In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 127: A Wacky 1983 McDonald's Training Video; Origin Story of Cape Cod Hospital; Forgotten 1980s Cartoons; Invention of Photography(1-10-2024)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 127

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Have you ever wondered how to cook McDonald's Chicken McNuggets in excruciating detail? I know you have. Well, Episode 127 has the answer. It comes in the form of a wacky McDonald's training video from 1983 complete with classic food item puppets, ominous music, cheesy jokes, and stereotypes galore.
Healthcare and hospitals are a 24-hour business in the 2020s. A century ago it was a far different story. On Cape Cod in the early 20th century it was common for the Hyannis Hospital to close during the winter with people needing to find ways off-Cape for their needs in the off-season. This week we tell the story of how Cape Cod Hospital came to be and the people that made it possible.
Children of the 1980s rejoice. On this week's Top 5 we are going to unearth some forgotten 80s cartoons. Whether you haven't watched them in decades, watched them this morning, or have never heard of them, these are bound to give you a tasty dose of nostalgia.
There will be a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the dawn of photography and Louis Daguerre unveiling his Daguerreotype process in 1839.
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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 127. it's going to be a fun and informative episode of the podcast We're going to kick things off with the story of the creation of Cape Todd Hospital, including what was on Cape Todd before Cape Todd Hospital was a thing. We're going to go way, way back in the day, 40 years ago, and look at a just slightly wacky McDonald's training video where they teach their employees how to make the brand new Chicken McNuggets. You've got to see this to believe it. It's going to be a brand new top five that are going to be the top five forgotten 1980s cartoons. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule focusing on The unveiling of the daguerreotype, which for all intents and purposes was the beginning of photography. All of that is coming up right now on episode 127 of the In My Footsteps podcast. How's everybody doing out there with their New Year's resolution? How's the weather where you're at now that the holidays have all passed? It's kind of like a war of attrition to get to spring. Each day, the sunset gets a little bit later, and you just hope that there's a minimal amount of blizzards in between now and the first day of spring. Remember, even if your New Year's resolution has fallen by the wayside, there's no rule that says you can't start over or choose a new resolution. Self-improvement never has an expiration date. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who's been tuning into the podcast, listening, sharing, giving five-star reviews over on Apple, Spotify. If you listen on Google Podcasts, just a word, within a few months, Google Podcasts is going to be going away. They are migrating all of that over to YouTube. But you'll be able to listen to the podcast over there. I also do full-length audio episodes there. and segments from the podcasts over there. I'm trying to really build up the YouTube channel. I'm looking into how much effort it takes to do nicely animated videos. I don't have computer animation skills, but I did buy a new laptop with my Christmas bonus and it runs a lot better, a lot faster. So I'm trying to see what I can do feasibly to improve my YouTube videos. Big shout out to my Patreon subscribers, Lori, Leo, Mary Lou, and my newest one, Ashley. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast, supporting my content creation. It really means so much to me that people are willing to do that. You can go become a subscriber on Patreon, get access to full extra bonus episodes of the podcast. The fourth one just went up on New Year's Day. Currently, I do them monthly. It all depends on my schedule if I add more into it. But I'm also looking to improve and add more content on Patreon just to make it a more appealing thing to people. For those curious what the bonus podcasts are all about, here's a little clip from the newest one that just went up. This might be the funniest thing out of everything on this bonus episode, though. Where I say, my niece Emma went online looking for YouTube, but instead what she found was YouPorn. It says that everybody laughed at her and she was mad. I could see an eight-year-old going on the computer and typing in You and getting confused because it's the same number of letters, YouTube and YouPorn. I could also see all of us laughing when, instead of more appropriate videos popping up, it was a bunch of porn. And I could easily envision Emma getting mad when we all laughed about it. So there you go. It's a very fever dream, random, wacky. I figured it gave me an excuse to embarrass the family a little bit there. Let's get this podcast started. We're going to take a look back now more than a century in Cape Cod history. Cape Cod Hospital has been around seemingly forever, but obviously that is not true. But how did we get to the point where that hospital was built and what was here before it on Cape Cod? So let's jump into the creation of Cape Cod Hospital right now on episode 127 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Cape Cod Hospital celebrated the centennial of its founding in 2020, and it's hard to imagine the Cape without this giant of the healthcare industry. However, there was a time before Cape Cod Hospital. There was a time that necessitated the creation of a central care facility such as the one that exists today. This is the story of the origins of Cape Cod Hospital and what came before it. At the turn of the 20th century, Cape