In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 122: Me v. AI Top 5 Debut, Shopping at Angelo's Supermarket, 90s Internet Trends, Middletown RI(11-29-2023)

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AI choosing the best 1980s professional wrestlers? Nostalgic grocery store trips? The internet is now retro? No, it's not a side effect of the Thanksgiving food coma, it's Episode 122 of the podcast!
We kick off the episode with a look back at a Southern New England staple of decades past. For those in the area of a certain age, Angelo's Supermarket was destination shopping. From its beginnings in the Tedeschi family and from under the thumb of Stop and Shop, Angelo's carved out its own legacy that is still fondly looked back upon even thirty years after its name was erased from history.
You've heard of middle children, but middle towns? This week's Road Trip showcases Middletown, Rhode Island. The actual 'middle town' on Aquidneck Island, it is passed through by thousands headed to and from Newport. However, it is filled with attractions, both natural and other, and is deserving of its segment this week.
Despite it feeling like it's still a new thing, the internet has been going strong for more than a quarter century. For all of the improvements that it has undergone, there were some major growing pains when it first came around. This week we go way Back In the Day to look back(fondly?) at some of the laughable, annoying, head-scratching, and downright baffling internet trends and fads of the 1990s.
Never has there been a Top 5 like this. A new wrinkle in this segment debuts this week. In addition to my own top 5 list, I am enlisting AI in the form of ChatGPT. We will battle it out in the first Me v. AI Top 5 as we look at the best 1980s professional wrestlers!
There will also be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule featuring Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.
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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 122. We're back after the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope everyone had a great one. We're coming out of the food coma with a great episode this week. Starting off with a look back at a Cape Cod favorite, a New England favorite, the Angelo's Supermarket. We're gonna take a road trip to Middletown, Rhode Island. We're going to go way, way back in the day and look at some of the 1990s internet fads and trends that seemed cool then but are so cringy now. There's going to be a brand new top five, a new wrinkle on the top five as we debut the me versus AI top five with the best 1980s professional wrestlers. And of course, there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule all coming up right now on episode 122 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Welcome in everybody. As you can tell, my voice is back to normal. When I was editing last week's episode, it actually wasn't as bad as I thought when I was recording it, but still, it was kind of like gargling with razor blades a bit. So like I said, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I hope the food coma only lasted 24, 48 hours. Did you all go to the gym on Friday or go Black Friday shopping? It's basically one or the other. You either feel guilty about eating so much so you go right to the gym, or you can't wait for the deals for the holidays so you go right to whatever store. Now, this episode drops on November 29th, but I'll ask, do any of you have your holiday shopping done already? With the advent of online shopping, I go later and later. I can just order stuff and have it shipped overnight. Sure, it's not as magical and whimsical as it was in the 1990s when I was younger, but it's way more convenient. I wanted to give a shout out to one of my Patreon subscribers, Leo, for hosting me for an amazing book event. More of an off-the-cuff author talk at the Chatham Harwich Newcomers Club. It was excellent. A lot of people, almost 100 people. One of my biggest events, and I was not expecting that. So I wanted to make sure that I gave him a shout out and his club, the Newcomers Club, a shout out. Thank you for hosting me. Anytime you want me back, I'm on board. If you want to come out and see me in December, I've got three events in pretty rapid succession. Wednesday, December 6th at 6 p.m., I'll be at the Bourne Library in Bourne, Massachusetts on the Cape. One week later on December the 13th at 6 p.m., I'll be at the South Yarmouth Library. And the next day, Thursday, December 14th at 5 p.m., I'll be at the Eldridge Library in Chatham. All three of those events will be for my Cape Cod travel guide and photography book. So it's a dual event. And the big thing is I got to make sure I've got enough books for all three events because there won't be enough time to get a new shipment. So you got to kind of gauge what you might need and hope for the best. And you can visit my website, ChristopherSatterlund.com or go to Amazon.com. If you want any of my nine books, they make great holiday gifts. I'm just saying. But from holiday shopping to old school grocery shopping, there's a good segue. Let's start the podcast off by looking back at a beloved staple of Cape Cod and southeastern New England. as we look back at the old Angelo's Supermarkets. So let's take a step forward onto that mat and have the doors slide open and that nice cool breeze hit you in the face as we start off episode 122 of the podcast right now. Today on Cape Cod, when one is in need of groceries, there are many options. Larger chains like Stop and Shop, Shaw's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Market Basket dominate the landscape, while smaller local stores like Fancy's