In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast

Episode 92: Birthday Blast - Podcast 2-Year Anniversary, 21st Birthday Hijinks, Best 80s Boys Birthday Gifts, Portland Maine, War of the Worlds(11-3-2022)

November 03, 2022 Christopher Setterlund Season 1 Episode 92
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod and New England Podcast
Episode 92: Birthday Blast - Podcast 2-Year Anniversary, 21st Birthday Hijinks, Best 80s Boys Birthday Gifts, Portland Maine, War of the Worlds(11-3-2022)
In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod & New England Podcast
Exclusive access to bonus episodes!
Starting at $5/month Subscribe
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 92 is a special Birthday Blast as both podcast and podcast host celebrate birthdays this week.
First, we look back at two years of the podcast.  How it got started.  How it has evolved.  There will also be a look at what is to come as well as some tips for anyone looking to start their own podcast.  Thank you to everyone who has helped me reach two years!
I will celebrate my birthday week by sharing the story of the craziest birthday I ever had. Turning 21 in America it has become a right of passage to go out and have a good time being able to finally(legally) drink alcohol.  This was the case for myself as we go way Back In the Day to the late 1990s and look at the fun and fuzzy memories of the hijinks from my 21st birthday.
Birthday shenanigans continue as we look at the Top 5 favorite boys birthday gifts from the 1980s.  Children of the 80s did you get, or want to get, any of these rad presents? I know I was happy with them.
This week's Road Trip visits Portland, Maine, the largest city in Maine, but not the state capital.  There is so much to see and do that this segment is chock full of ideas.
There is of course a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule that looks back at Orson Welles's infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

Listen to Episode 91 here.

Support the show

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 92. It is birthday month not only for myself but for the podcast as well. We're going to kick off this episode by looking back at the first two years of the podcast, everything that went into it, everything that's come from it. And once in the future, we're gonna take a road trip to Maine's largest town, the town of Portland, we're gonna go way, way back in the day as I share one of my craziest and funniest stories, the high jinks from my 21st birthday, to give you all some laughs is going to be a brand new top five. And these are the top five gifts that little boys wanted in the 1980s. We'll see how many of you guys out there got or wanted these. And of course, there'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 92 of the In My Footsteps podcast. That's right November has begun birthday month for the podcast for myself. Let the fun let the celebrations begin. But we'll dive deeper into all that coming up in a few minutes. First, I wanted to take a moment to just say thank you to everyone who's been tuning in October shattered my record for most downloads in a month for the podcast. It was also the fourth time in five months that I've set a new high for downloads, which when you're two years into doing something and you're setting highs like this, it really gives me confidence going forward. Because I know a lot of people that start podcasts if they don't see success right away, they just give up. It's all about perseverance and believing in the content you put out there and I believe in all this stuff. It doesn't hurt that I love everything I talk about though. So a big thank you to everyone who has been tuning in, sharing it, giving ratings word of mouth spreading the word about the podcast. If you want to donate you can go to buy me a coffee.com Find the In My Footsteps podcast search for New England, Cape Cod, etc. A special thank you to Christopher for sending me some more coffees this past week. I really appreciate it. Chris is an excellent photographer and Video Producer. If you're interested in either of those or curious about his work, find him at Mooncussor Films. I'll put a link to his Facebook fan page in the description of the podcast. And for those of you that love the National Seashore, Cape Cod National Seashore. He's got a book, The Cape Cod National Seashore, a photographic adventure and guide through Schiffer Publishing, who were also the publishers of my first three books so go and check him out. Check his books out, and check out his film productions at Mooncussor Films. And again a big thank you to him for donating some coffees. That money will go towards advertising the podcast so if any of you want to donate know that that's where the money goes. Also a big thank you to everyone who has checked out my latest video on YouTube Cape Cod True Crime The Lady of the Dunes and Tony Costa. It's a look at Cape Cod's two most infamous True Crime tales through the lens of a pair of highly credited and popular local mediums, Steven the medium, and Susan Ahern, the Cape Cod happy medium as producer Frank Duran and I bring them to areas that are relevant to those two cases. And they try to communicate with those associated with the cases that have since passed on. It was an interesting video to shoot. And I think it'll be interesting for you to check out I'll put a link to it in the description of the podcast as well. As this podcast goes live. My birthday was yesterday. And I'm sure it was fun. I'm pretty sure I'll be working. So it's an interesting thing when you get to your 40s Birthdays, they don't just become every other day. But there are times when you can't get away from your responsibilities as an adult. But speaking of birthdays, the two-year anniversary of this podcast drops in a couple of days, November the fifth. So let's take a trip down memory lane. And look at the first two years of this podcast right now on episode 92 of the In My Footsteps podcast.

