In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 111: Finding My Great-Grandfather's Biological Family; First Favorite TV Shows; Weird Connecticut Laws; Road Trip - Machias, ME(9-6-2023)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 111

Share episode

Send us a text

Episode 111 sheds some light on a very important discovery that happened during the podcast's hiatus earlier in 2023. I am the resident family historian. For years I had been searching for the biological family of my great-grandfather as my Nina revealed that he had been adopted. It was a long and often fruitless search but in March a breakthrough occurred. This week I will go into detail on how I found my Grampa Romano's biological family.
An oasis in Down East Maine. This week's Road Trip takes us to a spot I found on my way to somewhere else and that became a destination for me after that. We will travel this week to the beautiful small town of Machias, Maine.
Everyone has their own picks for their favorite television shows. But do you remember your first favorites? In the days of streaming and instant gratification, it is hard to remember the times when you had to be in your living room at a certain time to see a favorite show. This week we go way Back In the Day as I reveal some of my very first favorite TV shows.
More weird laws abound in this week's Top 5. After rolling through Rhode Island and Maine it is time to see what crazy and hilarious laws are on the books in the state of Connecticut.
As always there is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back to when Labor Day was made a national holiday.
Find more content on YouTube, support the podcast if you want, and Buy Me A Coffee!

Helpful Links from this Episode

Listen to Episode 110 here 

Support the show

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 111. Labor Day has come and passed. It's back to school time, falls on the horizon, and we've got a fun brand new episode of the podcast coming up right now. It's going to kick off with a fun and monumental personal story that happened during the hiatus of the podcast. That is finding my great-grandfather's biological family. I'll get into way more detail coming up. We're going to take a road trip out to down east Maine to the beautiful little oasis town of Machias. We're going to go way, way back in the day as I reveal my very first must-see TV shows from the 1980s. We'll see the memories that it brings up. There'll be a brand new top five that are the top five weirdest Connecticut laws ever. And of course, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule all coming up now on episode 111 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Sorry if I am so full of joy that Labor Day has passed. I know for some going back to school, whether you're a student or a teacher, it's not the greatest time. I remember it. But if you've listened to the podcast, you know fall is my favorite time of year. Basically from when Labor Day hits all the way to the end of the year, it's just amazing. I love it. But I do understand a lot of you love summertime the most and you're sad that it's gone or going away. Technically, it's still a few weeks left. But hopefully this podcast will distract you for a little while from the fact that summer is ending and school has started up again. Thank you for watching. my Cape Cod travel guide, the second edition of it, and my photography book. So I put together a presentation of all these beautiful places on Cape Cod, some history, but then diverting off into a little bit of how to photograph these areas. Because let's face it, in a world of smartphones, anyone can really take a photograph. So you've got to have some sort of way to make your photos stand out. whether you're just sharing with friends or on social media. If that combo of photo and travel on Cape Cod interests you, you don't have to wait long because September 22nd, which is a Friday at 1 p.m., I'll be doing another dual book event at the Osterville Library. Yes, that's not a mistake on my part. I was just there a month ago, but we decided to do two different presentations, so I hope you come out to this one as well. Before that, next week on September 13th, so a week from today when this podcast is dropping, I'll be doing another Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book presentation. This one is at the Marston's Mills Library at 6 p.m., so come and check that out. The first presentation I did For that book at the Osterville Village Library, you can see it on their YouTube channel if you want to get kind of a sense of what I talk about. Coming up very soon, probably next week, I will be starting the subscriptions for the podcast. I recorded the very first subscriber-only episode. They'll be available through Buzzsprout and Patreon. I'm still setting it all up, and I don't know what else is going to come besides bonus episodes. It's all new to me. But it's a natural evolution of the podcast. And it's sort of a thank you. And if anybody wants to support the show that way, they can. Recently, I had my best single day ever for downloads of the podcast. So coming up on three years of doing this show, setting these high bars, it really makes me feel good about where this is going. But there was that hiatus. Six months where this show was dormant. I was working on three books. but something else really interesting and really special happened to me, and I want to share some details about that now as I talk about finding my great-grandfather's biological family and everything that went into that, coming up right now on episode 111 of the In My Footsteps podcast. During the six months that this podcast was on hiatus, I spent a lot of time preparing three books to be published this year. And that was a lot of what I did with the downtime. But one incredible thing that happened during the hiatus was solving probably the biggest family mystery that there is for my family. So if you couldn't tell from the 111, including this one, episodes of the podcast, I'm big into history. And a And for a lot of that research, you have to know where to look and what to look for to find the facts about whatever you're going to speak about or write