In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 108: My Friend Barry; The First X-Games; Weird Rhode Island Laws; Scituate, RI(8-16-2023)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 108

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Episode 108 is very Rhode Island-centric as we celebrate the smallest state in the country.
It begins with a bit of pulling back the curtain. I spoke at length in Episode 30 about my friend Matt who tragically passed away in 2017. In that episode, I mentioned making two lifelong friends at virtually the same time. One was Matt and the other was Barry. This week I will share some of what makes my friend Barry one of the most important people to ever grace my life.
There are hundreds and hundreds of beautiful cities and towns in the six New England states. Some are well-known and well-traveled, while others are more nondescript.  The latter are some of the best ones to visit as they exemplify what New England is all about. This week's Road Trip will do just that as we travel to the small town of Scituate, Rhode Island.
The X-Games are a well-known extreme sports competition event taking place in both the summer and winter. Over the last quarter-century, they have shone a light on skateboarding, snowboarding, mountain biking, cycle racing, and much more. For as world-renowned as these games are today did you know they got their start right here in New England? This week we go Back In the Day to the very first X-Games that took place in Rhode Island in 1995.
There is going to be a brand new Top 5 that showcases some of the weird and wacky laws on the books in Rhode Island. You will have to hear them to believe them!
Of course, there will be a new This Week In History and Time Capsule as well centered around the first successful transatlantic balloon flight.
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Speaker 00:

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 108. This week is going to be a very fun, very Rhode Island-centric show. We're going to start it off with one of my favorite things about Rhode Island. As I pull back the curtain and tell you a little bit about my oldest friend Barry, we're going to take a road trip to the small town of Scituate, Rhode Island. We're going to go way, way back in the day and look at the first ever X Games that were held in Newport, Rhode Island in 1995. There's going to be a brand new top five that are the top five weirdest Rhode Island laws. You're going to love this segment. And of course, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 108 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Well, it might be the countdown to back to school, but summer's still got a month or so left. I hope you're all out there getting to enjoy the weather, because we know soon enough it'll be December, January, and snow. Thank you all for tuning into the podcast. I've received a lot of positive feedback on my new logo that I put up starting the month of August. For those of you that really enjoy the logo, I've revamped my merch for the podcast. for sale through my Zazzle store. I've linked to it in the description of the podcast if you're interested. Thus far, it's keychains, bumper stickers. I don't know what else. Would people like t-shirts or tote bags or something? Let me know about that. As I've been saying for the last few weeks, I'm going to be doing subscriptions for the podcast starting in September. These will be run through Buzzsprout, my hosting platform, probably through Buy Me a Coffee. I don't know if I'm going to switch to Patreon. I'm still deciding on that. But for those that have not heard me mention it, it will include extra bonus content and maybe some of that merch, maybe digital content. It's all new to me, so it'll be kind of a learning curve as we get into September, October. At the time this podcast goes live, we'll be two days out from my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book event debut on August 18th at the Osterville Village Library. By this point, I will have likely shared the YouTube video link, the Zoom link, so that you can watch live if you can't be there. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm really excited for the presentation for the book. I put a lot of work, as you know, into the book, into the presentation. And just a heads up for people that are interested in coming out to any of my events, the next one after the Osterville Library one will be Tuesday, September 5th at 6 p.m. at the Sturgis Library in Barnstable Village. There, I will be speaking about the second version of the In My Footsteps Cape Cod Travel Guide, along with Cape Cod Beyond the Dunes, my photography book, kind of a two-for-one. Travel and photography go hand-in-hand, so why not make them into one cool presentation? And I'll be sharing more about these upcoming events as they get closer. And if you're interested, you can always go and buy your own copies of the book, theladyofthedoons.com website or amazon.com. There aren't too many people with my last name. I'm easy to find. And you can always visit my homepage, christophersetterland.com, created and updated by my oldest friend, Barry Menard. And speaking of Barry, his birthday is coming up at the end of the month. And you hear me speak about him a lot on the podcast when it concerns my website. But I wanted to pull back the curtain a little and do a deep dive and tell you a lot more about my friend Barry. Coming up right now on episode 