich. The lucky thing for all of you if you're going to go and visit New Haven you can go to the place where the hamburger was invented Louie's Lunch at 263 Crown Street, and also Louie's lunch.com If you're hearing this right after the podcast goes live. They are currently closed through August 31 But will reopen and these podcasts I tried to keep evergreen so if you're listening to this further into the future, go down and get yourself a hamburger where the hamburger was invented. 

As I said a few minutes ago though New Haven is right on Long Island Sound. That means that there's a lot of great beaches to check out. There's Silver Sands Beach in East Haven, or the East Haven town beach on cozy beach Avenue. There's Prospect Beach in West Haven, but for me and this will come as no surprise the place to go for me is Lighthouse Point, and park at two Lighthouse Road and oh yes there is a lighthouse there. It's home to five five-mile Point Lighthouse which was first built in 1847. But besides the lighthouse and Lighthouse Point, there's a big beach bordered on the east by Morris Creek. So you can go and swim you don't have to be a lighthouse fan like me to go and appreciate it. And even though I tried to name off some beaches for you to go and look up and check out Greater New Haven itself has 40 miles of coastline, so you can easily go find your own slice of beach that no one knows about. And that's half the fun. If you're a fan of fairs, county fairs, agricultural fairs, the North Haven fair will be coming up not long after this podcast goes live September 8 through 11th. Visit North Haven-Fair.com To get more information about that. But the fairgrounds are at 290 Washington Avenue in North Haven. So if you're in the area on those days, just go I know the Barnstable County Fair on Cape Cod is a huge, huge event in the summer. Everyone likes county fairs even if you don't like exhibit you go for food or music or whatever. I mentioned that New Haven could be a bit of a hike if you're coming from Central Maine or New Hampshire or Vermont. So a good idea is to go and make it an overnight trip. Check out the Omni New Haven hotel at Yale at 155 Temple Street. It's a highly luxurious hotel. But hey, why not splurge if you're there for a vacation. There's also the Courtyard Marriott at Yale boy a lot of these hotels are right at Yale at 30 Whaley Avenue. Those are two big hotels. So you'll probably have luck finding rooms. There are definitely more in the way of B and B's if you check out Airbnb and look at the Greater New Haven area. And you'll be glad that you went and you spend at least one night there because there's so much to see. Besides the museums and the beaches with the lighthouse, of course, Louise lunch. But there are beautiful farmers markets like the Worcester Square Summer Farmers Market at the County West Middle School at 511, Chapel Street. They run on Saturdays all the way through mid December. So you'll have a chance to go and get some of those homegrown fruits, veggies, Bath and Body products, jewelry, all that great stuff that farmers markets have checked out visit connecticut.com. That's where you'll find everything you need. Like I say, there's only so much I can give you during these roadtrip segments, I can make the whole podcast a road trip, but I try to give you the taste the teaser. Also go to visit new haven.com to get a little more localized idea of what there is to do and see. Or you could be like me and do what I do and recommend to you all the time and just go there, take your car, let it kind of take you where it wants to go. You never know what you'll find. And that's such a big fun, important part of doing road trips, seeing what you've never seen and going off the beaten path located right on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River, closer to New York City than Boston. But that shouldn't deter you from checking out New Haven, Connecticut. If you're going with kids, you got three different colleges right around the area just in case they need hints of places to maybe go for higher learning. There's still some summer left and a beautiful fall to come. So go and check out New Haven and hopefully to my niece Emma maybe I gave her some things that she didn't know about the city where she goes to college. And I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a brand new road trip to take you to one of the six beautiful New England states and beyond.