Market, Friends Marketplace, and East Ham's Suprette also see their fair share of customers. In the past, there have been other supermarkets that have come and gone, like A&P. There is one regional chain, though, that many Cape Codders of a certain age remember fondly, and that is Angelo's. Here is the story of that once major grocery chain. The story of Angelo's supermarket has its roots in a few well-known names, Tedeschi and Daggett. In 1923, Angelo Tedeschi left his job as a Finnish cobbler in a shoe factory due to a severe bout of pneumonia. Needing to find a way to feed his family, Tedeschi started his first business, a makeshift deli in his basement on Belmont Street in Rockland, Massachusetts, where he delivered imported Italian meats and cheeses to local customers. Just after World War II, in 1946, Angelo opened the first Tedeschi supermarket on Market Street in Rockland. The chain of stores grew to number six by 1960 thanks to the hard work of Angelo's sons, William, Ralph, Robert, and Dominic. These stores included locations in Braintree, Brockton, Cohasset, Hanover, Hull, and Plymouth. Angelo and his sons had a simple yet profound strategy when it came to running their successful stores, listening to the customers and giving them what they wanted, rather than trying to force a corporate mandate on them. In 1961, the family sold their supermarkets to Stop and Shop, who wished to expand their reach to Massachusetts' South Shore. Ironically, the Tedeschi's sold the stores but kept ownership of the actual buildings, making them Stop and Shop's landlords, with Ralph Tedeschi becoming a vice president of the Stop and Shop company. Within two years, the difference in philosophies was causing a rift. For one, the Tedeschi's liked offering nothing but national brands in their stores, while Stop and Shop had a high focus on their own store brand products. The two companies parted ways in 1963, with Stop and Shop getting ownership of the Tedeschi supermarket name as part of the agreement. The four Tedeschi brothers still wished to work in the grocery business, though, and thus needed to forge a new path. In 1964, the Tedeschis bought one of the less successful stores from Stop and Shop in Holbrook, Massachusetts. They renamed it after their father, and the first Angelo supermarket was born. Part of the agreement in parting with Stop and Shop was a non-compete, so the Tedeschi's looked for new horizons in which to open more Angelos. They found a perfect home on Cape Cod in the town of South Yarmouth. They began the process of nailing down a location in May 1964. Initially, the Tedeskys wished to purchase approximately four acres of land abutting the South Yarmouth Elementary School on Route 28, owned by Aletta Root. There was also the option of buying some land on Route 134 in South Dennis. In the end, they decided to purchase another long-standing Cape Cod store, Daggett's Market, located on the north side of Route 28 in South Yarmouth. Daggett's Market had successfully been in business since 1930 on Main Street in Hyannis before moving to South Yarmouth in 1959. The Tedeschi's officially closed Daggett's Market on June 7, 1964. It was not the end for Daggett's, though, as it took over the empty space next door and opened Daggett's Liquor Store, which is still in business today. Through tireless work, the Tedeschi's completely stripped Daggett's market and had it revamped and replenished with stock in only 10 days. Angelo's supermarket opened to the public on June 17th. The store was jammed with customers immediately, with an added incentive of there being 10 television sets given away to lucky shoppers. Angelo's was a huge hit in South Yarmouth, but the Tedeschi's did not stop there. The following summer, Angelo's in South Yarmouth was enlarged, while a third market was built on West Main Street in Hyannis at a cost of about $400,000, or about $3.9 million when adjusted for inflation to 2023. From there, it was off to the races for the new supermarket chain. Additional locations sprung up in Falmouth, Dennisport, Sandwich, Orleans, and Harwichport, and that was just on Cape Cod. The Tedeschi's reach expanded with the acquisition of the Curtis Food Stores chain in August 1972, converting nine supermarkets into the Angelos brand while keeping 24 convenience stores as is. In March 1979, the Tedeschi's bought Christie's Market in Mashpee. It was converted into what would be the 18th Angelos supermarket in southeastern Massachusetts. By the mid-1980s, Angelo's was the top grocery chain in Plymouth County and well-known throughout southeastern New England. The original Cape Cod location in South Yarmouth moved next door into a newly built 35,000-square-foot building in June 1984. The Tedeschi's were riding high. When they were made an offer, they couldn't refuse. In the fall of 1985, an offer was put in for the Angelos franchise by New Jersey-based Supermarkets General, which owned the Purity Supreme and Heartland's food stores chain of grocery stores. The sale was finalized on January 31st, 1986 for a total of $27.25 million, or just under $78 million when adjusted for inflation to 2023. But despite the ownership change, Angelo's kept its name and identity for the moment. Changes began coming, though. On August 31st, 1986, the Dennisport Angelo's was closed. Slowly but surely, the Angelo's name was replaced by Purity at the remaining locations, including the first-ever Cape Cod store in South Yarmouth. In a fitting piece of irony... The Purity Company was acquired by Stop and Shop in 1995, making it an interesting full-circle moment that Stop and Shop essentially bought out the Tedeschi's two different times. But the Tedeschi family name lived on through a string of successful