108 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Way back in episode 30 of the podcast... I did a full bonus episode where I spoke at length about one of my oldest friends, Matt Medeiros. I told stories about how we met growing up together and reconnecting as adults. I also told the story of what it was like finding out that he had suddenly died. I mentioned on that podcast that feeling of regret of not having one last conversation, no matter how mundane it might have been. I was happy to have shared so many great memories of Matt, but very sad that he wasn't around to hear it. In that same episode, I spoke about how I had two friends that I met at virtually the same time as a young boy. Matt was one, the other was Barry. You've heard me speak about him in most episodes of the podcast when I refer to my website, ChristopherSatterlund.com. that he is the one who created it, who updates it, who has this talent for graphic design and other things that I wish I had. Well, his birthday is coming up at the end of this month, at the end of August, and I wanted to share a little about my friend Barry and why he's been one of the greatest positive influences on my life and myself as a person. Most of these specific stories and such will not relate to you unless you know Barry. but i hope that all of you out there have a friend like barry who made such a positive impact on you will we get a little sentimental likely will we get a little embarrassing oh yeah but it's so important to make sure that all of this is shared now rather than it being too late like it was with matt so let me tell you about my friend barry I first met Barry when I was about seven years old. That's a long time ago. His family lived in the same complex as a woman I lovingly referred to as my aunt despite us not being related by blood. Her name was Esther and she had been as close as blood to my family since long before I was born. I would visit her house and one day I must have just seen Barry outside of his family's house and things went from there. I can remember going to see Esther and being over there for two or three minutes and just saying, okay, I'm going to find Barry and hang out with him. It was basically like one day I had this new friend and that was now way over 35 years ago. It's amazing how some friends, you can't even remember how you found each other. And then it's one day you can't imagine what life would have been if you hadn't found each other. I usually had a small clique of friends growing up and even through high school. Some would cycle in and out, but Barry was always constant. He has always been one who was almost the straight man to the craziness I would bring. It was double that at the times when John, who was another one of my closest friends ever that I feel is like my brother, it would be double when he was involved. John and I would work extra hard to out-crazy each other, while Barry would probably sit there and think to himself, how the hell did I end up being between these two idiots? The thing was, and still is, that Barry was the center for us. He was like a strong, silent type, basically picking the perfect time to speak, unless he was egging us on to get crazier. I can only speak for myself, but he was a very calming presence, almost like Cesar Millan, knowing when to rein in wild dogs. I joke about it a little, but it became much more valuable of a trait as we all grew up. I can remember for me personally, so many times that Barry was the one to pull me back from the ledge just by being who he is. During bad breakups, bouts of depression, deaths of loved ones, these moments where life felt like it was crumbling around me, Barry was there. There would be times, especially during and after college ended, where we would go quite a while without seeing each other. Then he would come home for college, or I'd go to visit him at school or later when he lived in Providence, and it would be like time had stood still. Five minutes in, it's like we were all caught up. After that would come one of my favorite memories of life. I don't know how to sum this up without leaning heavy into the craziness. It usually happened when we'd go out to eat somewhere. We'd be chatting about random stuff, and one of us would hit on something stupidly funny, and we'd just keep going down that road until we were both gasping for air and in tears laughing. I wish we had a tape recorder for those times. Hey, Barry, remember the old country buffet story? It had to do with their OCB mascot and who was actually under the big head. I don't want to share too many insider secrets about those old days, though. There's 65 hours of old videos from the high school days when I wanted to be a movie director. There are some classic skits we did, some music videos we created. Many of those hours are filled with seemingly mundane, random times, sitting at Bass Hole, also known as Gray's Beach in Yarmouth Port, sitting there with John laughing about the most random things. Now in my 40s, those are the things I gravitate toward the most with those 65 hours of videos. I don't care about the music videos. I'd rather watch and listen to our old conversations at Bass. Now's the part when we start to bring in the emotions. When I think of Barry, the first word that comes to mind is genuine. He's a true, real, genuine human being. He is a gentle soul. but he sticks to his values and beliefs. It is both admirable and difficult to do, but he pulls it off. And you've