This Week In History/Time Capsule
 
This week in history, we are going back 68 years ago to August 16 1954 and the premier issue of the Sports Illustrated magazine. It might not be as much today with the digital age but for anyone who was a kid that grew up in the 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s Sports Illustrated was a huge part of your life if you were a sports fan, it became the first magazine to have a circulation of more than 1 million. The very first issue had Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Matthews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. Also with New York Giants catcher West Westrom in the picture as well. That's the first ever cover of Sports Illustrated. Every famous athlete who has come since 1954 has been on the cover of this magazine. Michael Jordan tops them all he's been on the cover 50 times. And right behind him is boxer Muhammad Ali, who was on the cover 40 times. If you're a teenage boy, and I mean don't have to be just a teenage boy but the swimsuit issue became every bit as important as the actual Sports Illustrated regular issues. The Swimsuit issue is exactly what you think it is. It debuted in 1964 and features swimsuit-clad supermodels. It's kind of the precursor to the supermodel craze that came specially in the 90s. It used to come out in February it was considered a way to sell magazines during the slower time of year. The first-ever cover model was Babbitt March. And as a child of the 80s teenager of the 90s, the swimsuit issue was where I got to know supermodels like Christie Brinkley, Elle McPherson, Kathy Ireland, Cheryl Tiegs, and others. It's funny I've spent more time talking about the swimsuit issue within Sports Illustrated itself. What a shock. Even currently they produce 12 issues a year Sports Illustrated Kids, like I said the swimsuit issue. They have their website si.com. They have featured legendary sports writers like Peter King, Paul Zimmerman, Peter Gammons, Rick Reilly, Don Banks and countless others. There have been countless iconic covers. If you go to si.com, I think you can go to their archive section and see a lot of the covers. I've had trouble trying to find the actual number of how many total issues of Sports Illustrated there have been. It's obviously in the 1000s. But the very first one made his debut in stores 68 years ago this week in history. 

And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going to go back 27 years ago this week, August 15 1995. I was going back to school shopping for the last time as I got ready to start my senior year of high school. So what else was going on in the world of pop culture. The number one song was Waterfalls by TLC. This was off of their album crazy, sexy, cool. T Boz. Left eye and chili. Those were the three singers. It spent seven weeks at number one and was TLC second overall number one hid behind the song Creep. In total crazy sexy cool has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, and is the top selling album by an American girl group.

The number one movie was Apollo 13. This was a blockbuster true story on the Apollo 13 near disaster from 1970 directed by Ron Howard. It starred Tom Hanks Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon Ed Harris. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two of them. It made more than $355 million on a budget of 52 million. It was number one for four weeks total and has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

 The number one TV show was Friends. This is one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. It was on for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 a total of 236 total episodes. It's a show about six friends, three male, three female that live in the same apartment complex in New York and just their general adventures in life. The show was a juggernaut it was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards and had that famous theme song, I'll Be There for you by the Rembrandts. And that song actually was in the top 20 How many TV shows have theme songs that ended up on the Billboard charts. And in its 10 seasons, friends was in the top 10 every year with its lowest position being rated number eight in its first season.

And if you were around back in August 1995, a high pressure businessman or just someone trying to look and act cool. You could get yourself a Radio Shack, cordless headset telephone, which even came with a belt clip for your phone. Ooh, it was only 139 99 or about $272 when adjusted for inflation. If that type of high roll and phone wasn't your thing, you could get yourself a classic speed dialer phone where you had to write people's numbers on the little chart there that was kind of to the right of where the receiver was. Come on people that are my age, you know what I'm talking about. You could get that speed dialer for $49.99 or about $97 today, go to RadioShack catalogues.com. If you want to laugh at some old technology that was cool in the 90s and 80s and even earlier. But right now we're gonna go even more old school as we go back and look at the top five OG video game characters. And that's coming up right now.