about. I fancy myself a pretty good internet detective. It's been years of honing that craft, mindlessly searching random topics about Cape Cod or other New England areas. Because if you're writing about history, you need facts that back up whatever you're saying. Because the last thing you want is someone to read something you wrote or hear something you talked about, and then they go and research it and find you made a mistake because you didn't take the time to do the research properly. Coupled with being an internet detective is the fact that I am my family's resident historian. Way back in episode 12, I talked about doing the ancestry DNA test and kind of how that came about, the results and such. I've also used ancestry to trace parts of my family tree back a thousand years. The Doan branch, which is when I talk about being a 12th generation Cape Codder, they're the branch that I speak of. I traced it back about a thousand years and it's been an honor and a privilege to document the family as much as I can. But for all that I found for years, there was one big white whale and that was my great grandpa Romano. He was my Nina's father on my mother's side. I had very few memories of him as he passed away when I was eight years old. I don't even know if I actually met him. He was an enigmatic and unique character in my family tree, especially based on things I would learn about him as years went on. But as my Nina got older, that's when she revealed to me that Great Grandpa Romano was not his real name. that he was actually adopted into the Romano family. For so long, I thought he was mostly Italian. Romano's an Italian last name. It's a cheese. But being that I was the resident family historian and an up-and-coming internet detective, my Nina didn't put it on me to find out who he really was, but she made it known that she would love to know who his biological family was before she passed. Trying to find 100-year-old adoption records is hard enough. There was very little information I had to go on. All my Nina could tell me was that his adopted name was Felix Romano and that his birth name was Charles Cronin. For me, the journey to finding great-grandpa Romano's real identity started with writing to the Home for Little Wanderers Adoption Agency, along with... county courthouses with what little information I had. I didn't know when exactly he was adopted, where exactly he was adopted, as far as towns or counties went. When you're doing this type of family research or research in general, it's a crapshoot at the start. This was several years ago, probably eight years ago, that I started looking for Grandpa Romano's real identity. And these agencies online... At least back then, they kind of counted on the fact that you could not do the research yourself. You needed them to do it for you. So it would cost you money. It's not free. Their time and effort to look, especially if you don't have all the information, that costs money. They wanted at least $500, I believe it was, just to do the search with no guarantee that they would find who he really was or who his family was. And at that time, I just didn't have that kind of extra money to just throw away, hoping that they would find what I was looking for. So I had to give up for a few years. I had to tell my Nina it was just not possible. But as time goes on, as the years go on, more and more things get digitized and become available to you through Google searches. So a few years later, this is probably 2018, I started doing the same search again. Home for Little Wanderers, looking for a Charles Cronin. narrowing down where he could have lived, where he could have been adopted from, southeastern Massachusetts towns and cities. He lived when I was a kid. I knew he lived in Brockton. So you search around there, Plymouth, Middleborough, Taunton, things like that. And I got my first breakthrough. I couldn't find the last name Cronin spelled with an I, but I found one spelled with an A, C-R-O-N-A-N. I typed in Charles Cronin, Felix Romano, adoption, and I found it. I found the date he was adopted, February 27th, 1911, and he was adopted in Plymouth County. This was in a book called Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts 1912. So I screenshotted the page so I'd have it for my records, and I could at least tell my Nina I found when he became Felix Romano but I still couldn't find who his birth parents were that info wasn't there I imagine it's hard enough for people in this day and age that have been adopted to find their birth parents if they're looking but imagine it being more than a century ago it's like where do you go for those records so I was stuck again I even labeled Felix Romano in my ancestry family tree as a brick wall meaning I just couldn't find what I needed but It was really disheartening to have to tell my Nina a second time, especially when I found a little bit of info, but that it wasn't the beginning of something greater. It was just that little dribble of info. So I gave up again and time passed. And in 2021, my Nina passed. I never got the information for her before she died. And I felt like I let her down. Because I can research almost anything and get info on it to do podcast segments, articles, books. But I couldn't find my great-grandfather's real family. And time passed, and I forgot about it. Books came and went. Articles came and went. I started the podcast, working a day job. Finally, when the podcast was put on hiatus back in January, it was, I think, in March that I just happened to have extra time, and I just started looking. Using the information that I had already found. And then it dawned on me. Grandpa Romano was the one that told us when he was born, the year. And it dawned on me, what if he was wrong? I believe he said he was born in 1905 or 06. But I just started searching for different years. Charles Cronin with different birth years. And it was like a bolt of lightning. 