heard me mention many times on the podcast, Barry has talents I could only dream of. I could speak of music or graphic design, but I am speaking now of things far more important. I am speaking of being a great husband and a great father, but I am far from surprised that he has those talents. Like I said, he basically had to act as a father and an adult wrangling in John and I so many times that it was like getting a preview of what it was like to be a father. Barry has this way of making you feel like you're important and your feelings and opinions matter. That was what has always made it easy to pull back the curtain and... and talk with him about some of my worst moments in my life. I know that he won't judge, and I know that he will always have my back, even if I'm at fault for the mistakes. And that's a true friend. It's been an honor and a privilege to call Barry my friend for so long. And like I said at the top of this segment, I hope that any of you listening has a friend that means to you what he has meant to me. And I've tried my best to not make this too long or too embarrassing or too random. But it's tough when you're trying to sum up more than 35 years of knowing someone. I'm glossing over a lot of specific examples of some of the things that I've mentioned before. And that's probably for the best. Sharing funny and random stories about myself is all well and good on the podcast. I try my best not to embarrass others. But let me start to sum this up. by wishing Barry an early happy birthday. I would say I love you like a brother, but you are a brother. You have meant more to me and more to my life than you ever could possibly imagine. And sure, maybe we would have met if I hadn't gone and visited my Aunt Esther, but I guess I owe her so much because she was kind of the conduit that brought us into each other's lives. Thank you for being there when I needed it most. Thank you for being who you are. If there were more people like you, more people like Barry in this world, it would be such a better place. I tried my best to get through that without getting too sappy. But like I said, hopefully all of you listening have someone like Barry that has been such a positive presence in your life. Even if you can't relate specifically to him, to my stories that I just told, if you have someone like him that fills all of those important roles in your life, then you know what I mean. So there you go. That was a little bit about my friend Barry. I always end the road trip segments talking about there being hundreds and hundreds of beautiful cities and towns in New England. Many of these towns are very nondescript, unassuming, where you might pass right on through them going somewhere else and not pay them a second glance. And these towns and cities, they have hundreds, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people living there. And I like these road trip segments because I share what makes each and every one of those places special and why you should go visit them. This week's road trip is one such example of a nondescript town that is worth stopping off at as we look at the small town of Scituate, Rhode Island. The town of Scituate is a part of the larger Providence County. It sits about 15 miles west of the center of Providence. It also is less than 70 miles southwest of Boston and about 70 miles east of Hartford, Connecticut. When you drive through it, there are plenty of places where it is a classic rural countryside type town. Winding roads that are heavily shaded by trees, stretches of wide open land, farmland. and beautiful homes pushed way back from the road, almost obscuring them from sight as you drive by, giving it a look like there's areas where you think that there's nobody living there. But in reality, the town of Scituate has a population as of 2020 of 10,385. So there are literally thousands of people that call Scituate home. The town of Scituate was first settled in 1710, And for those of you that are curious, yes, Scituate, Rhode Island was settled by people that came south from Scituate, Massachusetts. So yes, they are related. I would say the first place to check out if you are visiting Scituate is the Barden Family Orchard. They're at 56 Elmdale Road and bardenfamilyorchard.com. They've been in business since 1931. an orchard, a farm. You can pick your own fruit. They have apple cider donuts. And think about it. In a little over a month from now, it'll be fall. It'll be harvesting, apple picking time. The picking season generally goes from September 1st through the first hard freeze of November. And what could be more fun for a family than picking your own apples and just enjoying the farm and the animals and the wide open space? Another spot to visit if you're into the outdoors and nature is Pontagansett Falls. It's a part of the Barden Reservoir, and it's located in the neighboring village of Clayville on Hemlock Road. With GPS, this would be easy to find anyway, but luckily for you, it's a falls that's right by the road. You can't miss it. You don't even have to hike out to it. The water heads from the Barden Reservoir to the larger Scituate Reservoir. And waterfalls are excellent anyway, just soothing with the sound of the water. This falls is slightly curved. It gives you unique angles for photos. And the water flow levels and the views, they change with the season. So it's a reason to go back and take photos all through the year. And like I said, it's right by the road. Typically to