Podcast 2nd Anniversary
Two years is a long time to do anything. So as I look back at two years of doing this podcast, I'm actually pretty impressed that I was able to stick with it. Because through work and just life in general there are times when putting together a podcast can feel a little bit like a chore, just because there's not always free time to just record through the whole thing. So I've had plenty of times where it's been bits and pieces I record when I get a chance. That I think is the benefit of these being kind of evergreen, that they don't have to be timely. They're not based on a lot of current events. This is the 92nd episode of this podcast, though, I've had people say they're amazed that I constantly have new things to talk about. And that all goes back to the beginnings when I first wanted to do this, the beginnings of this podcast are twofold. One is I just have a love of creating content that comes straight from my brain. And if you follow me all over social media, you know, it's books, it's blogs, it's the videos on YouTube, even simple reels and such on Instagram, or Tiktok. Whenever I'm over there, I love that creativity. That's why I think any sort of normal desk job would not ever work for me. Because I think you would have to kind of shut your brain off and just do what you're told and do what is given to you with little room for your own creativity to come out. This podcast, though it also came as a distraction. I've mentioned this a few times on the podcast going back. But a little over two years ago, I had a real issue with alcohol, just dealing with the loss of my grandfather was my hero dealing with a terrible toxic job dealing with COVID. And everything that went around with that, when I finally decided to quit drinking, I knew I needed something else to kind of put my brain into to distract me from wanting alcohol. And that's where this podcast came from. When I tell you at the end of all these episodes to lean into the things that make you happy for your own mental health. That's how this podcast started. There's a reason why it feels like a quilt where there are all these different topics history, travel, nostalgia, lifestyle, because that's all the stuff that I'm interested in. That makes me happy, local history, local travel, et cetera. And I know not all of you who listen to this podcast like all of those topics, I always make the joke that history's not everyone's favorite. But I still try to make it interesting, or at least palatable. And you know that there's other stuff in this, it'll probably appeal to you more. But the reason why I've been able to pump out all these episodes with all this content was that I did my research. When I finally decided to put this podcast together, I said I needed to have enough information, enough research enough stuff to share that I could pump out dozens and dozens of episodes to try to get a foothold. Because the whole thing is, a lot of people that do podcasts don't see the immediate results that they want. And so they give up. And a lot of the reason why I've been able to get these downloads for under five months I've set highs for downloads, is because I have a lot of content. If someone hears one of these episodes and says who I liked that guy, they can go and say oh my god, he's got 92 episodes. Let's see what else he talks about. When I was a kid, or a teenager, 13 to 15. I used to make my own radio shows with friends. They would be news broadcasts, game shows, commercials, and just skits in general, where we use our creativity mostly to make each other laugh. But this is kind of an evolution of that. And in a future episode, I will do a much deeper dive into those old radio show days because there's a lot that goes into it. I think I said in the first few episodes of the podcast that I had enough information researched, that I could probably do this for four years if I did no other research. And I keep finding new topics. So I'm pushing that out. If the time allows, I should at least be able to do another three years of this and get to five years. Good Lord. But to be honest, any of you listening to this out there, you could do your own podcast, you could do this. It's not hard. It's time-consuming, but it's not hard. Take a minute and think about something that you're passionate about. Everyone has something that they're passionate and knowledgeable about. There's a niche, there's an audience for everything. The main thing is having the time and having the drive to do it. I tell my buddy Steve all the time that he could do his own podcast