convenience stores, including the eventual purchase of competing chains Lil' Peach in 1996 and Store 24 in 2002. The number of Tedeschi food shops... convenience stores would total 182 at their peak before 7-Eleven eventually bought the Tedeschi chain in May 2015. Much like it happened with Angelo's, slowly the Tedeschi's name was phased out, turned into 7-Eleven's, until now that convenience store is also a part of history. It's been well over 30 years since the last Angelo's supermarket faded into time. And it's even been almost 30 years since the Purity Supreme brand was changed to Stop and Shop. But for those of us Cape Codders of a certain age, and those in southeastern New England in general, we only look back with fond memories on the old Angelo's Supermarkets. Did you remember Angelo's? Drop me a line if you did and let me know your favorite memories of the old Angelo's Supermarkets. This week's road trip takes us to the state of Rhode Island and a town that many people pass through, likely going to somewhere else, but deserves its own time to shine here on the podcast. And that is the town of Middletown. Middletown, Rhode Island is a part of Aquidneck Island. And when I said it's a place that people pass through, likely going to somewhere else, it's on the way to Newport. So for me, if I'm heading from Cape Cod to Newport, I have to go through Middletown. Oh, and it's actually called Middletown because there are three towns on Aquidneck Island. Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport. So it's literally the middle town on the island. For me, Middletown reminds me a little bit of Truro. on Cape Cod in that loads of people pass through Truro every day, but they're likely heading to Provincetown. Not as many stop in Truro as should. And I think that's the same for Middletown. It's 35 miles south of Providence and about 70 miles south of Boston. As of 2020, it had a population of 17,075. So it's a smaller town. Middletown is along Route 114. That's likely how most people get there. You pass through Middletown going to Newport. Route 114 connects Woonsocket to Newport. And that's a fun little route. It goes from busier stretches with restaurants and gas stations and businesses to then more scenic views. Being that it's bordered on both sides by water, Middletown has no lack of great beaches. You can check out Second Beach and Third Beach that are located pretty close together. They're in the southeastern corner of the town. For those wondering, First Beach is only a little ways to the west. It's actually called Easton's Beach also, and it's in Newport. Second Beach is on Sachusett Point Road. with Third Beach just to the east on the appropriately named Third Beach Road. It's essentially one big nature area. Second and Third Beaches are connected together by Sachusett Point National Wildlife Refuge. The main parking lot of the wildlife refuge is at 769 Sachusett Point Road. There's more than two and a half miles of hiking trails at Sechuset Point, and it's more than 240 acres in total size, and this area proves to be an important stopping over point for migratory birds. So if you like bird watching, you can go there for that as well. Second Beach faces the ocean to the south, so it's more apt to get bigger waves, whereas Third Beach runs along the eastern coast of Middletown, so it's probably a little more calm and tame. Or you can go just to the north of both beaches to Gardner Pond, which is part of the larger Norman Bird Sanctuary. It's on the western banks of Gardner Pond that there is the Hanging Rock. It's considered the most distinctive geological feature on the entirety of Aquidneck Island. It's a collection of rocks with a beautiful view from the top. It's only about a mile hike to get to the top of Hanging Rock. But the hiking trail is not easy, so just be prepared when you go out there. As I said, it's part of the larger Norman Bird Sanctuary, which is 325 acres in total. So when you couple that with the Massachusetts Point National Wildlife Refuge, you're looking at almost 600 acres of nature in the southeast corner of Middletown with a couple of beaches around it. The main educational center and museum of the Norman Bird Sanctuary is located at 583 Third Beach Road and at normanbirdsanctuary.org. It was established in 1949. They do events. They do summer camps for kids. There's more than seven miles of hiking trails. If you like nature, there's so much in Middletown for you to see and do. If you want to explore nature, but in a more structured way, there are several golf courses in Middletown too. Newport National on Mitchell's Lane. Wanamotonomy Golf and Country Club on Brown's Lane. They even have an airport there for a place that has so much wide open space. Middletown has the Newport State Airport. Check out flynewportairport.com just to see what they do. It's more small planes. I couldn't see if they do sightseeing tours and such, but if you reach out, if you're interested, maybe they do. But if beaches aren't your thing, golf courses aren't your thing, hiking isn't your thing, or if it is, but it's just cold in winter, there's plenty of places to eat and to shop where Route 114 and Route 138 kind of come together. You could stop for a bite to eat at Chelsea's Restaurant at 1015 Aquidneck Avenue. It's a classic American fare restaurant, family owned, breakfast, lunch. It's very homey inside, loads of framed photos on the wall. Of course, if you're going to Middletown, you could always stop and get a bite to eat at the classic Newport Creamery. I'll likely do a much deeper dive into the Newport Creamery restaurant franchise in a later podcast episode, but the restaurant opened in 1928. They currently have 10 locations, eight in