Cod was a much quieter place. According to the Census Bureau, the year-round population on Cape Cod in the year 1900 was a scant 27,826. By comparison, in 2021, the estimated population for Barstable County was nearly 228,000, or about 10 times what it was in 1900. Back then, there was less of a need for a major healthcare facility on Cape Cod. There were doctor's offices aplenty, including most who did house calls in those days. That didn't mean that hospitals weren't necessary, though. There were some procedures doctors couldn't do during a house call, after all. Even over a century ago, Hyannis was seen as a major hub of Cape Cod, although on a much smaller scale than today. Main Street, then lined up and down both sides with trees, was still humming with businesses. There, it was an appropriate location for a hospital to take care of things that doctors couldn't do with house calls. The location chosen that eventually became known as Hyannis Hospital sat on the corner of present-day C Street and Main Street. In February 1892, Lindsay Oliver purchased a plot of land from Horace Howes that he intended to use for a large home. In previous years, after moving to Boston for business, Oliver and his wife would frequently return to Hyannis at a home a short distance away on C Street. Lindsay Oliver was the first president of the Hyannis Yacht Club, which was founded in 1895, and overall quite a popular fixture around town. Oliver also wisely purchased other land in town, including the area known as Railway Bluffs on the east side of Lewis Bay, along with a block of land on Main Street opposite the entrance to the State Normal School, which today is the Village Green. Oliver sold his estate a few years later to another local business bigwig, Allen P. Eagleston. The need for a hospital on Cape Cod was apparent for years. However, an actual plan of action was difficult to come by. When Eagleston looked to sell the estate at the west end of Main Street, a plan was finally hatched. In May 1911, two experienced nurses from Boston, Mary Remmer and Ada Berry, purchased the former Oliver home to establish a hospital. Less than two weeks after buying the property, Rimmer and Berry were hard at work to get the Hyannis Sanatorium up and operational. It opened to the public with a showcase event in early June 1911. Referred to soon thereafter as Hyannis Hospital, Rimmer and Berry, along with the help of the District Nursing Association, did their best to provide impeccable care for residents in need all across Cape Cod. However, the relatively small facility suffered from a few major hurdles. One was money. The hospital relied on charity to keep up with the necessary equipment and proper provisions for patients, such as new beds. The long and very quiet off-season on Cape Cod during the early 20th century meant it was more feasible for the hospital to close at the end of September. This meant that those in need had to travel off Cape from October through mid-April if in need of hospital care. I know today that Cape Cod's off-season can get kind of slow, but could you imagine if Cape Cod Hospital or any area a major hospital closed during the winter like any other seasonal business? It's just wild to think of how things were. From 1911 through 1914, Hyannis Hospital was headed by Mary Rimmer above all others. Despite it essentially being a seasonal job, the wear and tear began to get to her. In April 1915, she came back to Hyannis from Boston, intending to reopen the hospital, but she was burned out. She informed the town she would not be reopening Hyannis Hospital, and that she was instead taking a long-needed vacation to England. The state of the Cape's only hospital was in peril. The fears were allayed when two new nurses, a Miss Meller and a Miss Kennedy, took over the reins of Hyannis Hospital. The new management did their best to keep the hospital up and running, at least during the summer season. However, it became increasingly apparent that Cape Cod needed a full-time, year-round hospital. The chatter became a real movement in the summer of 1916. That August, benefits began to be held to raise money to build a Cape Cod hospital in Hyannis. The first such event was the Two-Paw Circus, held by the social workers of the Congregational Society of Hyannis in August 1916. However, it was three full years before the dream of a Cape Cod hospital became reality. On August 22, 1919, Cape Cod Hospital was officially incorporated. Donations were solicited for months afterward to help pay for the construction of the new health care facility. In the meantime, the Hyannis Hospital continued to assist those in need as best it could. In June 1920, the two-and-a-half-story wooden structure costing $35,000, or about $532,000 when adjusted for inflation to 2023... that was built on the corner of Park and Bayview Streets, was unveiled in the newspaper. The new Cape Cod Hospital began with 20 beds and two cribs, and it served much of Cape Cod with Arthur Geyer presiding over as the hospital's first president. The hospital officially opened on October 4, 1920, with its first patient being a man named William O. Crocker from Osterville, although it was not listed as to what he was suffering from. The Hyannis Hospital was shuttered in 1919 after seeing its last action that fall as an ear, nose, and throat clinic thanks to help from its original boss, Mary Rimmer. The building was sold to Dr. John Maloney in February 1920 to turn it back into a private home. It became the Colonial Chambers Hotel a few years later, with the property achieving its greatest notoriety when it was redeveloped into one of Cape Cod's most famed night spots, the Panama Club, in the 1940s and 50s. For those of you on Cape Cod familiar with that area of Main Street Hyannis, it's a little strip mall now, including a Dunkin' Donuts. That's where the Hyannis Hospital used to