about several topics. He could do it on photography, landscaping, fishing, or any of those things, but the main thing is having the time he is super busy with work and life just like we all are. And the last thing you want to do is start a podcast, do a few episodes, and then fall off so that any audience you do have fades away. So now for me 92 episodes into there's an obligation to you, the people that have been tuning in, not necessarily since episode one, but the people that have come aboard and have become fans, I do feel a sense of obligation. But it's also a sense of excitement. Because each episode, I have something in there where I'm like, Oh, I can't wait to see the reaction. And I know certain topics get more downloads True Crime does well. When I speak about old Cape Cod restaurants and nightspots, those always do well. All you need though, is a computer or laptop, even your phone, just a good microphone is all I got to do this. I downloaded the Audacity recording software, you do your research, and make sure that what you're talking about is accurate. And sound confident. I was not a public speaker by any means. And this isn't really public speaking. Because right now I'm sitting in a room talking into a microphone, and there's nobody around. But when I was a kid, I was incredibly introverted. And in some ways, I still am. But I've had to learn to get out of my shell. Once I became an author and had to do events, I knew that I had to learn how to project my voice with confidence and give off that air of confidence. Any of you out there, have you started your own podcast? Or do you have an interest in doing your own podcast? I'm always up for advising as best I can. Two years of doing it. I've got a lot of tips, I can share that I've given a lot of them right here during this celebration of two years of the podcast. But the main thing comes down to having content that you're confident in and that you enjoy talking about. If somebody assigned me a podcast and said, you're talking about chemistry or biology, I'd be like, Oh, God, I don't want to talk about science and it would come through, it would be real quick for you to know that I was a fraud talking about science stuff that I do not know about going forward, I'll keep tweaking the setup. There are little things that I've done that. I don't know if anyone's noticed, things like at the top of the podcast, I give a rundown of what's going on in this week's episode, which I do, because then I can create this visual soundbite to share on social media so that people get kind of a teaser. I'm also always up to do interviews, I haven't done that many. And it's not because I don't want to interview people for the podcast. It's like I said, sometimes there's not enough free time to put it together. So knowing that this is just me and my research, I can do it whenever I want. Interviews, you have to schedule so at times, it just gets to be too much of a hassle. But going forward into the next year, I definitely want to do at least a few interviews with people whether they're local, or if I get to be big enough to do national. I'm also getting close to where I might start doing advertising slash sponsorships. I talk about local businesses, companies, and people I know because it's a kind of pay-it-forward thing. But this I'm talking about actual paid advertising, I will try to not go too over the top with it where you've suddenly got six, seven minutes of advertisements in the middle of the podcast. But if I could find a way to even start making a little bit of money doing this, that would be amazing, because I love doing this. So to be able to actually make a living or somewhat make a living doing it will be great. I really want to add a Q&A segment to these podcasts. I keep saying it. If you have any sort of questions, if you have topics you're interested in, you can always shoot me a message because I'd love this to be even more interactive than it already is. But the main thing as we head into year three is to just keep creating content that you enjoy and that you want to tune into. You don't have to be from New England from Cape Cod. You don't have to be a child of the 80s I want it to be kind of more all-inclusive, where you just enjoy what I talk about and then want to send in questions and such but happy two-year anniversary to the In My Footsteps podcast. If this is your first time tuning in, thank you so much. Go into the back catalog. I've got 91 other episodes. Each one I am proud of I put my name my stamp of approval on and let's get started on year three.