Top 5: OG Video Game Characters

This top five is going to have an extra dose of nostalgia to it. Looking back at some of the best OG video game characters ever, I'm looking at the characters that made an impact before 1990. And these are the video game characters, not the games themselves. Because if you're looking at OG video games, ones like Pong or Space Invaders, there's no main character in it, it's just a game. So these are going to be ones that kids from the 1980s will remember the first video game characters that were larger than the games themselves. As always, with these top five lists, there are some honorable mentions. This will kind of give you an idea of what I'm talking about. So honorable mentions for the best OG video game characters include Cubert, MegaMan, Carmen Sandiego Samus Aran from Metroid, and the Duck Hunt dog that would laugh at you when you miss the ducks when you shot at them that whets your appetite right there. This list is in no particular order. So let's jump right into the top five OG video game characters. Starting with number one, Pac Man, Pac Man is legendary. He's got his own song written about him as basically this yellow circle with a mouth that would eat pellets in this maze, while also being chased by ghosts. The first ever Pac Man game was released to arcades in May of 1980. across all platforms, it has sold more than 48 million copies and made more than $14 billion. With a lot of that being kids like me spending quarters at the arcade on it. Pac Man is probably the most recognizable video game character except for maybe one other on this list. And it's sometimes seen as a symbol of 1980s pop culture. The only one that might top it is number two, Mario, also known as Super Mario, depending on when you played it. The original was Mario Brothers for the Atari but Super Mario Brothers came with the original Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. That was monstrous that game. The Plumber all decked out in red with his famous paintbrush mustache, and the music that I'm sure you can hear. Mario himself first appeared in the 1981 game Donkey Kong, and he has appeared in more than 200 games since his debut. Super Mario is so well known that my Nana knew who Mario was and loved playing Super Mario for Nintendo. That to me speaks volumes since she grew up in a time where radio was the big invention she knew Mario. Number three is Pitfall Harry. He was the titular character in the Atari game Pitfall which came out in 1982. It was probably my first-ever favorite game. I was five, or six years old with my Atari 2600. Playing Pitfall it was a side scroller game where you had to jump over water and obstacles and not fall down in the holes and had the Tarzan noise when you would swing across on the vine. The original game for Atari has sold more than 5 million copies and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. And for a little bit of a tie in, it was 40 years ago this week in history that Pitfall was originally released for Atari. Number four is Link from The Legend of Zelda series. This is the only one where the actual character is not the name of the game. For those that loved The Legend of Zelda, you might think Princess Zelda is the more famous character I don't think so because Link is the one that actually has to go and find her. The original Legend of Zelda came out in February 1986. It takes place in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, and Link is kind of an elf that has to go through all of these different levels and worlds to find Princess Zelda and save her from the evil Ganon and find pieces of the Triforce Legend of Zelda and super Mario were part of the Nintendo serial that came out in the late 1980s, which didn't last long, but that shows you the crossover appeal of some of these video games in their characters. Link has been in 19 Different Legend of Zelda games in the series, so not close to as many as Mario but still not bad. And finally, number five on the top five OG video game characters is Donkey Kong. I mentioned earlier that Donkey Kong came out in 1981 It was an arcade game about a gorilla, while the gorilla is the bad guy, and you're Mario having to scale all these ladders and levels to rescue the princess while Donkey Kong throws barrels at you. The Donkey Kong franchise has sold more than 80 million copies of his games since first debuting in 1981. Two interesting facts I found out about Donkey Kong, Nintendo was trying to get the license to create a Popeye game. When that didn't work out. They decided to create their own character they could mark it and that was Donkey Kong. And in 1983, an animated show called Saturday superCade, which was based around arcade game characters at the time came out. It included Frogger, Cubert, Pitfall and also Donkey Kong. And interestingly, Donkey Kong was voiced on the show by legendary comedian Soupy Sales. So there's a little bit of info that you might not have known. But that wraps up the top five. Which of these OG characters do you remember the most Pac Man, Mario, Pitfall, Harry, link, and Donkey Kong. They're all good. As far as I'm concerned, a lot of good memories there. And I'll be back next time with a new top five that will be even more random and hopefully bring back even more great memories like this one did for me.