Rhode Island, two in Massachusetts, including one in Middletown at 208 West Main Road. Visit newportcreamery.com to see their menus and photos of the restaurants. They've got classic burgers and sandwiches. hot dogs, chowder, but they're also known for their awful, awful milkshakes, which came from a customer calling it awful good and awful big. Interestingly, it started with a different franchise called Bonds in New Jersey. And if you've ever had an awful, awful or a Friendly's Fribble and you think they taste the same, that's because they were both licensed from Bonds. It's fascinating. But we'll do more on Newport Creamery at a future date. I would say if you're going through Middletown, stop there. Spend a night there. Check out the Seabreeze Inn at 147 Aquidneck Avenue and also theseabreezeinn.com. It overlooks Easton's Beach, which I mentioned earlier, First Beach. It's been around since 1995, but this boutique hotel got a major renovation in 2015. And it has 16 beautiful rooms. And it's considered one of the top hotels in all of Newport County. And you know how great Newport is as far as places to stay. But as I say with these road trip segments, don't take my word for it. I'm starting to sound like LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow. Take your car and just go find your own way. Check out discovernewport.org, which is the travel and tourism site for Newport, but also for Middletown. That'll give you a more comprehensive list of things to see and do when you go to Middletown. It's on the way to Newport, but has more than enough beautiful scenery, attractions, shopping to make it its own destination. Go and visit Middletown, Rhode Island. You will not be sorry. 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 158 years ago this week to November the 26th, 1865, and the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland being first published in the United States. Commonly known as Alice in Wonderland, this uber-famous story was written by a man named Lewis Carroll, the pen name for Charles Dodgson. who was a mathematics tutor at the British Oxford University. For those that don't know the story, it's about a young girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole and into this wonderland which is filled with anthropomorphic creatures, the white rabbit, the Cheshire cat, the mad hatter, the caterpillar, and the queen of hearts who's the main villain of the book. The book had several poems in it that would become songs when Walt Disney did the Alice in Wonderland feature animated film in 1951. In 158 years, the book has never been out of print, and it has been transcribed into 174 different languages. It is estimated that roughly 100 million copies of the book have been sold since it first came out. In 1871, Lewis Carroll wrote a sequel to Alice in Wonderland called Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. This book introduced more characters like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It sold even better than the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The books even influenced the Beatles with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, with John Lennon saying that the imagery in the song was directly influenced by Lewis Carroll's book. I remember as a kid when I was probably eight years old, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had the song Don't Come Around Here No More, where there's a girl that plays Alice and Tom Petty's the Mad Hatter. That video actually freaked me out a little because at the end, the girl is a cake and they're eating her. And I just remember it's her real head and her hands are twitching, but yet her body's a cake. For Lewis Carroll, his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass made him an international star. And although he had other books that were of the same vein, he did write other books that were more mathematical texts with geometry, which makes him a fascinating character. Because most authors, when they find something that's popular, they tend to... I guess stay in their lane a little. Could you imagine your favorite author following up a fantasy novel like Alice in Wonderland with a math textbook? I'm pretty sure, though, most of you, if you haven't seen the Disney movie or read one of the books, you know Alice in Wonderland and some of the characters. And that original classic by Lewis Carroll was first published in America 158 years ago this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We are going back 20 years ago this week to November the 30th, 2003. That's right. 2003 is now 20 years ago. Oh, God. So let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture in the early days of the 21st century. The number one song was Baby Boy by Beyonce featuring Sean Paul. This was off of her Dangerously in Love album, which was her debut solo album after being in Destiny's Child for years. It was her first number one song as a solo artist and spent nine weeks at number one. Her Dangerously in Love album has sold well over 11 million copies since its release. The number one movie was The Cat in the Hat, and you could get in to see it with a ticket costing $6.03. This was the movie that had Mike Myers as the cat in the hat. I was shocked to see that it was number one because it's widely considered one of the worst movies ever made. It's a whopping 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and made $134 million at the box office on a budget of $109 million. It was nominated for 10 Golden Razzie Awards, but they only won one, so hey, there's something to hang your hat on. The number one TV show was Survivor Pearl Islands. This was the seventh season edition of the popular reality show hosted by Jeff Probst. It