find waterfalls, you've got to hike deep in the woods. This one, you can just drive up to it and see it. And as I said, the waterfall brings the water to the larger situate reservoir. It's a Y-shaped reservoir that is nearly six miles long and can hold up to 37 billion gallons of water. There's a beautiful view of it at the southern end along Route 12. There's also a causeway that takes you right through the middle on Route 14. And there are areas to turn off before and right after the causeway if you want to get pictures. I can only assume sunrise and sunset times give some amazing colors and views with the water. One interesting spot that you may or may not notice when driving around Scituate is the Grover C. Walker Memorial. There's a plaque for Walker who was a World War I veteran. It's known as Walker Square, but it's also known locally as Crazy Corners. And this is because three roads meet at a point. Route 102, Route 14, and Rockland Road. Walker died in France during World War I, so it's understandable that he'd have a monument dedicated to him. What else is interesting at Crazy Corners is these stone foundations. It looks like there's an old stone chimney there. I don't know if it's remnants of a picnic area. Or if there was a home there that never got torn down. It's interesting. I'm into that type of stuff. If any of you out there are from Scituate or from the area that know what these stone remnants are at crazy corners at the Walker Memorial, let me know. Being that Scituate is a small town, I had a hard time finding any hotels to stay at. You'd have a better time checking Airbnb for local people that are renting out apartments, houses, rooms. Or as I said, it's only 15 miles from Providence if you want to stay in the city instead. Despite kind of a lack of places to stay hotel-wise, there are a lot of places to eat. You could check out Cindy's Diner. They're at 46 Hartford Avenue. They have a Facebook page, Cindy's Diner and Restaurant. It's a 50-style diner with all the diner classics you could want. omelets, eggs, French toast, pancakes. You know what I'm talking about. And of course, they serve lunch and dinner with beef, seafood, chicken, all that stuff you could want. So go and check them out if you want a classic diner. You can also check out the Corner Bistro. They're at 1115 Hartford Pike. They also have a Facebook page, Corner Bistro Situate. They're an Italian restaurant, so all the Italian classics you could want. All the parmesans and saltimbocas you could ask for. Classic pastas, bolognese, lasagna. So give them a visit as well. For more information about Situate, visit situateri.gov. They'll give you so much more that you need to know what to see, what to do, maybe even where to stay. Also check out visit rhodeisland.com, the state's travel and tourism site. As I always say with these road trips, there's only so much I can give you in a single segment. It's best for you to go there on your own, take a drive around, explore. For me, when I do any sort of road trips in my car, although I have places on my itinerary, the most fun I have is finding places off the beaten path, things I wasn't expecting to see. So enjoy a trip to situate Rhode Island, farms, waterfalls, winding country roads shaded by trees. A perfect encapsulation of small-town life so close to the city of Providence. And I'll be back next time with another road trip featuring one of the hundreds and hundreds of beautiful cities and towns that New England has to offer. This week in history, we are going back 45 years to August 17th, 1978 and the completion of the first ever transatlantic balloon flight. There are so few achievements left in this world as far as travel goes that taking a balloon across the Atlantic Ocean was something that people were attempting a lot. The name of the balloon was the Double Eagle II. with the crew of Ben Abruzzo, Maxi Anderson, and Larry Newman. The helium-powered balloon was called Double Eagle II because there was a double eagle. This was piloted by Abruzzo and Anderson and was a failed attempt. It had been launched from Marshfield, Massachusetts, but was blown off course due to stormy weather, and the crew had to ditch it three miles off the coast of Iceland after 65 hours in the air. The flight of the Double Eagle II was the 14th known attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean via a helium-powered balloon. The first recorded attempt was in 1873, and the crew only made it 45 miles. I couldn't find where they were launched from. I just know it was somewhere in North America. Double Eagle II launched on the 11th of August, 1978, taking off from Presque Isle, Maine. They traveled across the Atlantic Ocean at an average speed of 22 miles an hour, with their highest altitude being nearly 25,000 feet. They landed at 7.49 p.m. local time on August 17th after traveling a total of 3,099 miles. The total flight time was 137 hours and 6 minutes, which I couldn't imagine being up in a balloon for that long and that high. They landed in a village named Misery near Paris, France, in a barley field along a highway. Sadly, it could have been a much more monumental landing, as French authorities had closed Le Bourget airfield where Charles Lindbergh had landed, but the crew of Double Eagle 2 told them they were running out of ballast and they wouldn't make it, so they had to kind of ditch wherever the balloon wanted to land. Unfortunately, most of the logs and charts from the trip were stolen by