1904 and suddenly there was his birth record. He was born in 1904 as Charles Edward Cronin on December 12th, 1904, and he lived in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts. Now, granted, I'm kind of speed running through this, glossing over a little bit the exact ways that I found his birth record, because I could spend an hour talking about my methods and how I do my research. For me, it's like a spider web. You start with the exact thing you're looking for. like an actual address, and then you start to slowly pull back to the zip code, the county, the state, etc. And eventually you hit something, some piece of info that's what you're looking for, and then you can zoom in on that, and it kind of snowballs from there. And that's what happened with great-grandpa Romano, because with his birth date came his parents' names, John F. Cronin and Mary Cahill. Now I had his biological parents. Incredibly, I found that he had five siblings. However, that's kind of where the good news ends. Because don't forget, he was adopted. And adopted when he was about six years old. So what happened? Two of his siblings died before he was born. Sadly, his mother, Mary, passed away in July 1909. from nephritis complicated by heart disease, and she was only 50. She left behind four children, including the youngest being only a year old. And sadly, on January 29th, 1911, his father, John Cronin, passed away from tuberculosis. Great-Grandpa Romano, a.k.a. Charles Cronin, was immediately put into the home for little wanderers. and adopted by the Romano family less than a month later. Sadly, the more I dug, it was less sunshine and rainbows when it came to the fate of the Cronin family. Not only did both of Charles Cronin's parents die, but after he was put in the home for Little Wanderers, his youngest sister, who was a year old, went to live with his brother, and it had to be the father had tuberculosis... Then the little daughter got tuberculosis. She gave it to her brother. So it was a mass of deaths from tuberculosis within the next year or so. So it was crazy. The more I dug into the family and found birth records of all his siblings and then the death records that showed how young some of them were, it was a really tragic story. Just as tragic was my great-grandpa Romano had a sister, Elizabeth Cronin. And she actually lived into her 60s and grew up not far from where he grew up in Brockton, Taunton. But as hard as it was for me to find adoption records and such now in the 2020s, back then in the 30s, 40s, 50s, it had to be even harder. So they never knew of each other. I do have plans to go to Taunton to the cemetery to visit all of these Cronin relatives because they all lived and died in Taunton and they're all basically buried in the same cemetery. So it's bittersweet that I found all the information about Great Grandpa Romano that I wanted to share with my Nina while she was alive, but it's a lot more tragic than I would have expected. The adoption was sad enough, but knowing that his parents didn't just give him up, that they passed away young, and that tuberculosis ravaged his family is just so sad. And some of them, there's not even pictures of them. His younger sister, Irene, that died when she was three of tuberculosis, there's no pictures of her. She's got a gravestone, but that's it. There is a silver lining as another branch of my search about great-grandpa Romano. I was able to find a daughter he had with another woman besides my great-grandmother, and she was someone that I actually was able to reconnect with my mother. So it's my mother's aunt, my great-aunt. So despite the actual Cronin family and the adoption being sad, I was able to make a family connection that's a positive one. But that's the story of me actually being able to find my great-grandpa Romano's biological family, more than 110 years after he was adopted. So if any of you out there are adopted and looking for your family or you have something similar or you're researching your family tree, it can be done. It just takes an excruciating amount of patience that most people don't have. Luckily, I was kind of blessed with that. But hopefully I inspire at least one person to do some family research because you never know what you might find. On this week's road trip, we are going to the far reaches of eastern Maine as we visit the small town of Machias. And when I say they're a small town, as of 2020, they had a population of 2,060. And like I said, they're located way out in the far reaches of eastern Maine, 200 miles northeast of the city of Portland. 45 miles south of St. Stephen, which is a town in New Brunswick on the Canadian border. And for further reference, it's a five hour plus drive from Boston to get there. And for me on Cape Cod, it's six and a half hours. What's interesting about Machias is that it's one of those small towns, much like when I spoke about Chester, Vermont or Scituate, Rhode Island recently. that you wouldn't think to visit or make a stop out of, but then circumstances come up and it ends up being a stop on your trip, and then you're glad you went there. That's how I feel about Machias. Machias is located on Maine's Route 1, which is their famed coastal route. If you've never driven Route 1 in Maine, I highly recommend going there. It hugs the coast all the way from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It goes all the way out to eastern Maine and then hooks back up north to the Canadian border. That's actually how I found Machias years ago. It was my first road trip to Maine, which I spent a week up there. At some point, I'll do a big segment on that trip because it was really eye-opening and filled with tons of memories. But Route 1 is the main roadway, and you hug the Atlantic Ocean. But what happens is you get past the town of Ellsworth, which is just north of Mountain Desert Island, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, that area. You continue going east and there's not much. It's very wide open. Any small towns you pass, it's a handful of buildings and then wide open area again. But then this little oasis occurs in between Ellsworth and Lubeck, which is the furthest east you can go in the United States. And that's Machias. It's a small town that I bet a lot of you have never heard of, but yet I've been there twice intentionally. The name Machias means bad little falls in the Passamaquoddy Native American language, and there is an actual bad little falls