Road Trip: Portland, ME

On this week's road trip, I am heading up north at least from where I am to the largest town in Maine, the town of Portland. As of 2021, Portland has a population of 68,313. But of course, you know that Portland is not the capital of Maine despite being its largest town, the capital is Augusta. An interesting fact that I found when putting this together is that only 17 of the 50 state capitals are actually also the largest cities in that state, which I just find fascinating. But Portland, Maine is the definition of a place you need to go and spend a few days at. I'm going to try my best to cram a lot into this road trip segment, but I'm going to miss some things naturally. Portland sits 110 miles north of Boston. I believe for me to get there from Cape Cod. It's somewhere between three and three and a half hours but it's worth the drive. My first time going to Portland was to go and visit a couple of lighthouses. Right near Portland Harbor are both Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse and Bug Light. Bug Light you can walk right out to it's on the South Portland Greenbelt pathway. Bug light looks like a little castle. Spring Point Ledge is located at the end of a long breakwater and it's behind Fort Preble which is on bunker lane and the grounds of Southern Maine Community College. Fort Preble was built in 1808, and it was active during the War of 1812. The civil war up through World War Two before being ultimately shut down in 1950. Spring point ledge light was originally just out in the water. It was built in 1897. The breakwater that connects it to the land was added in 1951. One of the Go twos if you're going to go to Portland, Maine is to visit Old Port. It's a historic neighborhood with historic buildings, and cobblestone streets, so you can go and see history. But then it also doubles as a happening nightspot with bars and nightclubs that draw the younger crowds. This is one of those spots. As I said, there are so many places to see that mentioning old poor there, I could do a whole road trip just on that section. It can be a very touristy area, with gift shops and galleries. But there's so much more to it. You could visit the legendary holy donut that's on Commercial Street. They've got three locations, but that's one of two in Portland is another one on Park Avenue. And there's another one in Scarborough, Maine. They're homemade potato donuts. And they have about 20 flavors each day. But the thing is, you got to get there early because they sell out and once they sell out, they don't make more than a certain amount. Visit them at the Holy donut.com and just look at their menu and you know you want to go there. But while you're wandering around Old Port, you might be tempted to take the Casco Bay ferry because the boats leave from the pier there. The Casco Bay lines service six islands in Casco Bay Peaks Island, Little Diamond Island, Great Diamond Island, Long Island, Chebeague Island, and Cliff Island. You can take trips to the islands and get off and check them out. You can also just take a cruise around. And it's these beautiful old-school-looking ferry boats. They look like the old steamships that would be on the Mississippi River 150 years ago. Visit Casco Bay lines.com. To see their schedule rates. They don't take reservations and they do let dogs on the boats. But obviously, visiting the islands of Maine, especially in the summertime, you're going to need to get there early. So after wandering around Old port for a few hours having something to eat there going out on the Casco Bay ferry visiting some of the islands you might need to wash everything down with something cold. So you can go to the Allagash brewery that's located at 50 Industrial Way. And also allagash.com. They've got brewery tours, they got beers, you can sample they've got food, they got a food truck there. They even have their own podcast, from Maine with love. So if you want to dive into what Allagash is all about, listen to their podcast. They've got their signature Allagash white, but then they've got so many other beers. You could pay several visits to them and not get everything that they offer there. In 1995 Rob Todd opened it with just himself and now it's grown and they have job openings if you want to work at Allegan Ash Brewery. It's funny because I've already named two places to go and get food in Portland. But there's more. There's so much more. Check out the ESA bistro at 79 Portland Street. And also ESA, Portland Me.com. They are the definition of a cozy neighborhood bistro. It's a unique, eclectic menu. It's based around the people that work there and own it, where they've been what they've seen, and what they enjoy. It's really like my podcast as far as a restaurant. It's everything they like on their menu, and those that go in there can't get enough of it. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. That's kind of why I put Isa Bistro in there as well, just because he reminded me of how I put my podcast together. When it comes to Portland, you just need to go and don't have a plan. Just drive up there. If you don't like history and lighthouses like me, like I said, Old Port has history but it's got so many other restaurants, nightspots shops. There's the harbor there's Portland Harbor this countless places where you can just park your car, get something food to go, and just sit and watch the boats go by. There's Easton Beach that overlooks Casco Bay and the islands at Eastern promenade trail. That's the road and you can take the Casco Bay ferries and go out to Great Diamond Island and you can stay out there like an escape from an escape. Check out the Inn at Diamond Cove. They're at in at Diamond cove.com. But if you're going to Portland, you want to stay in Portland proper. I would highly recommend the Francis there at 747 Congress Street and also the Frances main.com. It's a beautiful 15-room boutique hotel. And it's owned and operated by fourth-generation Mainers and you know me, I'm 12th-generation Cape Cod or so I respect to people who have deep connections to where they currently live. They're the perfect combination of luxury and location. You can walk to Old port from there. They've got the relatively new wayside tavern that's located next door. They've got their own beautiful spa. So everything is right there. I say visit Portland and go check everything out. But if you go to the Frances, everything is right there within walking distance. So spend a night in Portland hell spend two nights in Portland because you're so close to so many amazing places. Old Orchard Beach is right there. Cape Elizabeth with Portland Head lighthouse, visit Portland region.com. That's the Chamber of Commerce that'll share so much more. As I said, I can try to cram as much as I can into this road trip to Portland, but it's not going to do it justice. I'm scratching the surface. My best advice like I say with all these places, get in your car and just go and explore. It's only 110 miles from Boston. So it's a pretty easy drive from most of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Obviously, take a walk around Old port, maybe take the Casco Bay ferry, visit the Allagash brewery, but also just find your own way. I could go on and on about Portland about Maine in general, there's a reason why their slogan is the way life should be. I'm never disappointed when I visit Portland. I'm never disappointed when I visit Maine in general, and you won't be either. Now we are back next week with a new road trip to another one of the hundreds and hundreds of beautiful cities and towns around New England that I can just gush about for you and hopefully you go.