stand. In the century since it opened, Cape Cod Hospital has gone on to become a highly respected facility, expanding its walls numerous times as it approached its 100th anniversary. A new four-story tower being built for cancer and cardiology services is anticipated to open in 2025. It's just the latest milestone for the hospital. However, one cannot gaze upon today's healthcare giant without taking a quick moment to think back to the original Hyannis Hospital on Main Street and Mary Rimmer, who helped bring Cape Cod healthcare into the 20th century. This Week in History, we are going back. Way back, 185 years ago this week, to January 9th, 1839, and Louis Daguerre announcing his daguerreotype photographic process to the French Academy of Science. This is the beginning of photography. I think it would be impossible to overstate the importance of this moment Literally everything that came after, including the photo you just took with your smartphone of your dog, or the photo of your dessert at a restaurant that you just enhanced using the Snapseed app, all of it goes back to this moment in history. In plain terms, the invention of the daguerreotype marked the dawn of a new era where images could be captured and preserved forever. Louis Daguerre was a French artist and inventor, and he'd long been fascinated with the idea of capturing the beauty of the world. Sure, you could paint it, draw it, but even the most skilled artists, it wasn't the actual real thing. The daguerreotype and its process involved exposing a silver-coated copper plate to iodine vapors, and this would create a light-sensitive surface. The plate was then exposed to light in a camera obscura, which would capture the image. And then the developed plate was treated with mercury fumes and fixed with a solution of common salt, and the result was a unique and detailed and virtually permanent image. The daguerreotype and photography in general back in the 1840s, that time period, was really a dedication to the craft for the patients you needed. A fascinating example of this, if you want to go and look, I'll link to it in the description of the podcast, but there's a daguerreotype photo taken a few months prior to this announcement. So we're talking fall of 1838, but it's a street scene of Paris. And if you look at it, it looks like there's nobody there. The streets of Paris, no people. But then if you focus in to the bottom left corner, you can make out two figures, a man having his shoe shined and the shoe shiner themselves. And the reason they stand out is because they were the only ones that stood still long enough for the light to capture them. So this photo, this daguerreotype is the first ever captured image of a human being. And to anyone who likes photography or history in general, it's just fascinating. But like I said a minute ago, this daguerreotype started everything that had to do with photography. It had a massive impact on the world. It made portraiture more accessible to a broader audience. Rather than paying a lot of money to have someone paint your portrait, it was possible to have images of your family kept forever. Imagine how many thousands of people, millions of people, never had pictures of their family. The daguerreotype allowed people to capture detailed images of the world. It played a role in shaping societal norms, recording historical events, documenting evolution of fashion, architecture, and just daily life. And of course, it allowed for more artistic expression. experimenting with composition and lighting, and all of the improvements over the decades and the centuries now, which led to commercial photography, studios, offering photographic services to the public. And although the original daguerreotype was kind of convoluted and a lot of steps in the process, it led to more practical and reproducible photographic processes. When I was a kid, even then in the 80s, there was no smartphone with your camera on it. Even in high school, I had to learn how to do photography with the darkroom and film, and even that seems antiquated. But all of that history, all of that with photography, began with Louis Daguerre and his announcement of the Daguerreotype photographic process 185 years ago this week in history. And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We're going back 75 years ago this week to January 13th, 1949. So let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. We are not starting off well. The number one song was All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth by Spike Jonze and his orchestra. Just a few weeks ago in episode 124, when we did the top five most annoying Christmas songs ever, this was my number one. And now, ironically, here it is, number one for this time capsule. The song was originally recorded for the holiday season in 1947, and it went to number one in 1948, and again here in 1949, weeks after Christmas ended. It's been covered... Dozens of times. And like I said in episode 124, maybe you like it, I do not. But yes, it was number one. The number one movie was When My Baby Smiles at Me. And you could get into the theater with a ticket costing 40 cents. This was a musical starring Betty Grable. And it's about a burlesque comic whose success drives him to drink and then drives his wife, Betty Grable, to divorce him. I couldn't find any Rotten Tomatoes reviews like I usually put with these, but it's rated 5.8 out of 10 on IMDb to give you an idea of what the audience thinks of this movie. The number one TV show was the Texaco Star Theater. And this was a fascinating time because this was before the Nielsen ratings. There was the Hooper ratings and television was still pretty new. The Hooper ratings continued for another year and then the Nielsen ratings would come in in 1950. The Texaco Star Theater show was first a radio program. It's a variety show. It was on the radio from 1938 