Back In the Day:  Snippets

Children's PSAs educational PSAs public service announcements have been around forever. I'm sure they're still around today, essentially short films or long-form commercials, trying to help teach kids the basics of humanity. how the world works, how to be kind, just things about growing up. Way back in episode 35, I did a segment about old-school PSAs that I remembered growing up. Well, this week, we're going to go way way back in the day, it's going to be kind of a companion piece. As we look at another set of old-school PSAs. These were known as Snippets. Like I've said on this podcast plenty of times, if you have ideas for segments you might want to hear about you should always drop me a line. That being said, this segment about snippets was requested by an old friend and old work friend and old colleague named Jeff. So I decided to add some Snippets. And hopefully, they will be old man Minish approved. But let's dive into it. For those of you that don't know what snippets are, if you're younger. They were a series of short films. 60 seconds in length, with the very first one coming out in the summer of 1972. They ran from 72 to I believe, 1979. They were new ones were made. But they were still shown during kids' shows in the mornings, all the way through the mid 1980s. So I remember them vaguely. I would say if you're five to 10 years older than me, you probably have far more memories of snippets. But an interesting thing I found out when researching this for this segment, is that they were originally produced by Kaiser Broadcasting, which probably doesn't mean much to most people. But later on the rights were sold to Field Communications, who then started making new ones. And if you're from this area, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Boston, Field Communications is a big deal because they owned WLvi 56. And that's the reason why I remember snippets were because they were being played on W L VI in the morning during kid shows long after they stopped making new ones. In total, there were somewhere around 100 of these snippets PSAs made, and they're easy to find if you go on YouTube and type in snippets. It's S NIPET S No two Ps. The first one's had a song called Popcorn by a band called Hot Butter. This is real. Later on. It just became little kids just saying snippets that was the intro. Typically they had these series of little green caterpillars that were just there, and they would say snippets with the word above their head all of the Snippets emphasized positive human traits, and human values, like love, trust, respect, and team playing. These are all things that all kids should learn anyway, just how to be a decent human being. But there are some like there's a new kid in town, and all the other kids are playing kickball on a field and the new kid is kind of off by himself, not sure if he should play. And the other kids aren't sure. But finally, they have him come play and he becomes friends with them. There's another one with a little boy, looking at himself and his body and saying, you know, positive things that he could become in life growing up that he could be anything he wants to be, despite maybe obstacles that he might face in the future. They also had time to show, I guess, kind of experiments, fun little projects, kids could do this one with a coffee can and rubber bands and kind of a yo-yo-type mechanism that makes the thing come rolling back. There are also ones with weeds and dried beans, toothpicks, and things that you could do at home. So and also being a decent human. You also learn fun new things, which is so much about being a kid: curiosity, learning something new learning a new skill. In watching a series of the snippets for this segment, there were a few that were vaguely familiar, there were others that I had no idea about, I'm thinking that you will have the same experience. If you're of my age group. Some of these might seem familiar, and others will be brand new, but they've got that 1970s filming, look, in the 70s. Close. There's a YouTube account that I've been following God forever, I just past 15 years with my YouTube account. But there's one I follow called Fuzzy TV Memories. The Museum of classic Chicago Television, he's got tons of 70s and 80s Commercials TV shows. If you go and find him on YouTube, you will find that he has a snippets playlist. He's got 31 videos. So even if you watch the entire playlist, you're looking at just over a half hour of pure Snippets fun. And you'll see what they were trying to accomplish with these PSAs snippets about taking turns and sharing safety with skateboards. And that's still something you could use today, how to make an acorn whistle, how to just make friends in general and how smiling is contagious. All these good things. They're very 70s and 80s. It speaks to a different time, a simpler time, I can't believe that I am now saying that about when I was growing up. But it's true. The 21st century doesn't really have any identity. Maybe that's just me getting old. But if you look at the 90s 80s 70s 60s 50s all the way back each decade, the people the pop culture, it just has a personality to it that today just isn't there. And watching these snippets is like slipping into a warm bath of just positive memories of growing up if your 40s and 50s. So I definitely recommend checking out some of these snippets. Maybe you'll learn how to make a spool dozer, learn about granola or George Washington Carver, or the importance of brushing your teeth, and doing your homework first. After school, I mean, these are all just basic values. But it's also a fun time capsule looking back, God 50 years when they started, man, it doesn't seem that long ago. I'll put a link in the description of the podcast for the playlist of snippets from YouTube, so that you can go and just watch a few and get a feel for what these were like. It's hard for me to describe if you haven't seen them, it's stereotypical 70s psa films and they're great. I mean that in the greatest way. So thank you again to Jeff for recommending this. Hopefully, you learn something from this segment. And hopefully, you'll have some laughs going back and watching some of these snippets. And like I say if you've got anything that you might be interested in hearing about on the podcast, drop me an email Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. And if it's something that works into topics that I talked about, I might end up using it on the podcast, because I have lots of ideas of things to share. But something like the snippets that I hadn't even thought about that pops up and now here's a segment that I had fun reminiscing about and watching and hopefully you'll go watch some snippets and learn some things about growing up, even if you're in your 40s or 50s. Now it's never too late. 