This Week In History

This week in history we are going back 84 years ago to October 30 1938. And one of the most infamous moments in the history of radio, Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast. If you've never heard this actual broadcast, you need to pause this podcast and go listen to it. Because when it actually happened, it was a huge deal, mainly for the reaction to it. This was a broadcast that was the takeoff of HG Wells's book The War of the Worlds which came out in 1897. HG Wells is a great author if you've never read any of his work. Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre Group put on this dramatization of the War of the Worlds. The thing is that you probably have read about the hoax where people thought it was real. Orson Welles made it a point to at least a couple of times to mention that this was a dramatization. But if you didn't hear that, then you wouldn't know. And therein lies the issue. You had a lot of people hearing this dramatization of this news broadcast of aliens invading and killing people. And if you missed any of the disclaimers, you had no idea that this was fake. Now, Orson Welles did have the intention of creating this dramatization like a real crisis was unfolding. But by the next morning, his face was everywhere in the newspapers, and he thought he had ruined his career. So to treat this, like it was breaking news, they broke from the tradition of having a disclaimer after the half-hour for station identification. This whole broadcast went on for closer to an hour with great sound effects. making it sound like the aliens' heat rays were just blasting through people in New Jersey where the aliens landed. And then word started coming from all over the globe that aliens were everywhere conquering humanity. stories of people's reactions vary from people having heart attacks from hearing that aliens were conquering, to people getting into bomb shelters and such to hide from the invasion, or people wanting to form militias to go out and fight the aliens. You can find all of this through research. And you can find the original broadcast and go and listen and imagine yourself being back in 1938. When this was going on. Orson Welles became an overnight celebrity famous slash infamous. And it was all thanks to his War of the Worlds broadcast that took place 84 years ago this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going back 41 years ago this week, November the second 1981 That was my fourth birthday. I can't tell you what I got as my main presence, but I can tell you what was going on in terms of pop culture. The number one song was Private Eyes by Daryl Hall and John Oates. This was off of their album Private Eyes. It was number one for two weeks and was their third number-one hit and was their third out of what would be six number-one hits. And interestingly, private eyes got knocked out of number one by Physical by Olivia Newton-John. But then her song got knocked out a number one by Hall and Oates next single, I can't go for that. The number one movie was Time Bandits. This was a British fantasy adventure film starring Sean Connery and several of the Monty Python crew, Michael Palin and John Cleese. It's 90% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and made over $42 million dollars on a budget of $5 million. And there was a planned sequel in the mid-1990s. That was written out but after several members of the original cast died, they just shelved it. The number one TV show was Dallas. This was the classic primetime soap opera about the oil Ewing family. It originally aired for 14 seasons from 1978 to 1991. It was a total of 357 episodes. With Larry Hagman's, JR Ewing, one of the most famous TV characters ever being the only member of the cast to appear in every episode, the show led to a spin-off Knots Landing, and a revival of the show, which ran from 2012 to 2014. And if you were around back then November 2 1981, and you had some schoolwork you might need to get done. You're in luck because computers were around the IBM 5150 personal computer, which was the first real micro-sized home computer that was around for your buying pleasure. You could get one for $1,595 or just under $5,300 in today's money. And just for a comparison, I did some research in 2022. A good desktop computer goes for anywhere from between five and $800. So you had to be pretty rolling in money to be able to afford one of these IBM's way back then. But that's going to wrap up another this week in history, another time capsule. The time capsule was from one of my birthdays from the 1980s will now we're going to jump into a brand new top five and these are going to be my top five picks for my favorite birthday gifts from the 1980s. Let's see how many of you Boys that grew up back then had these are one of these