souvenir hunters after the balloon landed. But it was a big achievement at the time. It's fully covered in the December 1978 issue of National Geographic magazine. And it was a success because some of those previous 14 attempts at balloon flight across the Atlantic, the people were never found. So it was very dangerous. In January 2015... The Two Eagles balloon completed a flight across the Pacific Ocean. They were in the air for 160 hours and 34 minutes, breaking the record of Double Eagle II for time aloft. The balloon launched from Japan and landed near Baja, Mexico. But despite that, the very first transatlantic flight of a balloon that set the record for time aloft took place 45 years ago this week in history. Now it's time for a brand new time capsule. Let's look at what was going on in the world of pop culture while the Double Eagle 2 was in flight across the Atlantic Ocean as we look at the week of August 17th, 1978. The number one song was Three Times a Lady by the Commodores. This was off of the R&B group's album Natural High. For those unfamiliar, the Commodores were the band that Lionel Richie fronted before he became famous as a solo artist. The song spent two weeks at number one and was inspired by a toast that Lionel Richie's father made to his mother at their 37th wedding anniversary party. The Commodores would hit number one again with their song Still, and they had other huge smash hits with Brick House, Lady, Easy, and Sail On. The number one movie was Grease, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $2.34. Even if you've never seen this movie, you know this movie. It starred John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, and it's a musical set around a group of high school students in the 1950s. It has a legendary soundtrack. It's 77% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and made just over $366 million at the box office on a budget of $6 million, which when adjusted for inflation to 2023 brings its box office total to just over $1.7 billion. So yeah, it was a big deal. The number one TV show was a movie called Joe Kidd. It's a 1972 movie starring Clint Eastwood as an ex-bounty hunter. It's a Western, and it's 80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's got to be good. I have to laugh because sometimes when I do these time capsules, I end up with a TV show like this that's a movie where the surrounding weeks, it's famous TV shows that were number one, and I'd rather speak about them. But I have to keep it pure. I can't cheat the system and have the song and movie be from the same week, but then the TV shows from a different week. Most of you wouldn't know, but I would know. And if you were around back then, 45 years ago, August 17th, 1978, and you were into this new technology for music called audio cassette tapes... You could get yourself a portable cassette player slash recorder from Radio Shack for the cool price of $179.95. When adjusted for inflation, that's $842. But have no fear. You could add an adapter for your car or boat for an extra $895. So you could plug your cassette player into your boat. And when you look at this cassette player, it looks like something you'd get for $10 at Kmart in the early 2000s. But back in 1978, this technology was hot, so you're paying the equivalent of over $800 for it. So good luck. And that'll wrap up another time capsule, another This Week in History. Now prepare to laugh, shake your head, as we have a brand new top five coming up here. The top five weirdest Rhode Island laws. All I could picture was Jim Carrey's character and me, myself, and Irene pulling someone over and writing them a ticket for one of these violations. So let's dive into that crazy list right now. Oh man, needless to say, as we continue on this very Rhode Island-centric episode of the podcast, I feel I accidentally stumbled upon a winner as far as top fives go, as we're going to spend this week looking at some of the craziest, weirdest Rhode Island laws that are actually in the books. A brief backstory, I was first looking for weird facts about the state of Rhode Island and And all of the weird facts ended up being laws that I couldn't believe. So that's how this top five came about. And I enjoyed this one so much that I plan on doing all six New England states in succession. So if you like weird, crazy laws, get ready because they're going to be coming up for the next six episodes, including this one. The hardest thing here was narrowing down what was an honorable mention and what was the actual top five. And we'll give you a little bit of a taste here as I do the honorable mentions first. So, honorable mentions for the weirdest Rhode Island laws. Well, first of all, if you have kids, don't get them cap guns because cap guns are illegal in Rhode Island. Other honorable mentions include the fact that it is illegal to coast downhill in neutral in your car in the town of Scituate, where we went on a road trip a little while ago. The law says it is illegal to drive with beer in your car, period. Open, closed, if you have it, it's illegal. In the city of Providence, it is illegal to wear see-through clothing. And lastly, it is illegal to keep more than 11 inoperable vehicles in front of your house. So you can have 10 cars that don't work in your front yard and that's fine. But those are the honorable mentions of just the wackiness that I found. So let's dive into the actual top five. As with most of these lists, they are in no particular