park. It's located at One Bridge Street, and it's the location where the Machias River cuts through the town. It's a beautiful little area, and the falls that run through the town, they're really loud. They echo. There are a lot of beautiful vantage points to get photos of the falls going through town with the backdrop of buildings. I was unaware of it the second time that I went through Machias and I stayed there on my way to Lubeck to visit West Quaddy Head Lighthouse. So I'm pulling up to a gas station to get gas and I step out and it's just raging water going past me to the point where after I got gas, I parked my car in the parking lot and walked over to the park and just shot video and photos. Machias in that area of Maine, it's known for its blueberries. They're in Maine's blueberry belt. It's definitely recommended to visit farmer's markets and little stores in Machias and pick up some real blueberries from there. Unfortunately, there's a wild blueberry festival in Machias. And I mean, unfortunately, because it's literally just passed as I'm putting this episode together. It occurred on August 18th through 20th, which when I was putting this podcast together, I said, of course, I would pick a perfect time to talk about Machias, where one of their big events has literally just passed. But you won't be left out in the cold when it comes to blueberries, but we'll get to that in a minute. Summer might be winding down, but the best time of the year is fall, and that's coming up soon. And if you like being outside in the fall air and looking at the foliage, I highly recommend the Down East Sunrise Trail. It's a multi-use trail, biking, walking, running, whatever you want to do. And it passes right through Machias and it's 87 miles long. It's a smaller part of the East Coast Greenway Trail, which if you don't know, it's 3,000 miles of trails that go down the East Coast and connect 15 states, more than 450 cities. So you could be walking a few hundred yards in Machias and know that the trail you're on could connect you to Florida if you so chose. But as far as in Machias and that area, the Downey Sunrise Trail, you're going through quintessential Maine, which gives you a good chance to maybe see a moose or deer or other native animals, turkeys and such. Hopefully not bears, but you never know. Just be wary that they could be out there. Go to sunrisetrail.org. It'll give you a map and a greater sense of this trail and why you should check it out, even if it's just walking it for a few minutes. But if hiking the Down East Sunrise Trail is not your thing, maybe you'll want to check out the Burnham Tavern Museum. It's located on Main Street, only steps from Bad Little Falls Park, so you can basically see both in the same span of a few hours. The Burnham Tavern is special because it's the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution back on June 12th, 1775. The building itself is one of 21 homes that have been designated most important to the American Revolution and its history, and it's the only such home in the state of Maine. BurnhamTavern.com, the website has the full story, the full history of the home and this first naval battle, which ended with the capture of the British vessel Margareta in the harbor just outside the town of Machias. But there's so much more detailed history on their website that you can check out. If you've headed all the way out into... Down East Maine, you've found this little oasis that is Machias if you've walked the Down East Sunrise Trail or visited Bad Little Falls. You'll definitely want something to eat to keep you going. The place that I enjoy that was the first place I thought of when doing this segment of the podcast is the Bluebird Ranch Family Diner. They're located at 78 Main Street overlooking the Machias River and also bluebirdranchrestaurant.com. They're down east Maine, so it's a classic menu of seafood, lobster, fried seafood, but they've also got Italian choices, classic American fare. When I went there, that was where I learned what fiddleheads were. If you've never heard of them or never had them, they look like broccoli and asparagus had a baby, and they kind of taste the same, really good, but special to that area. It's one of those spots that you didn't know you needed to visit and eat at, much like Machias. Once you're there and you've checked it out and spent time there, it's more like, wow, why didn't I come here before? And that's the same with the Bluebird Ranch restaurant. So they are highly recommended. And if you're going all the way up there to Machias, you'll probably want to make it more than a day trip. That's really not possible, depending on where you're going from. But like I said earlier, it's not in the middle of nowhere, but it's kind of an oasis in the middle of nowhere. So make it a point to spend a few days out there. You can stay at the Bluebird Motel. They're at 231 Dublin Street and also bluebirdmotelmain.com. They're a basic classic strip motel, single floor motel. But the area they're in is just beautiful. There's a huge open field near there where during one of the days I was there, I walked out on sunset and there's this family of deer in the field. And I'm walking over there trying to get some photos of them. They didn't stay still for long. All I saw going off into the dusk was a bunch of little white tails running away from me. But it's just classic Maine. It's the scene like that that adds so much to any road trip. You can go to visitmaine.com. There's a lot in there about Machias, where to go, what to see, where to stay. Also visit machiasmaine.org and get a better sense of what there is to see. For me, Machias was kind of a happy accident the first time that I went out to Lubeck. It came up as an oasis out of nowhere. I stopped there and made it a point to note that next time I was out in the area, I was going to stop and spend more time there, and I did. I think you who go and stop there, you'll have that same experience. But also, don't take my word for it. Like I said, I can describe and share only so much in these road trip segments. The best thing you can do is take your car and just go. See what else there is, stuff that I missed or