had 16 competitors trying to survive through 39 days of grueling surviving. Pearl Islands is off the coast of Panama. This was when reality TV was starting to take over. I've never been big into reality shows. I don't know about you out there. I know it's cheap. to produce, and it's kind of easy as far as making money for the networks. But I've never been into it. I don't know about you folks, but that was number one. And if you were around back then, 20 years ago, I'm pretty sure most of you were, and you were getting ready to shop for the holidays. Well, there's some new convenient ways to get stuff online shopping. There were still the same popular shopping sites like Amazon and eBay, but But at this point in 2003, online retail sales made up about 1.7% of all sales. As of mid-2023, that number is about 15%. So when you hear people say everyone just gets things online, 85% of retail sales are not online. The most popular online items that were purchased were computer hardware, apparel and accessories, and consumer electronics. Were you online shopping back in 2003? That's going to wrap up another time capsule, another This Week in History. And now it's time for a special little wrinkle on the new top five, a little something I like to call me versus AI top fives. I'll give you mine. ChatGPT will give you theirs as we discuss the best 1980s professional wrestlers coming up right now. Oh man, this is going to be such a fun Top 5. I'm so excited to do this, to debut this new spin on it, as we do a little something called Me vs. AI Top 5s. So a little bit of a setup on this. The subject this week is Top 5 1980s Professional Wrestlers. I became a wrestling fan in early 1986, and I thought it would be fun to go over some of these old school names. So I have my top five. There won't be any honorable mentions this week. But then I asked ChatGPT the question about top five 1980s professional wrestlers. But the thing with AI is if you ask for its favorites, it's an opinion. So it doesn't really have an opinion per se. So what I did was I asked ChatGPT who were the top five best wrestlers. And I left it totally subjective. I asked ChatGPT to make sure you gave me reasons why you put these people in your top five. It was basically a coin flip to see whose list went first. I decided to go with mine first. I'll briefly go over all my top fives, and then I'll go through ChatGPT's actual list with the full text and everything. I had debated... doing the chat GPT AI one in some sort of robot voice like Dr. Spezo, if you remember that old DOS program. But I didn't want to make it something where it was so stupid, unless you want me to do that in the future. I'll leave that up to you if you want robot voices for AI in the future. But enough of the setup. Let's get to the actual punchline. Here is my top five 1980s professional wrestlers, starting with number one, Hulk Hogan. He may be kind of a D-bag human, but when I first became a wrestling fan, there was nobody bigger than Hulk Hogan. He crossed over into mainstream, hosted Saturday Night Live, was in movies. He looked like a superhero. 6'8", 300 pounds, tanned, although he was balding, but still. He was the larger-than-life character during that rock and wrestling era of the mid-1980s. And whether you love or hate him as a human, there's no denying his impact on the wrestling business. Number two is Andre the Giant. When I first started watching wrestling, Andre was already on the way down. His mobility was very limited due to the acromegaly, the giantism that gave him his unique look. But still, he main evented WrestleMania 3 in 1987, and by then he was having trouble moving. He probably had to suck down a couple of bottles of vodka just to get out there. But Andre, he was known as the eighth wonder of the world. He was known wherever he went because he was such a unique character. And he was another one that crossed over into film, The Princess Bride. He was on TV. He was in commercials. So even though by the time I saw him, he was more coasting on his legacy because that's all he could do. He was a huge star throughout the entire 1980s and was probably WWF's biggest star before Hulk Hogan won the world belt in 1984. Number three is Rowdy Roddy Piper, the joker to Hulk Hogan's Batman. He's another one that crossed over into mainstream and the movies they live in. He was a massive star for wrestling fans when he was on MTV and he beat up Cyndi Lauper and her manager. He was in the main event of the very first WrestleMania and would nearly cause riots as a heel with some of the horrible things he would say about the crowd and other wrestlers. And then in late 1986, he turned babyface, became a good guy, had a big match at WrestleMania III in 1987, and then he went off to Hollywood and came back in 1989. But every great hero needs the great villain. And Hulk Hogan wouldn't have been as big as he was if Roddy Piper wasn't as bad as he was. Number four is Macho Man Randy Savage. If you asked me who was my favorite wrestler of the 1980s, my early days, I would tell you Macho Man Randy Savage. He was smaller relatively compared to the other giants of WWF. Did a lot of cool moves. Cut a lot of really cool promos where he was probably coked up. For those interested, go to YouTube and search Macho Man Promos 1980s. Especially the backstage ones. He was an alternative to Hulk Hogan. Became the world champion for a year. Main evented WrestleMania 4 and 5. He crossed over more into mainstream in 1989 and then mostly... or more in the 1990s with his Slim Jim commercials. But he's just another all-time great. Fun fact, the very first wrestling show I ever watched was February 1986 on Nessun, New England Sports Network from the Boston