order. Let's start with number one. It is illegal to throw pickle juice on a trolley. With these laws, I've tried to find when they were actually put on the books. This one I've had trouble finding. I don't know if this law, since trolleys aren't really a thing anymore, if it extends to buses or other public transport, I don't know why this would have to become a law. Was this something that happened a lot way back, you know, a century or more ago? That people were getting on trolleys with a cup of pickle juice or a jar of it and throwing it on people? And is it only pickle juice? Does it extend to other juices from foods? I mean, it's crazy. So if you are out there thinking of taking the trolley for some random reason going back in time, don't bring pickle juice. And if you do bring it, don't throw it on people. Number two, it is illegal to smoke a pipe after sunset in Newport. Newport is one of my favorite places in New England. But man, what kind of random weird law is this? Were they afraid that if you smoke a pipe when it's dark outside, you might drop the ashes and burn stuff down? That was basically the only thing I could think of, was fear of starting fires. At least today, with weather apps that have the sunset times on them, you can time your smoking your pipe, sitting out on the porch on a nice summer evening, inhaling all that smoke as quick as you can, knowing the cops are just patrolling the streets of Newport, waiting to catch someone smoking right after the sun goes down. It's an easy way to be a rebel. Smoke a pipe after dark in Newport and see what happens. Number three, it is illegal to sell both toothpaste and a toothbrush to the same person in Providence on Sundays. You talk about having a lot of catches to a law. How dare these people want to have clean mouths on a Sunday? It's funny because I think when most of these laws that I'm talking about were put in the books, it had to be at least a century ago with most of them. And I don't think oral hygiene was that important to a lot of people more than a century ago. So what did people think it was bad? How dare you snobby people brush your teeth? But the fact that it's just Providence and just on Sundays. So I'm assuming if that was the case for someone, they'd go in and buy toothpaste at a store and then have to go back in with a fake nose and mustache and glasses to buy their toothbrush just so they won't get arrested. And what's the penalty for it? Go to jail for trying to get toothpaste and a toothbrush? Number four, it is illegal to race a horse down a highway. This one is interesting because I believe it's actually legal to have a horse on a highway, but you just can't race it. And how are people going to know the difference between a horse just trotting or actually trying its hardest to get its top speed? Are the cops out there with radar guns looking at the horse saying, oh, I think it's going too fast. Let's pull it over. Has anyone out there ever seen horses on the highway in Rhode Island? Because what I've looked up, it makes it sound like that's all right. I've never seen a horse on 195. I do know if you get caught, you get fined $20, and you could be put in jail for no more than 10 days. So hey, it's worth giving it a shot. And finally, number five on the weirdest Rhode Island laws. I did save the best for last. It is illegal to intentionally bite off another person's limb. This one is crazy. The law says if you do it intentionally... Leave a person limbless. So I guess it comes down to whether you do it intentionally or if it was by accident. If you fell down and were biting something as you fell and you took a chunk out of someone's leg, do you run away or do you continue biting through the leg saying, oh, it had to happen? What if their arm was trapped under a rock and you had to bite through it to get them free? You intentionally did it, but you saved their life. See, there's all these gray areas. But if you're in Rhode Island thinking of biting off someone's arm if it's trapped under a rock, remember, you could get up to 20 years in jail. So maybe hire a pack of wild dogs to come do it for you. And there you have the top five weirdest Rhode Island laws. Have you ever heard of any of these? Have you ever broken any of these laws? This was so goofy and so much fun finding all of these that, like I said, I'm going to do this for all New England states. So come back next time as I find the weirdest laws from all the New England states and do my best to keep you out of jail for stupid reasons. When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, things like skateboarding, bicycle racing, riding were just fun things that kids did, sometimes dangerous things that got us in trouble. But as far as being competitive sports, they weren't really seen on the same level as Olympic sports as hockey, basketball, boxing, swimming, skiing, and the like. That all changed in 1995, when the sports network ESPN came up with an event that would highlight these more extreme sports, capitalizing on the whole grunge movement, alternative movement, Generation X, and thus the appropriately named X Games were formed. More than 25 years later, most of you have heard of the X Games, but did you know they got their start in New England in Rhode Island in 1995? We're going to talk about the dawn of the X Games here as we go way, way back in the day. The idea for the X Games began in 1993 as ESPN began to devote money to the concept of a series of action sports