things that I just didn't have time to share. A little oasis in the middle of down east Maine, in the middle of the blueberry belt. The small town of Machias is definitely worth checking out, whether it's the end of summer like now or heading into the fall. So definitely go spend some time there in Machias. And I'll be back next time with another road trip showcasing one of the hundreds and hundreds of amazing cities and towns that New England has to offer. This week in history, we are going back 129 years ago this week to September 3rd, 1894, and the very first Labor Day holiday celebrated in the United States. So I should clarify that this is the first national Labor Day holiday, as in 1882, some states were already starting to celebrate Labor Day as the first Monday in September. It began in the state of New York in 1882, and by 1894, 23 more states joined in Labor Day after New York started it. On June 28th, 1894, then-President Grover Cleveland signed into law making Labor Day a national holiday. And September 3rd, 1894, was the first national Labor Day. It's now celebrated with picnics, parades, fireworks, a day off from work, For us here in New England, at least Cape Cod, it symbolized the real end of summer as school would start up that next week. The parades were initially drawn up to be a celebration of the strength of trade and labor organizations. So Labor Day, it was meant to be kind of a celebration of work. And then it became a celebration of economic and civic significance of the holiday. Originally, labor activists, when they pushed for the first Labor Day, wanted something to recognize the contributions that the American workers made to the country's overall strength, prosperity, and well-being. And it's evolved over the decades to where perhaps the actual meaning behind Labor Day has been a bit lost and replaced more with the parades and days off from work and school. Back then, when Labor Day was first becoming a national holiday in 1894... It was during the height of the Industrial Revolution. So most Americans, many Americans were working 12-hour days, sometimes six, seven days a week, with even their children working five, six days a week just to make ends meet. So I guess it was figured back then the least they could do was create some kind of working man's holiday. Interestingly, despite Grover Cleveland being the one to sign into law the National Labor Day holiday, there's still debate as to who originally created the concept of it. Some credit Peter McGuire, who was the co-founder of the American Federation of Labor. Others suggest it was a man named Matthew McGuire. Same last name spelled differently. He was a secretary of the Central Labor Union. And although the actual creator of this holiday is still up for debate, there is no debate that 129 years ago this week in history, Labor Day was first celebrated as a national holiday in the United States. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going to go back 60 years ago this week, September 4th, 1963. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was My Boyfriend's Back by the Angels. This song was off of the album by the same name, My Boyfriend's Back. The song spent three weeks at number one, and what was kind of a commonplace thing back in those days, the early 60s, other rival groups recorded their own versions of the song almost immediately after it was released, most notably the Chiffons and Martha and the Vandellas. It's wild. Could you imagine in this day and age if a band released a hit song and then immediately two or three other bands recorded that same song and released it? All the lawsuits that would come out? But that was commonplace then. And My Boyfriend's Back was the biggest hit for the Angels by far. And to put the earworm in your head, kids of the 80s, you might remember that melody of that song being in a commercial for the Chunky Candy Bar. Chunky's Back. I'm sorry for putting that in your head. The number one movie was Promises Promises. This was a comedy starring Jane Mansfield, and it centers around two women who, after a drunken spree on a cruise ship, both find out they're pregnant and set out to find the fathers. It's 28% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so I don't know what that says about it, but I can tell you that the film is... Most well known for being the first sound era film to feature full nudity from a major Hollywood star, that being Jane Mansfield. I don't know if that gets you interested to go check it out. The number one TV show was The Beverly Hillbillies. This is about the Clampett family who find oil on their property and get rich and move to the rich and swanky town of Beverly Hills, California. And it's a fish out of water story. The theme song for the show, I'm sure any of you that know this show can hear it in your heads. The show itself lasted nine seasons and ran for 274 episodes. It was the number one show during its first two seasons and was in the top 20 for eight of its nine seasons. If you've never seen any episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, go and watch at least one. It's an all-time classic sitcom. And if you were around back then, September 4th, 1963, maybe you were getting ready to throw a big Labor Day cookout, a party. Perhaps you needed to do some shopping for back to school to make school lunches for the kids. Well, you're in luck. There are a lot of great deals at the first national stores. Grape jelly was $0.39 a jar. Peanut butter was $0.65 a jar. Tuna Fish was two 7-ounce cans for 49 cents. These are all the fine-ass brands. If you don't know First National Stores, they were an old chain of grocery stores way back. And there were some other great brands for sale then, like Duz Detergent, D-U-Z, Thrill Detergent, Salvo Detergent, lots of detergents. And the best, Golden Fluffo Shortening. All available in this week's circular for the fine-assed First National stores. And that'll wrap up another time capsule, another This Week in History. Now it's time to continue our series of the weird laws from each state in New England. Get ready to shake your head and laugh as we look at the top five weird Connecticut laws coming up right now.

Unknown:

This Week in History

Speaker 00:

Oh boy, let's keep the foolish, funny train going with some more weird laws from New England states. This week, it's going to be the top five weird Connecticut laws. So this is four of the six states here, and each one seems to have some laws that I can't believe these are real and on the books. Obviously, I don't think they're all enforced really strictly, but still, the fact that they're there is crazy. If you want to find stupid laws for your own state, you can go to the website stupidlaws.com. That's one of the sites that I've gone to to find the laws for the different New England states. I'll link to them in the description of the podcast if you need to go and see what your state's all about. And make sure if you haven't to go back to the other podcasts and hear what the other states' weird laws are so you can laugh. As with these lists, there are some honorable mentions to kind of get your mind working. These have been hard to narrow down what's an honorable mention and what's in the actual top five. But honorable mentions for weird Connecticut laws include in New Britain, it is illegal for fire trucks to drive faster than 25 miles an hour, even when going to a fire. Also, You can be stopped by the police for being on a bike going 65 miles an hour or faster. There is also a $1 fine if you frown in public. That sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone episode with the kid that can read minds. Also in Connecticut, it is illegal to intentionally release more than 10 helium-filled balloons, so don't do any crazy gender reveals. And finally, on the honorable mentions, it is illegal in Connecticut to see a UFO. So keep your eyes closed at night just in case. So those are the honorable mentions. Let's get into the actual top five. These are in no particular order. And we're going to kick off the craziness with number one. In the city of Hartford, it is illegal to educate a dog. Now, I couldn't find if this meant teaching them tricks, sit, roll over. Or if you're trying to teach them how to drive a car or paint the house. So is it something like you're walking your dog in public and the dog has to misbehave just so it's not suspicious? I can't figure out why this would be an issue to have a dog that was smart. Unless they thought you could teach the dog to go into a store and steal stuff for you. So no educating your dog. Number two, also in the city of Hartford... It is illegal for a husband to kiss his wife on Sunday. It doesn't say anything about girlfriends, mistresses, secret other families. Only for your actual wife that you have documentation that you're married to. You cannot kiss her on Sunday in Hartford. So if you don't want to break the law and you're jonesing for a smooch, drive to the city limits and have at it. Again, this sounds like a law from the 1860s. A time when showing your ankle was considered so scandalous. So no kissing your wife in Hartford on Sundays. Unbelievably, we're going to have a trifecta here. Number three, three in a row from Hartford. It is illegal for you to cross a street while walking on your hands in Hartford. How did this even become a law? Were there people walking on their hands crossing the street? Was that a big epidemic, a problem in Hartford? Or did one person do it once as a joke and get hit by a horse and buggy and they said, all right, we got to outlaw that. And what if it's like a wheelbarrow? Someone's holding your legs and you're walking with your hands. Does that count? Because you've got someone helping you. So you're not technically walking on just your hands. What do you think the percentage is of people in this country that can walk on their hands, period, let alone cross a busy street walking on their hands? So three straight foolish laws from the city of Hartford. Luckily, we'll move on from there as we get to number four. In the town of Waterbury, no beautician can hum, whistle, or sing while working on a customer. It's basically wash the hair and shut up. That sounds like the movie Footloose, except with singing. Like there's all these hairstylists that are going to break out into song while they're doing people's hair. And all the crusty old people come in and say, there's no singing allowed in Waterbury. Were there complaints from customers that some of the hairstylists just couldn't sing and it was horrible and they needed to just get their hair done in silence? Or could they not hear the TV or the music playing over the system? I'd love to know the case that made some of these laws go into effect. But yes, no singing, humming, whistling while working on customers in Waterbury if you are a beautician. And finally, last but not least, number five, it is illegal to walk backward after sunset in the town of Devon. I don't know if this is you take three steps to back up because a car is coming and that's considered breaking the law. I don't know if you could moonwalk since you're not walking backwards. Your feet would be on the ground at all times. I don't know if it's legal to walk on your hands after sunset in Devon. Maybe that's better. Are there police out patrolling with the sunset time on their phones? And if they see someone walking backwards after that, it's slam them on the hood of the police car. It's another law in this series that is so random and so specific that you just wonder what caused it to be put into effect. Maybe someone was walking backward and knocked somebody in the street and they got run over. They said, all right, no more walking backwards. But there you go. Another top five weird laws. This time it's the state of Connecticut that we are laughing at, laughing with. Have you heard of any of these laws? Please tell me you haven't broken any of these. I would think educating the dog is the one that would be easiest to break. Walking on your hands, walking backward, all this stuff is illegal. But we're getting near the end of the top fives for the New England state. And check out stupidlaws.com to find out what kind of foolishness is on the book in your states. Television has definitely changed over the last 10 years. With streaming taking over, making it possible to not have to be home at a certain time to watch one of your favorite TV shows. It's a