Garden. The main event was Macho Man Randy Savage winning the Intercontinental title from Tito Santana by whacking him with a foreign object and getting the pin. And finally, number five on my top five favorite 1980s professional wrestlers is Nature Boy Ric Flair. I won't lie, growing up in the Northeast, I typically only saw WWF, but I also started to read the wrestling magazines, and there was this blonde-haired guy on the cover of a lot of them with this crazy-looking big gold belt who just looked like a star. And that's who Ric Flair was. Limousine riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, son of a gun. His heyday was definitely the 80s. He was the best wrestler as far as in-ring work went, bar none. Hogan was a bigger star, Ric Flair was a better wrestler. And even though I was a WWF fan growing up, I knew who Ric Flair was. But now, the moment you've all been waiting for... Who did ChatGPT select as their top five 80s professional wrestlers? I'm going to read this verbatim, what they gave to me when I asked them. The 1980s was a significant era in professional wrestling, known for its larger-than-life personalities and iconic moments. While it's challenging to narrow down the top five wrestlers of that decade, here are five individuals who have left a lasting impact, along with reasons why they are considered among the best. Yeesh, very professional chat, GBT. Their number one is Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, arguably the most iconic wrestler of the 1980s. He was the face of the World Wrestling Federation during this era, helping to usher in the rock and wrestling era. Hogan's charisma, incredible physique, and ability to connect with fans made him a global phenomenon. Hogan's countless title reigns, memorable catchphrases like Hulkamania, and his legendary feud with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III solidify his place as a top wrestler of the 1980s. Their number two, Macho Man Randy Savage. Known for his flamboyant personality, unique style, and exceptional in-ring skills, he held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and played a pivotal role in the success of the WWF during the 1980s. Savage's intensity, colorful outfits, and famous catchphrase, Ooh Yeah! made him a fan favorite. His rivalry with Hogan, especially at WrestleMania V, is considered one of the greatest feuds in wrestling history. Their number three is Ric Flair. Often referred to as the Nature Boy, he was the embodiment of a classic wrestling heel during the 80s. He was NWA World Heavyweight Champion and known for his incredible technical skills and charisma. Flair's legendary promos and matches with stars like Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, and Sting helped elevate him to the status of one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Three for three so far, right? Their number four best wrestlers of the 1980s is the Ultimate Warrior. I'll just read what they wrote. Real name James Helwig brought a unique, intense energy to the wrestling world in the late 80s. He had a colorful, face-painted persona and was known for his explosive, high-energy style. Warrior's victory over Hogan at WrestleMania VI, which was 1990, chat GPT, to become the WWF World Heavyweight Champion is one of the most iconic moments in wrestling history. So right there, chat GPT already lost us by claiming his biggest moment was not in the 80s. That's fine. Maybe they can recover with their number five. Their number five best wrestler of the 1980s is the tag team, the Rock and Roll Express. Okay, how do they sum this up? The Rock and Roll Express was a tag team that had a tremendous impact on professional wrestling during the 1980s. They were known for their high-flying, fast-paced style and had memorable feuds with teams like the Midnight Express. Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson's ability to connect with the fans and their longevity in the industry cement their place as one of the top tag teams of the 1980s. So that was their top five. They went three for five, I think. Warrior is borderline because his best moments came in 1990. And I also didn't ask for tag teams, but they gave me a tag team as their number five. No Andre the Giant, no Dusty Rhodes, no Ricky Steamboat. No Roddy Piper. That's fine. But that wraps up this week's top five. What did you all think of the me versus AI debut? Definitely give me some topics that you think might do well as a top five with AI. I have to figure out how to word it appropriately because they don't have favorites. You can't ask them, for example, who are the most hated wrestlers or because they'll say something like they can't hate or they don't feel that, at least yet. But I hope you enjoyed this new wrinkle on the top five. I'm sure there'll be more like this to come. These days, the internet feels like it's been around forever, like it's old hat. And despite it being relatively accessible for 25 plus years, today's internet still has its share of annoying trends and fads. From people sharing the same gifs, the same memes, and a whole slew of annoying social media challenges. I'm sure if you pause this podcast and think for a minute, you can think of several things that are around the internet today that just make you want to take your computer and smash it. But don't do that. In general, the internet's great. But way back in its infancy, in the 1990s, the internet had a whole different collection of annoying fads and trends. And we're going to go over a lot of them here today as we go way, way back in the day as we look at some of the weird and annoying internet fads and trends of the 1990s. In full transparency, my first access to the internet came in late 1995, early 