events. as the popularity of skateboarding, BMX bike racing, and other things started to take hold in the early 90s. In 1994, it was announced that there would be the first ever X Games, as they were called, debuting in June 1995. It may have been more of a niche market as older generations and some that weren't into these events wouldn't watch the younger Gen X athletes competing in things like skateboarding and cycle racing. But it was smart to capitalize on Gen X, give us something that we could relate to. Because even though I wasn't much of a skateboarder, I never could get it down. I enjoyed bike riding, bike racing, never with a helmet, but hey... But it was things that I recognized as speaking to me, speaking to my generation. I've tried to figure out how the X Games ended up in Rhode Island as they were in Newport, Providence, and Middletown. I can't find if Newport bid on it, if ESPN decided these places looked like they'd be perfect to host the extreme games. But as is the case sometimes with something new and unfamiliar, the X Games almost didn't come to Newport. It was a four to three vote in favor of at city council with the dissenting votes, of course, thinking that anyone that competes in the X Games or watches the X Games must be bad, that they'd bring nothing but crime and the horrible people to their city, which was a load of BS, of course. June 24th, 1995 brought the inaugural Xtreme Games, soon to be renamed the X Games, to Rhode Island. It was an Olympic-style series of events, treated seriously despite it being for us Gen X kids. The major chunk of the Summer X Games was held at Fort Adams State Park in Newport. That was where the skateboarding was held with the half pipes. That's where Tony Hawk came onto the national stage. There were huge jumbotrons, 21 cameras to capture all the action. Besides skateboarding, there was downhill mountain biking, street luge, the BMX vert, which is the high jumps where you get way up there, some crazy stuff. Barefoot water ski jumping. Despite some old-timers or just people that don't like fun thinking that the X Games were going to be a failure with Gen X being rowdy and undisciplined, it was a huge success with no issues. It was estimated that the inaugural X Games brought more than $14 million to the Rhode Island economy, with more than $5 million being spent in Newport County. ESPN estimated that more than 50,000 total people watched the X Games during their 10-day run in Newport. And according to Discover Newport's CEO at the time, Evan Smith, he said that local business owners, restaurants, hotels, said that the X Games were a better boon for their business than the America's Cup sailing races. Many sponsors took a chance on the X Games. And some of them seem to fall in line with the Gen X crew at the time. I mean, yeah, there was Chevy Trucks and AT&T sponsored. But then you had Taco Bell, which seems to make sense. Advil for all the times that you fall down and get hurt. And biggest of all, Mountain Dew. If I asked you, those of you that know the X Games, which brand or company seems the most synonymous with it, I think most of you would say Mountain Dew. Because even if you couldn't skateboard like Tony Hawk or do the water ski jumps or didn't have the courage to do any of the high jumps on the BMX bikes, you could at least drink the same thing that these athletes were drinking. It's not that much different than Gatorade and Michael Jordan. So a brief summary of the events of that first X Games. Chris Sen won the gold medal in Skateboard Street. He beat Tony Hawk, who got the silver. Justin Sears won the gold in barefoot water ski jumping. Bob Pereira won the gold in street luge, and that was after injuring his leg during the qualifying rounds. Jay Miron took the gold in BMX dirt. Sherry Elliott won the gold in the dual downhill mountain bike. Matt Hoffman won the gold in the BMX vert. Robert Fignon won the male gold in the dual downhill mountain bike. And not to be left behind, Tony Hawk won the gold in the skateboard vert. Those first X Games were a huge success. They led to the Winter X Games, which would take place in Stowe, Vermont. And naturally, all that money that got brought into Newport changed a lot of people's minds, so they brought the X Games back to Newport for 1996. It went from 50,000 spectators at the first X Games to over 200,000 at the second X Games in 1996. And by now, the X Games is huge. That beginning by having big-name sponsors get involved, unique events that appeal to a younger generation with top-tier athletes performing them, coupled with the attendance and the money spent made the X Games undeniable. They've brought in motocross. They've brought in esports. But when I think of the X Games, even to this day, I still center around BMX bike racing, skateboarding, and in the winter, snowboarding. It's still fun to this day, but it was more fun back in the mid-90s when it started because these athletes were my age. They looked like me. They might not have been skateboarding in torn jeans and flannel, but some of them were. Or the baggier clothes, drinking Mountain Dew. These were my people. But of course, as time goes, everyone ages. It's crazy to think that Tony Hawk is 55. But hey, he landed the 900 on his skateboard at age 48. So age is only a number. As the X Games got bigger, they left our little corner of New England, heading out to California for the summer games, Colorado for the winter games. And although it changes at