double-edged sword. It gives you the convenience, but it also takes away something that was so much fun growing up. Those must-see TV lineups. Like the TGIF lineup and such. And growing up in the 80s and the 90s, and I'm sure in the years before then, everyone had their favorite nights of TV. Everyone had their favorite shows that they had to be home for. I know I had mine. And right now we're going to go way, way back in the day as I share with you some of my very first must-see TV shows. Let's see how many of these you were and are fans of. So looking back at my first must-see TV shows, we're sticking with the 1980s. My first memories of TV come from when I was probably five years old, starting then. I'm going to give you brief overviews of these shows, and if you want me to do deep dives into any of these in future episodes, just let me know. When I was putting this together, the very first show that popped into my head was Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight. A crime fighter with his car kit. Kit stood for Knight Industries 2000. And it was a Pontiac Trans Am that could drive up to 300 miles an hour. And best of all, it could talk to Michael as he was driving. It had a cool theme song. If you go look it up, you probably remember it. This thumping bass line to it. It was on TV from 1982 to 86 and ran for 86 episodes. As a 5, 6, 7-year-old boy, a talking car that looked cool was definitely something I needed to be in front of the TV to watch. Speaking of cool cars, the next one that I thought of as far as must-see TV shows was the Dukes of Hazzard. Bo and Luke Duke in Hazzard County with the General Lee, their car. This was a comedy series. It ran for seven seasons from 1979 to 1985. Bo and Luke were the big stars. There was Daisy and her Daisy Duke jeans. I'm sure boys that were older than me at the time had her pinned up on their wall. Boss Hogg and Roscoe P. Coltrane were the bad guys always chasing them. But it was the General Lee, the orange Dodge Charger. The doors never seemed to open, so they just slid in through the doors to start it up. And they seemingly always found things they need to jump over. This was the first show where I got to experience casting changes. Suddenly one season there was Coy and Vance that were their cousins instead of Bo and Luke. I think even me at like seven years old was wondering what happened to the cool Duke brothers and now we got these losers instead. One show I've talked about a little bit on here was Primetime Wrestling. I started watching wrestling early in 1986 so I was eight years old. And it was always Monday nights at 9 and it was my reward for doing well in school. I got to stay up late and watch that show. I loved pro wrestling. I loved the hosts Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan always yelling at each other. Primetime Wrestling was on from 1985 to 1992. They changed up the format though. But it was always matches from all around the country, typically what they'd call squash matches, where one established star would just beat the hell out of some no-name. And as I got older, my love of wrestling led to pay-per-view parties at my house where we'd all wrestle in the room, watching the show, and then afterwards in the yard. But I'm sure I'll talk about that at another time. One I definitely spoke about at length was Married with Children. The story of the Bundy family in Chicago and their crazy shenanigans that was way ahead of their time, but also likely not a show that a 10, 11 year old should have been watching. I'll just briefly mention it here, but if you want my deep dive into that show, go back and check out episode 65. I do a whole back in the day segment of 35 years of Married with Children. A lot of teenage boys loved Christina Applegate from Married with Children. It was similar for me why I like to watch Who's the Boss. Alyssa Milano as Samantha Maselli. Oh, good lord. That show was based around Tony Danza as the male housekeeper for Angela at her house. It ran from 1984 to 1992. A total of 196 episodes. And it had that brand new life around the bend song that was the theme. With Tony Danza playing Tony Maselli. Did Tony Danza always play people named Tony? Like he couldn't be another name? Like he might not remember it? If someone was talking to him and his name was Dave, he wouldn't respond? Another show that was a must-see for me was Perfect Strangers. The story of Balky and Cousin Larry. And Balky came from Mepos to live with his cousin Larry in Chicago. And just all of the weird shenanigans they'd get into. The show was on for eight seasons from 1986 to 1993. And their theme was the Standing Tall on the Wings of My Dream song. Hopefully you go and check out some of the TV themes. If you don't remember them, they're going to put the earworm right there and you'll be hearing it and singing it all day. And Balki with the Dance of Joy. One show that became a favorite of mine, more in syndication, was Mama's Family. I don't know why I love that show. It starred Vicki Lawrence as Mama Harper, who was always mad, yelling at everyone. It ran for six seasons and 130 episodes from 1983 to 1990, but I remember it being in syndication pretty quick. I was probably eight, nine years old, and it was on weekday afternoons. I can remember seeing it after school, 3.30, 4 o'clock, and just this old lady yelling at everyone just made me laugh. How many of you out there used to watch the A-Team? That theme song's gotta be in your head right now. You're hearing it. Mr. T was the star of that show. It made him a household name, that and Rocky III. The show was on for five seasons, 98 episodes, a group of ex-special forces that were kind of vigilante justice. And they had that cool black GMC van with the red stripe on the side. And there were always cool lines when they caught people. I just remember thinking I wanted to be part of that Special Forces A-Team. Bring along nine-year-old me to hang out in the van with them. Finally, to sort of wrap up as we're doing the must-see TV shows, the first ones I remember, I'm going to jumble together all of Saturday morning cartoons. Because I did a top five on them, top 580 Saturday morning cartoons, and I'm likely going to do just a deep dive into the whole Saturday morning