Top 5: 1980s Birthday Gifts for Boys

I was really lucky as a kid growing up, my family was by no means rich. But when I look back at my birthdays in the 1980s, I got basically everything I wanted and more than probably a lot of people got. So this week's top five are going to be favorite birthday gifts for boys growing up in the 1980s. All of these I actually got. So in many ways, I was lucky I lived a charmed life and a charmed childhood. So this will be interesting to see how many of my favorites that I got during that decade are things that you got on your own birthdays growing up in the 80s. As always, with these top fives, they're in no particular order, and there are a few honorable mentions. The Honorable Mentions for favorite birthday gifts of the 1980s include the Sony Walkman and the Nintendo Gameboy. The Gameboy I did a deep dive into back on episode 47 If you want to reminisce more about that, let's get into the actual top five. Number one is a BMX bike. So this one is kind of a cheat because my stepbrother had made his own bike, and I believe it was for my eighth or ninth birthday. He gifted it to me. BMX was more than just a bike it was culture pop culture in the 80s. Everyone and E T rode BMX bikes, they just looked cool. They were little racer bikes. The original concept of the BMX bike goes back to 1956 in the country of Holland. I believe this wasn't something I asked for. But it was offered to me by my stepbrother and knowing how cool BMX bikes were, I would have been crazy to say no, I don't know how long that bike lasted. But I know it lasted long enough for me to flip over the handlebars at least once and dash my chin on the street. Number two was transformers. Every boy that grew up in the 1980s knows transformers, robots that turn into something else. Cars, jets, dinosaurs, they had their own cartoon show, and they ended up with a cartoon movie. I was of course a huge fan of Optimus Prime went from an 18 Wheeler to a robot. There were the Autobots and the Decepticons that were led by Megatron it's interesting because kids of today's generation know transformers too because of all the movies that were big hits, getting transformers whether for my birthday, Christmas, good checkups at the dentist, that was a huge deal and I had a huge collection. And speaking of huge collections, number three was the LJN WWF wrestlers. These were hard rubber slightly bendable. I believe there were about eight inches tall all the big wrestlers from the WWF rock and wrestling era of the mid-1980s. I collected all of them Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheik Macho Man, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, and I even had Mean Gene Okerlund. But I'd have them all wrestle, I'd have them just kill each other with stuff. And because I knew some of the wrestlers got blood, I would slice them up and then color them with a red marker like they were bleeding and a match. Those would be worth something today if they were in the original packaging, but who in the world as a kid of the 80s would have kept them in their packaging? And much like the Transformers they just started to disappear as I got older. Number four is baseball cards. This is kind of open-ended. It's not necessarily just any certain card it was packs of cards or sets of cards. Back when I first started collecting cards in 8586. I think all they really had was tops Donruss and FLIR. I wanted the 1985 Topps baseball card set. I think it had Mark McGuire's rookie card in it. Roger Clemens, his second-year card. As the market got oversaturated baseball cards kind of lost their value. I'm sure there are still some from that set that are valuable. But I think my mother paid more for it back then than it's worth now. But I still have it packed away all in mint condition. So hey, you never know I should look up its price now in the Beckett price guide. And finally, number five on my list of top five favorite 1980s birthday gifts for boys is an actual basketball hoop. longtime listeners of the podcast know that back in episode 29, I did a deep dive into my basketball hoop memories. I loved basketball and still do love playing it back then. So my mother and stepfather actually got me a real basketball hoop. My stepfather dug a hole, I think he put cement in there so that it would stand up. And it was adjustable. So you could lower it down to like seven feet. So you could dunk it even if you were 11 years old. Nowadays, you can get the hoops that have the bases that you fill with sand or something so that you can move it around if you have to. Back then that hoop was stuck in one spot. Of course, until that famous day that I came home from my Nana's house and it was laying in the street because a friend of mine had brought some other friends over down from Boston and they played a real game and ripped the hoop right out of the ground. But you can hear more about that in episode 29. But those were my top five. Did you boys that grew up in the 80s Did you have any of those gifts? or were there other things that I missed that were gifts that you enjoyed more? All I know is that handcrafted BMX bike I wish I still had that because it's probably valuable. I'll be back next week with a brand new top five very likely not to be birthday related.


Back In the Day: 21st Birthday Hijinks

 Happy birthday to me. Well, it was yesterday when this podcast goes live. I just passed my birthday. And 92 episodes into this podcast. I feel like we're all friends I can share with you one of my favorite stories of all time, filled with embarrassment and laughs But that's what this is all about self-deprecating humor is the best. I've gotten way better in my older years at not taking myself as seriously as I did at times when I was younger. In Episode 89, I mentioned that my niece Emma had turned 21 A few weeks ago, she was pretty responsible with her 21st birthday and didn't go crazy. But for a lot of people, it's a rite of passage, you turn 21 In this country, you can legally drink. So you almost feel obligated to have some kind of big crazy debut into the legal drinking scene. So that's what we're going to do here. We're gonna go way, way back in the day, as I share the birthday high jinks of my 21st. So close your eyes and cast your mind back to the bygone days of the late 1990s. I did not drink in high school, or in college. It was not that I had no interest. It was just that it never came up. I never had friends who said, Hey, let's go try to score some beer with a fake ID. Or hey, let's go to a party. I mean, I'm not saying I never drank. It's just something that wasn't a big part of who I was as a team. So I was excited for my 21st I had no idea it was going to go down the way it did though. I was working in the kitchen then or maybe doing prep on the day of my birthday. The plan was for a few of us to go out to a bar just so I could have a drink or two and be like, hey, there you go. That's the introduction. No big deal. The folks for more. They took it easy on me. They said we'll come and pick you up so I could relax and not worry about drinking and driving. At this point. My family and I are at least you know some of us were living in this winter rental down near the beach. A really nice spot. I'm standing outside waiting. And around the corner comes a big limo. And it didn't dawn on me that that limo was for me until it stopped in front of me where I was standing. The guy that was driving it was a regular customer at the restaurant where I worked. I didn't know that his side hustle was limo driver also. He got out he cracked the door open so I could just slide right in. I immediately felt like a king. I think there were six other people in the limo when I got in. It was a crowd in a good way all the people I enjoyed working with after the initial birthday wishes went out the window and we started driving away. They grabbed out a bottle of champagne cracked it open handed out glasses. So that was how my 21st began was with champagne in the back of a limo. As you heard me say a few minutes ago I did not drink in high school really didn't drink so my tolerance was nonexistent. So remember that I down that first glass of champagne, they filled me up again, I downed that one. I think they filled me up a third time. But the bar we were going to was only a 10-12 minute drive. I would learn in later years what pacing yourself was all about. But I remember getting to the bar getting out of the limo and already feeling kind of woozy. So before even walking into the door of the bar, I was already at least buzzed pretty good. When it comes to the 21st birthday celebration, or birthday celebrations in general out at a bar. Everybody who knows it's your birthday wants to buy you a drink, and they don't all chip in to buy one, they all buy you rounds. I believe I drank either Sam Adams or Guinness as my drink of choice. And those of you that drink, you know, Guinness is super heavy. And you'll forgive me here if the details start to get hazy because I got hazy back then. I had had at least two, two and a half glasses of champagne on the drive there. And with six or eight people that I knew all there to celebrate my birthday, all wanting to buy me drinks, you can see where this is going. I'll be honest, I have no idea how many beers I had. Since I didn't buy them with my own money. My best recollection would be anywhere from four to six. Add that to the champagne. Add that to the fact that I had no tolerance and you see where this is going. I didn't have to be carried out of the bar. But I did have some assistance to keep me going straight. From this point on a lot of what I'm sharing is secondhand information because my memory is very hazy. So they all leave. They dumped me in the limo. I think they all knew how much I had had to drink so they stuck me by the window, I think so I could get some fresh air. So the limos taking me back home because I'm obviously not going to a second bar. I'm already out of it. I don't know how fast he was driving 45-50 as he tried to get me home as fast as possible. It was about this time though that the beard decided to make a second appearance. You can only be drunk tipsy woozy for so long before everything gets ready to come up. But me being nice and responsible. I didn't want to throw up in a limo. So I started reaching for the door handle. Everyone in the back is yelling at the limo driver because I'm trying to open the door as we're going 40-45 miles an hour. That would not have been a good way to end my birthday. My 21st diving out of a limo. The driver was able to pull over he came running around to open the side door for me. Just in time for me to puke all over his shoes. Yeah, I mean, there's a good impression to make. So I'm hanging out of the limo. I just puked on this guy's shoes. They fold me back up into the limo and slam the door. I don't know if it had childproof locks, but I know I could never get out. They drove me home and pulled up in front of my house. And this is the piece de resistance of my 21st birthday. I think two of the people escorted me to the front door. So by this point, it's one 130 In the morning, because we didn't leave to go to the bar until like nine. I had my key but in my drunken eyes, it looked like I had five keys and three doorknobs to try to unlock. So somebody helped guide my key into the lock to help me open the door. I don't know how many of you out there have ever seen the movie House Party. It stars Kid n Play. It's from 1990 It's friggin awesome. One of my favorite movies. There's a scene where two guys walk this one drunk guy home and they press him up against his front door and ring the doorbell and then his mother opens the door and he just falls in. It's one of my favorite scenes. It's so funny. Well, that's basically what happened to me here. They put my key in the lock and turned the door enough that it started to open. I just kind of fell in the door. They said he's home. He's inside. Let's get out of here. I don't know how long I was on the living room floor. But I do know at some point, I woke up turned around and the front door was wide open in November with a screen door because we hadn't changed over to the storm door yet. So there's cold air pouring in. I'm lying on the floor. I did manage to drag my After my feet, close and lock the front door and basically crawl on my hands and knees into the bathroom, and spoon with the toilet for the rest of the night. Luckily, I didn't have to work the next day. So I was able to sleep most of the day. Because where I work, they had little sympathy for you if you showed up hungover because it was something you did to yourself. It wasn't an accident that all the champagne and beer just fell into me without me knowing. But boy, did I get my fill of alcohol that night. Good Lord. The funniest way to cap this all off was that the next weekend, there was another guy that I worked with who also turned 21. And so we went out to celebrate his 21st. And we went, I think, to the same bar, but I had learned my lesson, I had zero drinks, because I had already felt my first drunken hangover puking night. So even at 21, I decided to give it a rest a little bit, but that any of you out there have some crazy 21st Birthday high jinks. I'm sure some of you had it much worse than mine. But that's my story of my 21st my intro to legal drinking. I celebrated this birthday this year with some seltzer and the memories. And that's it.


Closing

And that's going to wrap up episode 92 of the In My Footsteps podcast, the birthday edition for me and the podcast itself. Thank you for tuning in and celebrating a little thank you to everyone who's been tuning in throughout this run of two years. I've got loads more to come. I'm constantly finding new things to add to the podcast. I won't spoil them though. But there is enough stuff that I could do easily two or three more years. The only thing is finding the time which I keep doing. Find me all over social media, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, the In My Footsteps podcast blog at blogger.com Check out my homepage Christopher Setterlund.com, maintained, created updated by my oldest friend Barry Menard, podcast links are up there, and links to all six of my books that are currently out are there. And when Book number seven comes out in the spring that'll go up there. I'm still in the process of finding an agent slash publisher for my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book. Once I get news, you obviously will all know like I said at the top I put the link for Cape Cod true crime, the Lady of the Dunes, and Tony Costa will be in the description of the podcast. Check out that video. It's done very well compared to other videos. So I'm very happy with it. And we're not done yet. The train just keeps on rolling next week is going to be episode 93. With Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks, we're going to look at places on Cape Cod where the Pilgrims walked since they first landed at Provincetown, not at Plymouth. We're going to go way, way back in the day, and do a segment on famous musicians that are from New England. This is part one of likely at least two parts. There's going to be a brand new top five that are the top five symbols of the 1980s things that you think of when someone says 1980s What pops in your head Well, I'm going to have five and some honorable mentions next week. And as always, there'll be a brand new this week in history and time capsule. All coming up next week on episode 93 of the In My Footsteps podcast. The holiday season is coming up and what could be better for those that you care about Then homemade handcrafted gifts from Kiwis Kustoms at etsy.com. Kaleigh Marks works hard, honing her craft, and sharpening her skills with so many things that she's got up there. balaclavas, cat and dog sweaters, jewelry, little stuffed plush animals and she takes requests if you go to her page, kiwis Kustoms both spelled with ks and you see something that looks like something you might be interested with a few tweaks you can always send her a message she takes requests. If it's something that's in her wheelhouse that she's able to do, she will give it a shot and she will knock it out of the park you will not be disappointed. There's a link in the description of the podcast and it costs nothing to look and see what she has to offer and the talent and skill that she has Kiwis customs@etsy.com. And if you need an adjustment, either in your spine or in your life. Come and visit me and the rest of the crew at Mind Body Spine Chiropractic and Cape Kettlebell in Brewster it's all the brainchild of Dr. Michael Singleton. He is an excellent chiropractor. But his knowledge goes so far beyond that, when people come into the office and see what we have to offer, red light therapy, lymphatic health, nutrition and supplements, massage chairs, cold laser therapy, pulse wave therapy if any of this doesn't make sense, just visit our website come in and see. And that's in addition to corrective exercise, rehab therapy, small group, and personal training. It's all there come on into mind body spine chiropractic and Cape Kettlebell, your one-stop shop on Cape Cod for everything, health, and wellness, everything. And speaking of health and wellness, like I always say, your mental health is so important. In the turbulent times we live in, it's even more important to lean into the things that make you happy. Whether that certain places certain foods, certain smells certain people, if what makes you happy doesn't hurt anyone else do it. Who cares what people think I'm at that age now. I care less about what people think about what I do, as long as it's not hurting anyone do it. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path. Enjoy every moment you can on this journey, because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again so much to everyone for tuning in to the two-year anniversary of the podcast, my birthday episode. I appreciate all of you and I'm going to keep pumping out the content every week as long as I can. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I have been Christopher Setterlund And I'll talk to you all again soon.