times, that's typically where they stay. It created such a unique atmosphere, especially at the beginning with the X Games being at Fort Adams State Park in Newport with this old fort behind it. And in the years since, it's created some iconic athletes. Like I said, Tony Hawk, Sean White, Dave Mira, Travis Pastrana, and so many more. But as big as it's gotten, it will always have its roots in Rhode Island, in Newport, in New England. So next time you go to Fort Adams State Park, close your eyes and imagine thousands of people there, big cameras, jumbotrons, and a new wave of extreme athletes plying their craft in something that was hoped that it would be a success, but you didn't know until it was over. And I may not have been quite an extreme athlete back in my teenage years, and I definitely am not one today. But I always felt a connection to the X Games, to my generation, the Gen X generation. What about you out there? Did you watch the X Games when it first came out? Did you participate in any of those types of activities? Not at the X Games, but just in general. Skateboarding, snowboarding, motocross, BMX racing, things like that. Did watching it make you want to pick up those types of activities? Or did you prefer to just get some Mountain Dew and Advil since they sponsored it? It's funny that Advil was a big sponsor of that for people that were in their 20s at the time. And now that's the sponsor that sticks to me the most in my 40s. I probably have Advil more than anything else. So cheers to the X Games that got their start in 1995 in Newport, Rhode Island. And that'll do it. That'll wrap up episode 108 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Thank you especially to those of you that share the podcast. Word of mouth to get more eyes and ears on it. I have so much fun putting these together, sharing them, getting feedback from people. But as much as I market this podcast, what's even better is the people that listen marketing it for me. If you want to support the podcast, you can buy me a coffee. There's a link in the podcast description. Like I said, I'll be doing subscriptions starting next month. I'm still not fully sure what it entails, but it's a learning curve and the next logical step in the evolution of this podcast. If you're looking for fun summer reads, I have nine of them that I have published through three different publishers. Visit my website, ChristopherSetterlin.com to see them all. Visit theladyofthedoons.com to get your copy of my true crime book, Searching for the Lady of the Dunes. Be there Friday, August 18th, if you can, for my event at the Austerville Village Library, or watch it live via Zoom slash YouTube. There is nothing more gratifying or humbling than having people, total strangers, coming out to see you speak about something you created. I've done countless events over the years for all of these nine books. And I never lose sight of the fact that there are people that I have no idea who they are, but they choose to take time out of their day to come and see me and hear me speak. It's so humbling and gratifying. And I'm always so thankful to those who come out. And I do my best to make every event as good as it can be because you're coming to see me. Coming up next week is going to be episode 109. This is going to be something special, something different. It's a bonus episode. centered all around taking a summer vacation to Cape Cod, not in 2023, but a century ago in 1923. I'm going to try to make it a little bit like an old-timey radio broadcast, but it'll be a really fun trip back in time. Even if you're not from Cape Cod or have never been here, kind of taking a trip back through history will be knowledgeable and entertaining. So tune in for that next week on episode 109 of the In My Footsteps podcast. And this episode has been really kind of an early birthday wish to my oldest friend, Barry, mainly because it's Rhode Island centric. Hopefully he has listened and learned a little bit about where he lives. But I wanted to wish him happy birthday. I'll likely do it again next week. But I got to ask, why does your state have so many weird laws? I say that now, but then when I look at Massachusetts and all the other New England states, I'll probably say the same thing about them. Go subscribe to my YouTube channel. Did you know I have full audio podcasts up there? They typically go up the day after I release them. I'm also on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Facebook fan page. I still haven't made the group yet. I don't know. We'll see. And you can always email me, ChristopherSederland at gmail.com if you have any questions. I'd love to do a Q&A someday. As summer winds down, make sure to get out there and enjoy the outdoors as much as you can. I love fall the most, but getting outside when the weather starts to change, where it's still warm but the humidity drops and the evenings get cooler, oh, that's the best time. And I hope wherever you are, you get to enjoy that at least a little bit. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. Do it as you. Be true to yourself. Success or failure, staying true to yourself is very important. Leave the biggest footprint you can. And most of all, enjoy every moment because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you again so much for tuning in to episode 108. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, and I'll talk to you all again soon.

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