1996. And boy, it was so different than what's out there today. Just the speed of being able to get on the internet was so different. Although dial-up internet where you had to use an actual phone line, that wasn't really an internet fad or trend, but it sure as hell was annoying. When I was kind of putting together a list for this segment, there were two things that immediately popped into my mind as far as what I remember about mid-90s internet fads. And that was literally the idea that the internet itself was a passing fad. Anything that's that new and popular that fast... that's kind of an unknown scares a lot of the older generation that are set in their ways. So the internet itself was seen as a passing fad to people of my parents' generation, while television was likely seen as a passing fad to my grandparents' generation, and the automobile was seen as a passing fad to my great-grandparents' generation. And you just go back further and further. The funny part is those older generation that said the internet was a passing fad are now ones that have Facebook pages. Hell, before he passed away, my grandpa had a Facebook page for years. I used to love chatting with him on there. The other thing I immediately thought of when thinking of 90s internet fads and trends was the fact that people thought there was a finite size to the internet, like you might reach the end of it at some point. And I suppose in the early to mid-90s, there was a limited number of websites you could go to. So if you had access to a computer and a lot of time on your hands, I'm sure you could probably visit a great number of the websites that were out there, although I doubt you could ever visit all of them with new ones springing up every day. As far as 2023 goes, we know there's basically no end to the internet. You could scroll and search for months and never come close. According to a Forbes.com article from February of this year, there are in total about 1.13 billion websites on the internet. But also according to the article, about 82% of those are inactive, meaning it's closer to 200 million websites that are out there that are actively updated and visited. But still, that's a lot of sites to try to visit. Way back when I first got on the internet, I set up my AOL mail name for America Online. There were other emails. The other one that was really popular back then was Hotmail. It was a free email site compared to ones you had to sign up for with a paid account. A man named Sabir Bhatia founded it in 1996. Hotmail stuck around for a while. It wasn't until 2013 that it was totally phased out. It basically was absorbed into Outlook through Microsoft. I had a Hotmail account, and the funny thing is now I wish I could go into that account and check my emails from 20 years ago. Another thing that was really interesting during those early days of the internet was the fact that in traditional print magazines, there would be articles and lists in them featuring websites that you should go visit. It's an interesting... kind of cross-branding of, I guess, kind of a dying medium now, the print magazine, with the new and up-and-coming thing with the internet kind of crossing paths. Did any of you out there who were on the internet in the mid to late 90s ever get ideas for websites to visit from traditional print magazines? That seems like something that would be in the teen magazine section. I could be wrong. I don't think I remember Time Magazine or Life or Newsweek having articles about internet sites to go visit. Do you remember when, if you were going to a website, some of them you had to accept Adobe Flash to let you into the site? Like, if you didn't allow Adobe Flash and you went to the site, it just didn't work? I think that was a trend that stuck around into the 2000s. I seem to remember Adobe Flash being kind of the bane of my existence for many years. But then you click Adobe Flash and you go into these sites, and there were a lot of things that were unique to websites in the late 90s that aren't really around anymore. Some sites would have music that would start playing as soon as you went into the site. I remember my MySpace page did that. I don't know how many people got annoyed with that. I picked my song I liked, and that would be the ambiance of my profile page. But that's more mid-2000s. Two things I remember about visiting websites in the mid to late 90s that I don't really see anymore. One of them is the visitor slash hit count on the website. A way to humble brag about how many people have come to your page. Or if the number was really low, be sad and ashamed. That was one of those first instances of the being obsessed with likes and comments on social media. Begging people to like and subscribe. You know, I do the same stuff. But back then it was please come to my site so my hit count will go up. And the other thing was guest books. Do you remember websites with guest books where they'd have a link to it at the top of the homepage? Please sign our guest book like it was a motel or something. And you could go into the guest book and see people who had left messages. Of course, you could do just like on YouTube with comments, delete ones that you don't think are appropriate. So if you went to leave a message in the guestbook that said your website sucks, you could go and delete it so people don't see that and then drive down your hit count. Another really annoying trend or fad of the late 90s internet was scrolling text. Instead of it just being words on a screen, it was words that would move, slide across the screen, slide down, rotate. Words that would rotate like 3D, like that was the biggest thing ever. Sometimes it would be like a news ticker that would be on the bottom