Closing

 and that's going to do it. That's going to wrap up episode 81 of the In My Footsteps podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. And thank you so much to everyone who's been tuning in, even though the month is not over August is already shaping up to possibly be my third month in a row where I set my record for most downloads. The fact that I'm almost two years into this podcast and the numbers keep growing, gives me great joy. Great Hope keeps me going I've got a lot more content to come. So as long as you keep listening, sharing the word of mouth, leaving positive reviews to get other people to listen out, keep going. Sharing the podcast is the best way to support but you can always buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee.com Find the in my footsteps podcast, any donations go toward advertising the podcast. Find me all over social media, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, my homepage, Christopher setterlund.com. If you're like my old friend, Jeff and you have a topic you might want to hear about, you can always shoot me an email Christopher setterlund@gmail.com. I'm a big fan of researching topics I might not know that much about and sharing them. So who knows? My seventh book photographers America, Cape Cod, The Heart and Soul Beyond the Beach, I'll have more information about a release date in the weeks and months ahead. It's done. I got the cover. And it looks great if I had to guess I would say sometime in November unless they want to hold it off closer to Christmas. But obviously, I'll tell you when I've got concrete information. As I've mentioned the Lady of the Dunes book that I've written, it's done. I'm now shopping it to publishers. If you have no idea about the Lady of the Dunes book, The documentary that I wrote the book and companion with or the case itself, check out my Lady of the Dunes video on YouTube. There's a link in the description of the podcast so you can go and check it out. It's kind of a crash course. If you're looking for beautiful handcrafted gifts check out Kiwis Kustoms both spelled with ks at etsy.com There's so much great stuff there from jewelry to crocheted items. Dog and Cat sweaters, Baclavas fairy hats. Kaleigh Marks, in fact just added something brand new to the shop this past week. A children's cardigan sweater she calls it Sunrise Granny Square. It's beautiful. She's extremely talented, honing her skills and you get a chance to check it all out at etsy.com Kiwis Kustoms, she takes requests and takes orders. So take advantage of it. Sure, you could get something that's mass-produced, but why not get one-of-a-kind homemade personal-made items. Great for you great for your pets, your kids great for gifts. And of course, I've got a link in the description too. So you've got a perfect way to go and check it out. It costs nothing to look. Coming up next week is episode 82 of the In My Footsteps podcast, the special monthly bonus episode, to the joy of parents to the sadness of kids school is coming back into session. So I figured what better way to celebrate than a look back at what it was like to first go to school. We'll have a lot of fun memories. A lot of them pertain to me and my experiences. But I'm pretty sure that the first few years of school are pretty similar for most people. So you'll have a lot of chances to relate. Bring back good memories, maybe some PTSD that comes barreling to the forefront of your mind. But it'll be a lot of fun. A lot of laughs at my expense and a lot of laughs in general. That's next week's special monthly bonus episode. And as summer starts to wind down, and it gets close to my favorite time of year, right after Labor Day, all the way through the end of the year. I'm hoping for a big boost in my own mental health and I hope you all get a big boost in yours if you need it. Get outside and enjoy the weather. Do things that make you happy and lean into all the good there is still good out there. Although sometimes you have to work harder to find it. And remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and leave the biggest footprint you can in this world because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again to all of you for tuning in. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I have been Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon.