In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 107: Remembering the Christmas Tree Shops; 1980s Cape Cod Stores We Miss; 1993 Year In Music; Bridgeport, CT(8-9-2023)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 107

Share episode

Send us a text

Episode 107 is filled with Cape Cod nostalgia.
It begins with a bittersweet look back at the New England icon the Christmas Tree Shops as the company gets set to close all of its stores by the end of August. Although it grew to be more than a local gift shop this chain was born and developed on Cape Cod.
Known as the 'Constitution State' Connecticut is home to more than 3.6 million people. This week we will take a Road Trip to the largest city in the state when we visit Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Time moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you might miss it. We're going to heed those immortal words of Ferris Bueller and take a look around. It will be a fun and fast-paced trip Back In the Day as we go back 30 years to look at the year in music in 1993.
There will be a major trip down memory lane for long-time Cape Codders in this week's Top 5. We will explore some of the stores we grew up on in the 1980s that are no longer around today. Will you remember any of these?
There will of course be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule as we take a morbid look back to the very first execution in the electric chair.
Find more content on YouTube, support the podcast if you want, and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 106 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, Massachusetts, and this is episode 107. We've got a lot of reminiscing to do this week. We're gonna begin by looking back at the history and memories of the legendary Christmas tree shops as they kind of get towards the last round up. We're gonna take a road trip to Central Connecticut and the largest city in the state, that being Bridgeport.

We're gonna go way, way back in the day, thirty years ago, to look at 1993, the year in music. It's gonna be a brand new top five as we look back at the top five nineteen eighties Cape Cod stores that we miss. And of course, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and time capsule, all coming up right now on episode one zero seven of the In My Footsteps podcast. Well, we're getting towards mid August, 2/3 of the way through summer. I don't know about where you guys live, but on Cape Cod, it's been kind of an underwhelming summer.

A lot more rain. We've had a few hot days, a lot more humid days, but not so much that I'm begging for fall even though it's my favorite time of year. I think we hear kind of the anomaly as far as weather goes. I know it's record-breaking heat throughout most of the country, so I'm definitely not gonna complain about it being slightly cooler and a little more rainy than it should be. Thank you so much for tuning in to the podcast wherever you're from.

I know this week is gonna be very Cape Cod centric. It's my home. I can't help it. But I know I have a lot of listeners throughout The United States and in Europe, which just blows my mind. I'm super excited about how the popularity of the podcast keeps growing.

This is my fifth episode back after my six month hiatus, and my listeners continue to grow. I'm gonna continue to pump out great content or at least what I think is great content. You can be the judge. Like I've been saying, I'm about to up the ante by creating subscribers and subscriber based content. That's gonna debut in September.

I know I'm going to do some stuff through Buzzsprout, which is my hosting platform, but I'm debating on sticking with buy me a coffee or going over to Patreon. For those of you that maybe have never listened to the podcast or don't know what I'm talking about with the subscriber content, it's likely going to be one, maybe two extra bonus episodes a month centered around this old blog that I used to create that was meant to be kind of a sidebar to my travel blog. And it's way more random like a fever dream, but also a slice of life from about fifteen years ago. Once I started reading them and realizing how perfectly random some of the stuff was, I couldn't wait to share it. Complete with commentary from me today, which is really gonna make it just crazy.

So I hope some of you out there will become subscribers. You may or may not have seen by now that I have revamped the podcast logo, updating it as I get close to my third year of doing the show. I might end up making bumper stickers or keychains and such for the podcast for people that wanna show their support. But you can always go buy me a coffee. I'm still doing that currently, and the biggest thing you can do is share the podcast with others.

I promote it. I market it. I advertise it. But word-of-mouth from you, the people that listen and enjoy it, that's the best endorsement I can get. Let's get right into it, though.

We're gonna look now at a legend of Cape Cod business, New England business, a place I grew up on, probably a lot of you grew up on. And as it gets towards the end of its run, we're gonna take a fond look back at the Christmas tree shops and its impact on a lot of us that grew up around here right now on episode 107 of the In My Footsteps podcast. 


Christmas Tree Shops

As of the recording of this podcast, August 2023, the Christmas tree shops company is in its final stages of liquidation. As of last month, July 2023, there were 70 stores still remaining. They were all going to close unless some kind of miracle happened, which is highly, highly unlikely.

So for all intents and purposes, we are living through the final days of a beloved New England institution that got its start on Cape Cod. So before the final door of the final store is closed and the lights go out for the last time, let's take a look back at the history of the Christmas tree shop that got its start in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts. Several generations of Cape Codters and those who flocked to The Cape to visit know of the unique holiday-themed series of local stores that were known as the Christmas tree shops. They were the stores that became a beloved staple of many a weekend morning of running errands. Its roots are all Cape Cod, yet over time it expanded and grew so large that it could no longer be considered a mom-and-pop operation.

From humble beginnings, what became known as Christmas Tree Shop began as an idea of Charles and Alice Matthews of Yarmouth Port. In July 1946, 33 year old Charles and 37-year-old Alice came to The Cape from New York. They purchased a home and a small store at the corner of Willow Street and Route 6 A in Yarmouth Port that had previously been a grocery store owned by Harry Davidson. Charles was a twelfth-generation Cape Codder. His father, Albert Matthews, though born in Buffalo, New York, was a direct descendant of the Matthews family that had first come to Cape Cod in 1638.

He had even kept a summer home in Barnstable. After some minor improvements to the shop, including painting both the interior and exterior and adding dark green blinds, it was opened in time for the 1947 summer season and was known as the Old Corner Shop. The building was made up originally of two smaller shops, Wayside Shop run by Catherine Gourley of Melrose and Lavinia's Window run by Gladys Beasley of Falmouth. Both were considered antique shops. The property was more of a compound known collectively as Old Corner.

There was also the Old Corner Guest House and another small building formerly used for laundry service. The laundry service building was purchased in the summer of 1947 and removed from the property. In November 1949, Charles and Alice Matthews took over the wayside shop side of the old corner shop and renamed the store the Christmas shop. Charles used woodworking talents to repair antiques while Alice's training in the arts allowed her to create greeting cards, silver jewelry, and ceramics. Their contributions were soon joined by other local artists' works, making the store hit right off the bat.

In February 1952, another land purchase changed the store's trajectory. Charles and Alice bought a neighboring parcel of land containing a barn that they wished to use as part of an expansion of the Christmas shop. The following month, the Christmas shop officially became known as Christmas Tree Shop, running out of the barn with the additional land being used for a parking lot. The larger store allowed the Matthews to expand their inventory to more than 200,000 items. Visitors came from all over the country, Europe, and Australia to browse and buy to the tune of more than 75,000 sales per year by 1955.

Alice Matthews became a leading businesswoman on Cape Cod, becoming president of the Cape Cod Business and Professional Women's Club. In 1956, the Christmas tree shop's success allowed the business to remain open year-round. They had been closing for three months after Christmas until then. Its unique appearance inside the barn also made it one of the most photographed businesses on Cape Cod as well. Though the Christmas tree shop was a success, there were troubles ahead.

14 hour workdays began to weigh on Charles and Alice. This, coupled with strict Sunday business laws, began to eat away at profits. Business slowed in 1959 and 1960 to the point where involuntary bankruptcy was filed against the couple in June 1961. The property was taken and purchased by Donald winner of Lawrence in September 1961. Charles and Alice Matthews were no longer involved in their beloved creation.

The 1960s were a time of varying success, yet were relatively uneventful for the Christmas tree shop. It was only open during the summer and continued to not be open on Sundays. It was not seen as a hugely promising venture when it was bought by Charles Bilezekian of Newton in 1970. The 33-year-old Bilezekian, along with his wife Doreen, bought the Christmas tree shop and began by adding an s to shop, making it shops. But it was hardly the only change.

Bilizikian worked endlessly to take the business beyond its original location. Within a few years, new locations had opened in West Yarmouth and West Dennis. In November 1975, Bilizikian bought four railroad cars formerly owned by the bankrupt New Haven line and placed them on property he owned along the tracks near downtown Hyannis. This became the backbone of the new Christmas tree shop's location, part of Christmas Crossing, which opened in mid 1977. Bilizikian's hard work resulted in the purchase of another Cape Cod icon, the Cape Cod Colosseum, in May 1984.

It would be used to house the Christmas tree shop's executive offices and warehouse space. This was followed shortly thereafter by a new store at the foot of the Sagamore Bridge, complete with the world's largest thatched roof. This is probably their most well-known location on The Cape, and more stores followed throughout the 1980s, including the Christmas Tree Plaza on Route 132 as Christmas tree shops became a New England and Northeast staple for home decor, giftware, housewares, food, paper goods, and seasonal products. Charles and Doreen had overseen the enormous growth of the former seasonal gift shop into a regional powerhouse. It outgrew its original location and outgrew its warehouse in the former Cape Cod Colosseum.

Despite the success, they wanted to ensure its existence was safe for years to come. At the turn of the 21st century, they made a tough decision to sell. In June 2003, the entirety of Christmas Tree Shops, including all 23 stores in six states at the time, was purchased by Bed Bath and Beyond Incorporated for $200,000,000. It was a lucrative purchase for the company as in February 2002, Christmas Tree Shops net sales were more than $370,000,000. Charles and Doreen did stay on with the company, keeping some sense of symmetry.

As the 21st century went on, the Christmas tree shops business expanded far beyond the New England borders. In 2013, the franchise created the 'and that' branch of the stores for use in non regional markets. For places unfamiliar with the legacy of Christmas tree shops over the previous four decades like Wisconsin, Delaware, Michigan, Georgia, and Florida, it was a new take on an old staple. The company grew from a small corner lot on Willow Street and Route 6A, which today is the fresh picked gift shop, to more than 70 stores in 21 states. The original vision of Charles and Alice Matthews grew to the most well known gift shop on The Cape and then New England, thanks to Charles and Doreen Bilizikian.

For Cape Codders of several generations, though, the Christmas tree shop's legacy is far simpler, as it was always a place that had been a go to for what you needed at the price you wanted. And as sad as it is that the Christmas tree shops are likely going away very soon, probably by the time you even hear this podcast, There are so many memories over the generations, over the decades. For me at my age, and I don't know if it's the same for people out there, same age, similar age. The Christmas tree shops always remind me of my grandparents and shopping with them on weekends. The West Yarmoth location was within walking distance of my nana's house.

And although we didn't always walk there, it was an event to go there. And I can hear my nana's voice in my head marveling at what they had and the prices that it cost. It's funny, I can still see the aisles, smell the store, hear my nana's voice. And when you're a kid nine, 10 years old, you think all that stuff is permanent, that it's gonna be there forever. Sadly, the older you get, the more you realize that nothing is permanent.

And although it's sad, it makes you appreciate the memories more. The big Hyannis store was the one that my Nina would take me and my sister Kate to when we were little. We'd always rush to the toy section to be able to pick something out. And although typically the toys were kind of knockoff brands, it was still great to get something new to play with. I can still remember those drives in my Nina's Cadillac, going down Route 6 A through Yarmouth Port, passing the Tiger Lily Fields that she would always talk about being allergic to, coming through the back way into Hyannis, likely hitting up friendlies, and going to Christmas tree shop and picking out some kind of toy.

Nearly 40 years later, those memories are still imprinted in my brain. And that's kind of the legacy of Christmas tree shop, I think. I hope it was the same for those of you that got to go to the stores and that this segment of the podcast kinda brings back those memories for you. So goodbye to Christmas tree shops, and thank you for the memories. 

Road Trip: Bridgeport, CT
Nicknamed the Constitution State, the Nutmeg State, the Provision State, Connecticut is home to more than 3,600,000 people. And on this week's road trip, we are going to go to the city that has the most people in the state of Connecticut, that being Bridgeport. As of 2021, Bridgeport, Connecticut had a population of 148,333, making it even larger than the capital city of Hartford. It is located about 70 miles Northeast of New York City while also being about 120 miles Southwest of Providence, Rhode Island. Most places in New England are a manageable driving distance away from most other places. Obviously, there are exceptions to that rule.

For example, if you were living in Stamford, Connecticut and wanted to drive to Madawaska, Maine, you're looking at more than ten hours. But for me, from Cape Cod to get to Bridgeport, it's a little over two hours. It's not bad. Bridgeport is on the shores of the Pequenock River, and there are tons of things to see and do. What better place to start than the Beardsley Zoo?

You can visit them at 1875 Noble Avenue and also beardsleyzoo.org. And I would definitely recommend the website because it's got pictures of their animals. They have something for everyone. Alligators, tigers, leopards, bears, bison, monkeys. They've been in existence for more than a hundred years, and they're Connecticut's only zoo.

It's great for everyday, but you could also book birthdays, private events, and weddings. You imagine having a wedding at a zoo, monkeys and alligators running around your wedding event. It would be just perfect chaos. There'd be a rumble with all the animals that you could bet on. No.

It's that's not how it goes. It sounds like an idea you'd get after having a few drinks. And if that interests you, there's plenty of stuff to do like that in Bridgeport. You could go to Fifth State Distillery, which is located at 259 Asylum Street, and also FifthStateDistillery.com. There, they produce gin, vodka, whiskey, other specialized spirits.

Touring a distillery is always interesting. I've done that on Cape Cod at Devil's Purse in Dennis. They do tours. They do pickups where you can order and go get it. Rather than going to a liquor store, go right to the source.

They have won Connecticut Gin Distillery of the Year three years running, and former chemical engineer Rob Scholten is the head distiller. So they're highly reputable. I know not all of you that listen to the podcast are history lovers like me, but you might make an exception to go to the Barnum Museum. They are located at 820 Main Street and also barnum-museum.org. Now a heads up as currently at the recording of this podcast in August 2023, the museum is not open to the public as they're beginning a major reconstruction of the exterior.

But if you couldn't tell by the name, the building is a museum about legendary entertainer PT Barnum. The building that houses the museum is the last building that can be attributed to Barnum. And everyone knows his name with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, but before that, it was just PT Barnum Circus. The museum has more than 60,000 artifacts dedicated to PT Barnum, the town of Bridgeport in general, and the nineteenth century overall. You can go and visit their website and get a better idea of what's there, and then obviously, they'll give you a heads up when they're open again.

I just didn't wanna skip over this and then have people from Bridgeport or the surrounding area reach out and say that I missed the Barnum Museum. As you may or may not know, I am a huge lover of lighthouses. Bridgeport has two. There's Fairweather Island Light, also known as Black Rock Harbor Light based on the body of water it's near. It's a 40-foot-tall octagon wooden tower that was originally built in 1808.

There's parking at the end of Barnum Boulevard, and don't worry, Fair Island is not an island, and you can walk right out to it. There is also the oddly named Tongue Point Lighthouse. It's a 31 foot tall black cast iron lighthouse that's affectionately referred to as the bug. It's on the Western Shore of Bridgeport's Harbor, and it was originally opened in 1895. Bridgeport harbor is one of only three deep water harbors in Connecticut, And the only reason I could think of that this was called Tongue Point is just the way the land sticks out.

But I could see why they'd rather call the lighthouse the bug than Tongue Point Light. Perhaps the crown jewel of Bridgeport, Connecticut is Seaside Park. It's 325 acres. It borders the harbor. It borders Long Island Sound.

Frederick Law Olmstead was one of the men that helped layout the park, and his big contribution is Central Park in New York, with PT Barnum also being a big contributor as to why the park was created. It's located at 1 Barnum Dyke, but would be pretty easy to find with any GPS. It's highly recommended for swimming, for picnicking, just enjoying the outdoors. But if you need an actual reason to go to Seaside Park, maybe you could choose to go to the Sound on Sound Music Festival. It's Connecticut's biggest music festival.

This year, it's September 30 and October 1 of 2023. It's a weekend that includes Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trey Anastasio from Phish, John Mayer, Alanis Morissette. Go to soundonsoundct.com, and you'll see everything. The full lineup for both days, pictures of what it looks like to be there. If you're looking to go to Bridgeport to go to the Sound on Sound Music Festival, or make it more than just a day trip to go visit there, I would say to check with Airbnb or stay in areas around Bridgeport.

I didn't have a lot of luck finding hotels in the actual city, but that doesn't mean you can't go and stay nearby and drive into Bridgeport. Hell, you could even go drive there and then take the ferry all the way across to Port Jefferson on Long Island. It's actually closer to go from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Long Island than it is to go from Cape Cod to Nantucket, which is pretty wild. There are no shortage of great places to eat though in Bridgeport. I would recommend Ralph and Rich's at 815 Main Street or ralph and riches dot com.

They've been around for over thirty years, complete with an Italian continental menu, meaning things like lasagna, spaghetti, and different types of seafood, veal, chicken, pork, steak, filet mignon. They're open for lunch and dinner every day but Monday. And just go to their website and check out pictures of the food. That'll get you in there. As I always say though, don't take my word for it.

Take your car, go to Bridgeport, just kinda find your way around. You never know what you might find that I missed or just didn't have time to include. There's miles of beaches, who knows little secluded areas you could find along the beach, along the Pequinac River, or Cedar Creek. Go to either ctvisit.com and find Bridgeport or bridgeportct.gov to get a better idea of things that you can do and see and eat and where to stay. Maybe they have places I couldn't find.

It's the largest city in Connecticut, and it's got so many things to see and do. So take the time and go visit the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1 of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing places in New England. And I'll be back next week to share another one of those on next week's road trip. 

This Week In History
This week in history, we are going back 133 years, August 6, 1890, and a very pleasant topic as we talk about the first ever execution via the electric chair. It's all sunshine and rainbows this week on This Week in History as we look at a man named William Kemmler who became the very first person in the world to be executed by the electric chair.

The electric chair itself as a device was conceived in 1881 by a dentist named Alfred Southwick. It was refined and developed throughout the 1880s as a supposed humane alternative of execution to hanging. You can be the judge of what's more humane, dangling by a rope by your neck or just getting zapped until your head is fried. William Kemmler was a peddler by trade, you know, selling things on the street, specifically vegetables. He was living in the slums of Buffalo, New York with his common-law wife, Tilly Ziegler.

And after coming out of a drinking binge, he accused her of stealing from him and preparing to run away with a friend of his. The argument got really heated, and that's when Kemmler calmly went out to the barn, grabbed a hatchet, and came back to the house. He murdered Tilly with the hatchet, then he went next door to his neighbor's house and announced that he had murdered his wife. From the date of the murder, March 29, 1889, to his trial and conviction, it was a little over a year. He was convicted on May 10, 1890.

He was decided to be the first person executed under New York's new execution law that replaced hanging with electrocution. The leading developers of electrical power, including George Westinghouse, didn't wanna see their new product used to kill people. And as is the case with a lot of first tries at things, the actual execution did not go well. Kemmler had breakfast on the morning of August 6, 1890, dressed up, put on a suit and tie, had breakfast. The top of his head was shaved.

Witnesses at the time say Kemmler remained composed at his execution, didn't try to scream or cry or resist. After Kemmler was strapped to the chair, the generator was charged with 1,000 volt, which they thought would be adequate to induce quick unconsciousness and cardiac arrest. That was not the case. After seventeen seconds, they turned off the generator. They declared Kemmler dead, and then they realized he was still breathing and confirmed he was still alive.

This second time, they used 2,000 volts, which ended up basically cooking his skin under the cap that they put on to conduct the electricity. It took eight minutes for him to actually die. The New York Times the next day ran a headline that said far worse than hanging. And George Westinghouse later commented they would have done better using an ax. As of 2022, there have been more than 4,300 executions via the electric chair, but the very first one involving murderer William Kemmler occurred 133 ago this week in history.

And we will now make a very awkward segue as we jump into a brand new time capsule. We're gonna go back thirty years ago this week to 08/06/1993. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Can't Help Falling in Love by UB40. The song was originally recorded by Elvis Presley in 1961 for his album Blue Hawaii.

It's been covered untold amounts of times. The UB40 song went to number one and stayed there for seven weeks. It was part of the soundtrack to the movie Sliver, which starred Sharon Stone. It was UB40s fourth and last top 10 single. The only other one I could think of is Red Red Wine.

The number one movie was The Fugitive, and you could get in for a ticket costing on average $4.14. This is an unbelievable movie. One of my favorites ever, starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones. It's based around the TV show. In short, it's about Doctor Richard Kimball, who is wrongly accused of murdering his wife, and it's his journey trying to find the actual killer.

It's 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and made nearly $370,000,000 against the budget of 44,000,000. If you haven't seen this movie, pause this podcast and go watch it. The number one TV show was 20/20. This is ABC's award winning news program. It's been on since 1978, so forty five years.

It was meant to be kind of a rival to CBS's 60 minutes TV show. They had some legendary names like Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Sam Donaldson, Connie Chung, John Stossel, and more. I looked, but I could not find exactly what was on the show, August 6, 1993, so I don't know why it was number one. And if you're around back then, August 6, 1993, getting ready for back to school, or if you just like being outside and being active, you could get yourself a pair of Nike Air cross trainer sneakers for $49.99 at the Head and Foot Shop. For those long time Cape Codders, they know that the Head and Foot shop was on the main streets of Orleans, Chatham, and Provincetown.

I had to do that at least once. They were also in Hyannis and Dennisport. They existed roughly from 1970 to 1999 with those memorable radio ads that became an earworm to me when I was a kid in school. They were owned all through its existence by a man named Scott Barron. And the Head and Foot Shop serves as a perfect segue as we wrap up this week in history and wrap up the time capsule and jump into the top five, which are top five 1980s Cape Cod stores we miss. Is the Head and Foot Shop on that list? Well, let's find out right now. 

Top 5 1980s Cape Cod Stores We Miss 
Oh, this top five is gonna bring back a lot of great memories for long time Cape Codders. For those of you that listen to the podcast that are not from Cape Cod or New England, you will probably not get any of these references. But for those of you that do, that lived on Cape Cod, grew up on Cape Cod in the 1980s, we're gonna look back at some Cape Cod stores that we miss.

I came up with so many on my own and I also reached out on social media and I had a lot of friends share some with me that helped to influence the actual top five. But then the other names they gave, they ended up getting stuck in the honorable mentions. So you may disagree with my top five or have places I forgot. And although I can't spend forever on these, if there are any you want me to do deeper dives into, let me know. But when it comes to honorable mentions, you're in luck because two of them have already been covered at length on the podcast in the past.

So honorable mentions for Cape Cod businesses of the 1980s that we miss include Bradlee's, which if you go back to episode four, I did a whole long segment on it. Benny's, which if you go back to episode 27, I did a whole long segment on. But then there was also Dwyer's books from Hyannis, which my uncle John worked at, which is how I remember it. The Christie's convenience stores, which when I was a kid, they rivaled Cumberland Farms and seven eleven as far as exposure on Cape Cod. Bon Repose, which was a furniture store, Gotts Music in Yarmouth, which was naturally a music store, Colonial Candle of Cape Cod, which still exists but not on Cape Cod, which is weird, Robert's one-hour cleaner, which had a few locations on Cape Cod and was run by my great uncle Roland, which is how I remember that place.

And, of course, the head and foot shop that you just heard me talk about in the time capsule. That is a lot of names right there. Do you remember any or all of them? Well, get ready because we're gonna jump into the actual top five right now. Starting with number one, Cotton Pickin' Tees.

They were in existence roughly from 1974 to 1992 in Hyannis, a t shirt shop on the corner of Route 28 and Willow Street. They were in a brick building that would later be occupied by CAM Appliance. This company may end up getting a deeper dive by me because in doing the research for this segment, I forgot how big they were. They were making upwards of a million t-shirts a year and did shirts for the nineteen eighty Olympics. They were owned by a man named Paul Kudrowskis and were a giant of Cape Cod business when they were around.

Number two is Butner's Department Store. They had three locations on Cape Cod in Hyannis on Main Street, Harwich, and Sandwich. I have very few memories of Butners, which is weird because they existed for a long time. They were open roughly from 1923 to 1992. They ended up also having locations on Nantucket Island and a big one in Plymouth.

People that shopped at Butners said it was kind of like having a small JCPenney that was local. To give you another 80s reference, the company was started by a man named Edward Augustus Butner. And I guess for those of the younger generation that are from Cape Cod, it would be kind of like Puritan clothing. And they're still around too, so they kinda started at the same time as Butner's. Number three is a more recent one, Dick and Ellie's Flea Market.

This was in operation from about 1976 to 2015. They started right near the rotary in Mashpee, and actually, Dick and Ellie Weisel had a mini golf course driving range, and the flea market was kinda part of that. In the early 2000s, they moved to this plot of open land near Patriot Square in Dennis, and it was a flea market, a giant flea market, open typically weekends in the summer, but it was huge. If you go by Theopolis Smith Road, it's behind Cumberland Farms next to the Cape Cod Rail Trail parking lot. It's a monstrous open area that's kind of overgrown now.

That was where Dick and Ellie's was. Interest in flea markets kinda waned in the 2010s, which is why they ended up closing. Number four is closed quarters. They were open roughly from 1976 to 1991. They had five locations on Cape Cod, Hyannis, West Harwich, Orleans, West Yarmouth, and Falmouth.

The company was owned by a man named James Shanley. They were referred to as an off-price clothing store. I would guess kind of akin to Marshalls or TJ Maxx. I will try to find logos or pictures of these places to share on social media if that interests any of you. One thing I noticed with these places I chose is the timing of their demise, and I'll tie it all together after we give you one last place, and that's number five, Robinson's 5 and 10.

A five and ten was a five and ten cent store where theoretically everything would be priced for a nickel or a dime. Robinson's was open from roughly 1957 to 1995. At their peak, they had six locations on Cape Cod in Southeastern Mass, Orleans, Harwichport, Middleborough, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and South Yarmouth. The South Yarmouth One is the one I remember. It was located in the plaza on Route 28 where Ocean State Job Lot is now.

It was a little bit down from where Job Lot would be because Job Lot used to be Angelo's. But, again, the five and ten cent store, that was a relic of the past. So it was only natural that that would be phased out. One thing I noticed and something that I may have to do a segment on in a future podcast is the timing of the demise of a lot of Cape Cod legendary businesses. If you notice just in this top five, four of the five places went out of business in the early 1990s, and that was also the case for a lot of restaurants, nightclubs, and bars and such. So it was sort of a changing of the guard. But there you have it. Top five 1980s Cape Cod stores that we missed. Do you remember these? Do you miss these?

Cotton Pickin Tees, Butner's Department Store, Dick and Ellie's Flea Market, Clothes Quarters, and Robinson's five and ten. Like I said, if you want any deep dives into these, let me know. Cotton Pick n Tees might get one. But I'll be back next week with a brand new top five, likely about things that appeal to a wider variety of my listeners rather than just us that grew up on Cape Cod in the 1980s. 

1993 The Year In Music
When I come up with these back in the day segments, they can be a double-edged sword. Because on one hand, I love nostalgia. I love reminiscing about things from my life, from the "old days." But on the other side, there are times when I realize just how much time has passed, where events I talk about don't seem like they could be that long ago, but there's no denying how the hands of time move. And that's how it's gonna be this week as we go back thirty years ago and look at 1993, the year in music, as we go way, way back in the day. If you ask me what was thirty years ago, I'd say it was sometime in the 80s.

But, oh, no. Time keeps drifting away. I'm going to do my best to do kind of a comprehensive overview of 1993. There'll be a lot of familiar things for those of you that grew up during that time. But, obviously, in one segment of the podcast, I'm gonna have to gloss over a lot of stuff.

So you can always pause this, go do some searching on YouTube for some music or iTunes. The first thing I think of when I think of 1993 is it being the final full year of the grunge movement. Way back in episode 15, I talked about the day grunge music died. That was with the death of Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. It didn't immediately die, but it trended downhill very quickly after that, after he died in April 1994.

So for all intents and purposes, 1993 was the last full year of those glory days, which were pretty short. You had Nirvana releasing their in utero album, which saw a little bit of a change from the Nevermind album, and it makes me sad kind of a what could have been if they had stayed together, what their music would have sounded like into the late 90s, early 2000s. But you also had Pearl Jam's Versus album, which again saw them changing a little bit evolving from their 10 album. Then there was the Jar of Flies EP by Alice in Chains, Siamese Dream from the Smashing Pumpkins. All these albums are thirty years old now.

Those four albums I just spoke of, they dominated my mix tapes that I would make. But there are a lot more great albums from legendary bands and artists. Radiohead made their debut with Pablo Honey. That was when people thought they were the next U2, and they kinda went in a different direction. There was also the debut album from Counting Crows, which is a massive hit.

I think of them as a little bit more alternative than pop rock, at least that first album was. You had the Cranberries making their debut with their album. Everyone else is doing it, so why can't we that had that massive hit song linger. Janet Jackson had a huge album just called Janet. It's interesting because all of those artists that I just named with the new albums were already established or became established in 1993, but some bands formed that year that ended up getting famous in the in the later 90s.

Bands like Garbage, Korn, Third Eye Blind, Wilco, and Daft Punk, who they got famous more in the early 2000s and then way later in the 2010s. They all were formed in 1993. And a couple of iconic bands ended in 1993, those being New Order, who had the big hit song Blue Monday in addition to others, and the Pixies who had songs like Where is My Mind. If you really wanna get a slice of what 1993 was all about in music, I guess, mainstream or pop culture, you could look at some of the one hit wonders. What I did was make a top 10, and obviously, I will kind of fly through these.

But you can go on to Spotify and kinda make yourself a top ten one hit wonders of '93 list if you want based on these. Do you remember Insane in the Brain by Cypress Hill? Informer by Snow? What about Cantaloupe by Us3? Come, Baby, Come by K7?

Hey, Mister DJ by Zhane. I learned how to pronounce that right because I had a sister who listened to it. I'm gonna be 500 miles by The Proclaimers, which that song's chorus just graded on my nerves for years. Not as bad now as I've gotten older, but, Into Your Arms by The Lemonheads, More and More by The Captain Hollywood Project. It's a very dance hall electronic song.

Rebirth of Slick, also known as Cool Like That by Digable Planets, and What's Up by For Non Blondes. There are a lot of other one hit wonder songs from '93. I kinda picked the ones that spoke to me the most as far as the time, reminding me of school dances. This was my freshman year of high school. For all those new artists and the one hit wonders and the big hit albums, some legends left us in 1993, three, including legendary trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, Conway Twitty, Frank Zappa, and Mia Zapata, who you may not have heard of.

I'll try to sum it up. She was the lead singer for a Seattle based grunge band called The Gits. She was murdered in the early morning hours of July 7, 1993, walking home to her apartment from the Comet Tavern in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. It took ten years for the murder to be solved. Zapata's friends created this home defense group called Home Alive.

They organized benefit concerts, put together albums. That's how I got familiar with me as a PATA was when I bought the Home Alive, the art of self defense album that came out in February 1996. And it had a lot of songs from a lot of Seattle based artists, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Heart. But there were a lot of other really big news stories and events in music in 1993. 1993 was the year of The Bodyguard soundtrack, the movie Whitney Houston starred in.

The movie and album came out in late November 1992, but '93 was when it really hit big. It became the best selling soundtrack of all time. The best selling female single of all time was I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston's cover of the Dolly Parton song. The soundtrack was number one for twenty nonconsecutive weeks. If you weren't around back then, you have no idea how big that movie and soundtrack was.

The big winner at the 1993 Grammy Awards was Eric Clapton, who won six awards out of the nine he was nominated for. He even performed his hit song Tears in Heaven, which was for his young son who had died a few years earlier. His Unplugged album is unreal. It's where you really see his talent as a guitarist. Other winners that year included Katie Lang for female pop performance for Constant Craving, Boyz II Men for R&B performance by a group or duo for End of the Road.

Oh, and Sir Mix a Lot won a Grammy for Baby Got Back. Yay, 90s. 1993 was also the year that Prince became the symbol, the love symbol. He did so on his 35th birthday, and this was because of a dispute with his record label. This also marked the beginning of a period where Prince definitely strayed away from the music that got him famous.

He got more into jazz and such. If you're interested in Prince's time away from being a pop megastar, I definitely recommend his Rainbow Children album from February 2001. Just don't go into it expecting little red Corvette or anything. Two things that were of importance to me in 1993 that I didn't know until after the fact, One was the Nirvana Unplugged in New York show from October that would prove to kind of be the swan song for the band. Sure, they toured a little more and eventually released You Know You're Right, the song that came out in February 2002 that they had recorded in January 1994.

But the whole funeral getup and vibe for the set of the show was very prophetic. And the way that so much of the music was not their own hit songs. It was more of a who's who of people that influenced the band. It was like it was tying a bow on their career, but we didn't know it at the time. And then on July 17, 1993, Guns N' Roses played their last show with their most famous lineup for 23 years.

I was a huge GNR fan. But when you're a kid, you don't know as much about what's going on behind the scenes with bands. And 1994 was meant to be the first year that I went to any concerts. I wanted to go to Lollapalooza. Nirvana was supposed to be the headliner.

If Guns N' Roses had toured, maybe I would have gone. I guess I should have known Guns N' Roses was winding down at least with that lineup when most of their last songs they released for the last few years were covers of other bands. They became a glorified cover band. Perhaps the most famous story to come out of 1993 was the Michael Jackson child molestation case. Boy, that was a shocker.

I mean, he was always weird and eccentric, I guess, but I never saw him as anything dangerous. No pun intended on his album. He eventually settled with his accuser early the next year, and the case was eventually dropped because they're basically, the lead witness didn't wanna cooperate anymore. But despite that, public opinion changed. That was where his Michael Jackson's strange private life kinda began to outweigh his musical talent because I don't think anyone ever denied that he was one of the greatest artists of all time, but all his backstage behind the scenes private life drama just began to outweigh it all.

And we'll wrap up our look at 1993 with a look towards the future. This was the time before most people had Internet. I didn't have Internet. But on September 20, 1993, British alt band Depeche Mode hosted an AOL chat where they would get to interact with their fans. Needless to say, in the infancy of Internet, it did not go well.

It was marred by connection problems, which included the band not even being able to sign in. It was a disaster, but it was a sign of better things to come. And that wraps up the look at 1993, the year in music. I tried to get through as much as I could to bring back as many good memories to you. If you enjoyed this kind of year in review, I could do more of these for back in the day segments for music, for entertainment, such. I don't really wanna do news and politics stuff because I prefer fun pop culture stuff. So let me know if you enjoyed it. And I'll be back next week, and we'll go back in the day again. 

Closing
Well, that's gonna do it. That will wrap up episode 107 of the In My Footsteps podcast. I hope you long time Cape Codders enjoyed it. I hope that all of you that live all across New England, all across The United States and over across the ocean, I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you all so much for tuning in, sharing the podcast. You can always think about supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee, becoming a subscriber when that becomes available. And obviously, I'll have way more info when it's actually something that's happening.

If you can't get enough of me, I'm all over social media, Instagram, threads, Twitter, YouTube. There's a Facebook fan page. I'm thinking about doing a Facebook group for the podcast, gauging interest if anyone wants to do that. I don't wanna create a group and then have it just sit and collect cobwebs. If you ever have questions, comments, anything, you can always email me, christophersettlerlund@gmail.com.

I have seemingly unlimited topics that I'm going to share on the podcast that could go for years. But if you ever have anything you wanna hear about, you can always send me a suggestion or questions so I can do a q&a at some point. I keep saying that. The podcast will keep going though next week. We'll be back for episode 108. This is gonna be a very special episode for me. A lot to do with someone that you hear me mention on this podcast almost every week. My oldest friend, Barry Menard, as we get close to his birthday, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my friend, why I talk about him a lot, why he's still such an important part of my life more than thirty-five years after I first met him. We're gonna take a road trip to the small town of Scituate, Rhode Island. We're gonna go way back in the day and look at the very first X Games, which were held at Fort Adams in Newport, Rhode Island in 1995.

There's gonna be a brand new top five that are the top five weirdest Rhode Island laws. This made me laugh so much putting this together that I may have to start looking at more stuff like this for future podcast segments. And as always, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule coming up next week on episode 108 of the In My Footsteps podcast. In most places in the country, it's hot, it's humid. It's great to be outside, but it can be a bit overwhelming.

So remember to take it easy, stay as cool as you can. If you can be in the AC, put on the podcast, sit back and relax, take care of yourself, take care of your mental health, do what makes you happy. If it's not hurting anyone, then definitely do it. Lean into those things that make you happy. Hopefully, this podcast is one of those things, which I definitely appreciate if it is.

But mental health is so important. Look out for yourself because most people are gonna look out for themselves first. So, you know, be a part of that. If you need a distraction besides this podcast, I've got nine books, three of which that have come out this year. Keep your eyes open on August, 1 PM at the Osterville Village Library.

I'll be there doing a presentation on searching for the Lady of the Dunes, my true crime book. The presentation will also be live via Zoom on YouTube, which is awesome. The library is putting that together. So even if you can't be there, you can be there to watch it live. And you can find all my books, ChristopherSetterlund.com, my homepage website, Amazon.

And again, thank you all so much for tuning in, for giving me a little bit of your time. I know time is precious. So you spending some of that with me really makes me feel good, keeps me going with the podcast. Remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path.

Leave the biggest footprint you can because you never know what tomorrow brings. Your life is a movie. Your life is a book. Make it something that other people will want to watch or want to read. Thank you all for tuning in to episode 107 of the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, and I will talk to you all again soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Christopher Setterlund

Host