of the cable news channels. It would be like that, so you'd have to sit and wait for it to come back around if you really cared what they had to say. I feel like the scrolling text on people's old websites was kind of like the laser background in 1980s school photos. At the time, you think it's so cool, and you look back now like, ah, really? I thought that was good. I try not to be too hard on people that were building their own websites in the mid to late 90s because it had to be difficult trying to make something that was engaging to people when you don't know what's popular. Now, if you were going to build a website, you could go to a bunch of other websites and look up articles about what makes a good website. Talk about being meta. But back then, you had to just guess or go to sites with a really high hit count and full guest book and see what they did. you'd find some of these really simple fourth grade level websites with glowing glittery text, a bunch of different weird, I guess they'd be considered gifs now, but moving images, lips or butterflies or something like that. But you couldn't be cool unless you had the dancing baby gif. Oh my God. That was one of the first internet fads that I just couldn't believe that this was what was considered cool. And I was only in my early 20s then. Or that stupid hamster with the stupid hamster song. Sorry, I had to play you a clip of it, so now it's stuck in your head. You can go to archive.org and there's the Wayback Machine at the top where you can search for old websites and they have... timestamp screenshots of websites from way back so you can kind of see what they looked like. It's a fun way to waste time. But I remember an episode of The Simpsons from 2000, so season 12, and Homer creates his own website where he's Mr. X and he spreads gossip about people all around the town trying to get his hit count up. But before that, his first website was all these random things. The dancing baby, flying toasters, lips just yelling. It's so funny, but it's also so true that there were a lot of websites like that. But those were some of the 90s internet fads and trends that I remembered. Are there any I missed? I'm sure there are. I may end up doing a part two to this. Because to some, 90s internet is now ancient history. I mean, it is. It's 25 years ago. And surprise, surprise, the internet was not a passing fad. It is definitely here to stay. And that's going to wrap up episode 122 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone who listens, who shares. I always have so much fun putting these together, researching. I mean, editing's not great, but hey, you got to make them sound good. But crafting these, recording these, sharing them, seeing what people like, it's always a lot of fun. Go and become a subscriber on Patreon this Friday. Well, at least from when this podcast goes live this Friday, December 1st. The third members-only bonus episode of the podcast will go up on Patreon and Buzzsprout. I love doing those, too, because they're a look back at this... Fever dream of a blog that I used to run in the early 2010s that was supposed to be a sister to my travel blog, but ended up becoming more of a slice of life and a look into my psyche from 15 years ago. So you get all of that madness if you become a subscriber on Patreon. I'm sure I'll share a clip or two from it so you get an idea, but I save all the main stuff for the people that are kind enough to subscribe. As I said at the top of the podcast, the holiday shopping season is here. I have nine books that make perfect gifts for those who love Cape Cod travel, New England Cape Cod history, true crime when it comes to my searching for the Lady of the Dunes book. Visit ChristopherSetterlin.com to find all those books. Also find me on Amazon. You can find me all across social media, YouTube. Threads, Instagram, the X website, the Facebook fan page. I'm in the process of slowly building the inmyfootstepspodcast.com website. Just uploading each episode individually on that site takes forever. So there's no deadline as far as it launching. Hopefully the podcast will still be live by the time I get that thing done. The content will keep coming next week with episode 123 of the podcast. It'll include a look back at what was going on in the world of Boston sports in 1986, which was the year that I first became a sports fan. It'll be a fun trip down memory lane for me for sure. So tune in for that. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, I've got a lot of archives now. 121 other episodes. I have live streams that I used to do. Those are up on YouTube. I'm always creating something because you never know when the next thing you create is going to be the thing that breaks you through. And it doesn't have to be content creation. Whatever you're doing, whatever dream you're chasing, you never know when that day is going to come that the right set of eyes get on you and your work. So just keep moving forward. Just keep doing what you're doing. I've said it a million times. There's no expiration date on your dreams. It doesn't matter when you achieve them. It only matters that you do achieve them. And I hope you've enjoyed these podcasts, whether you're from Cape Cod, from New England, anywhere in the United States, over in Europe. I know I've got people that listen over there. You can always drop me a message at ChristopherSetterlund at gmail.com. or through my website. I'm really easy to find. 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. Thank you again for listening. I will talk to you again in December. The holiday season will be in full force. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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