cartoon experience because I don't think kids in the 21st century got that. There were a lot of shows that I really liked growing up in the 80s for Saturday morning, but the ones that stuck out were Garfield and Friends. I loved Garfield, all the books. So getting to see him weekly with adventures, it was worth putting up with the crappy US Acres cartoons that were jammed in there. It's like going to see a concert of a band you love and they play almost all their greatest hits but then play stuff off their new album and you're like, all right, I'll put up with this because you're playing the good songs. That's what U.S. Acres was. Of course, Transformers. Every little boy in the 80s had their Transformers toys. So getting to see them and hear them talk so then you knew when you played with their toys how they should sound. I loved Muppet Babies. because I loved the Muppets, so it just was a natural thing to have them all as little kids, even younger than I was at the time. Even though it was weird that they had this nanny with the green socks. And of course, Saturday morning cartoons weren't complete without Hulk Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling, where they all were in adventures. And most of them supplied their own voices. Hogan, Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog, Iron Sheik. But like I said, in the future, I'm going to do a really deep dive into just the Saturday morning cartoon experience. I think what made these first must-see TV shows even more special was knowing that I had earned the right to sit and watch them. Because back then in the 80s, you didn't sit around watching TV, playing video games all the time. You were outside. Especially in the summer, you were booted outside until the streetlights came on. That was the end of that era. Although you did have to be sure that you were within earshot of your house for when your parents yelled to you to come in for dinner. Were any of these shows on your list of must-see? Granted, not all of you were growing up during this time period of the 1980s, but did any of these shows ring a bell? What were your first must-see TV shows of your life? Sadly for me, the last must-see TV show for me in my lifetime was The Office. And once it ended, it's more my must-see TV is videos on YouTube from channels that I enjoy. And that'll wrap up episode 111 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to everybody who's been tuning in, who's been sharing the podcast. Word of mouth is the greatest way to get more eyes and ears on this. Like I say, I can promote my stuff pretty well and I do it a lot if you follow me on social media, but nothing's better than having listeners who are not me promote it and ask people to check it out. It costs nothing to share the podcast or tell people about it. If you want to find more of me on social media, I'm on Instagram threads. Thankfully, they've got a desktop site now. I'm still on X, but that place is kind of a cesspool, so I want to get out of there. There's a Facebook fan page. There's no group yet. I'm still mulling that over. I have a YouTube channel where I've got hundreds of videos. There's audio, full episode audio of the podcast. There's some segments that are put up there. There's also a lot of New England travel videos. Visit my homepage, ChristopherSatterlund.com. If you want your copy of Searching for the Lady of the Dunes, the Ladyofthedunes.com website is up. There's a link in the description of the podcast. Perhaps at some point, if I clear a little room on my schedule, I will create the website for the inmyfootstepspodcast.com since I bought the domain and it's just kind of sitting on a shelf right now. Like I said, podcast subscriptions are coming likely next week. You'll obviously know if any of you follow me on social media, you'll know when they're up. But the first subscriber only episode has been recorded. It's ready to go. I think you'll really like it and laugh at the fever dream that it is. As far as the main show goes, there's no end in sight. Coming up next week is episode 112. I'm going to tell the story of my Cape Cod roots, as I always talk about being a 12th generation Cape Codder. It's kind of a love letter to my home. We're coming up on the anniversary three years since I quit drinking alcohol. I'm going to tell some of that story. I shared it earlier in the podcast. It was in episode 16. But at that point, it had only been six or seven months since I quit drinking. So now with more perspective, I'm going to share more about my journey and kind of why I ended up where I am. We're going to go way, way back in the day since we're starting school back up, looking at what it was like staying home from school sick as a kid in the 1980s and 90s. This will bring a lot of good memories. The good memories without the sickness. We're going to continue our look at weird New England state laws as we look at the top five weird Vermont laws. And as always, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule coming up next week on episode 112 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you again to all of you for listening to this show, taking time out of your day to indulge this passion project that has kind of been growing. I'm going to keep on pumping out the content, finding interesting stuff to share with you, whether that's travel and history in general or funny stories from my own life that maybe you can relate to. Either way, just know that I appreciate all of you that listen, whether you're from Massachusetts. I know a lot of you are. A lot of you are from New England, but I've got a lot of you from all across the country. I see where the downloads of the show come from. And it's definitely flattering to see so many cities and towns across the United States, places over in Europe and Asia that are listening to this show. Thank you so much. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. It's better to enjoy and leave the biggest footprint you can in this world than to live with regret. So I'll be back next week. Whatever you do, enjoy yourself. Be safe. Have fun. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, and I'll talk to you all again soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Christopher Setterlund

Host