to 1949 and on TV from 1948 to 1956. So that means there was a crossover where it was on both radio and television. It was hosted initially by Fred Allen and then eventually by Milton Berle. And when the Texaco sponsorship ran out in 1953, it became the Milton Berle Show. This was probably the first must-see hit TV show in the history of television. And if you were around back then, January 13th, 1949, maybe you had some money burning a hole in your pocket after Christmas. Well, you could check out the Gilchrist Department Store in Boston. Their 107th anniversary sale was going on. I found it fascinating because I'd never heard of Gilchrist's, but they were one of the big three as far as Boston department stores go, along with Filene's and Jordan Marsh. I also found it funny that in this advertisement, they wouldn't tell you the names of the brands. They would just say they were nationally famous brands. You could get a nationally famous brand radio phonograph combination for $109.95. They say you'll recognize it when you see it. Or a nationally famous all-plastic toilet seat, and there's a picture of it. So yes, if you want some nationally famous brand products, but we can't tell you the name of them, check out Gilchrist's for their 107th anniversary sale. They stuck around until 1977 before going out of business. And that'll do it for another Time Capsule, another This Week in History. But now, kids of the 80s rejoice. We're going to bring back some fond memories as we look at the top five forgotten 1980s cartoons coming up right now. 80s kids rejoice. I've done all of the homework and all of the research here. So get ready to sit back, pour your favorite bowl of sugary cereal, pop open YouTube or whatever streaming service you want, and indulge in the top five forgotten 1980s cartoons. Now, way back in episode 39, I did the top five 1980s Saturday morning cartoons. This isn't the same thing, although there may be a little bit of crossover. I tried to make them totally different lists. But what I was looking for with this top five were cartoons that were likely popular, at least for a little while at the time in the 80s, but have kind of been lost in the shuffle. And you'll see what I mean as I get into the honorable mentions. Because like I said, those always whet your appetite for what's coming in the actual top five. And these will be in no particular order. And I'm sure that your forgotten 80s cartoons will differ from mine. I'm sure a few of these that I say are forgotten will be ones that are on your must-see list. So no more teases. Let's get into the honorable mentions for the top five forgotten 1980s cartoons. They include Snorks, which were basically the same as Smurfs, but they lived underwater. The Wuzzles. which were a hybrid combination of two different animals. Count Duckula, which was a British cartoon that was a spinoff of another cartoon we might be hearing about in the top five. Pound Puppies, which was literally a cartoon that was one part infomercial for the stuffed animal toys of the 80s. And finally, Mask. M-A-S-K... which stood for Mobile Action Strike Command, but command spelled with a K. It was a crime-fighting cartoon. So those were the honorable mentions. Do any of those pop into your head when thinking of forgotten 80s cartoons? Or maybe you watched an episode today. Well, let's get into the actual top five. This list actually took me only a few minutes to put together. So let's see what you think as we start with number one, Mr. T. Let's go!

Speaker 02:

Yes,

Speaker 00:

that Mr. T, the star of the A-Team, Rocky III, main-evented WrestleMania I, he had his own cartoon. Mr. T in this is a coach to a gymnastics team, and they travel around the world getting into mysteries and adventures kind of like Scooby-Doo. It was on for three seasons from 1983 to 85, 30 total episodes. And as you heard, that really killer theme song. And as with a lot of children's cartoons, there was some kind of a moral lesson that you learned at the end. The show was produced by Ruby Sears Enterprises, which was created by some of the Scooby-Doo writers, which explains why this series is so much like Scooby-Doo in the first place. Number two, Hulk Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling. This was a show featuring all of the most popular stars of the World Wrestling Federation, kind of at the peak of the golden age of wrestling in the mid-1980s, with Hulk Hogan and his babyface side. constantly battling Rowdy Roddy Piper in his heel side. There was a total of 26 episodes. And interestingly, because of the busy schedule of the wrestlers being on the road for 300 days a year, even though the characters were based on them, they didn't provide the voices. It was actually voice actors. But all of the icons of that time were in the show. Hogan, Junkyard Dog, Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper, Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkov, Big John Studd, and more. And the other funny thing about this show was that wrestling wasn't even really a part of it. It just determined who were the good guys and bad guys. They all kind of just did normal things. For example, the very first episode, it's Junkyard Dog and Roddy Piper have a race to see whose car gets to be in a new upcoming movie. No wrestling at all. Number three is Ghostbusters. This one is fascinating because this is not Ghostbusters that has to do with the movie. That cartoon was called the real Ghostbusters. This cartoon came out in 1986, and it was considered a sequel to Filmation's 1975 live-action TV show called The Ghostbusters. It was the success of the movie Ghostbusters that caused Filmation to bring their own spin on Ghostbusters back to life. So even though some people like me saw it as a ripoff of the real Ghostbusters, in reality, it was the original show. But when you're a kid that's eight, nine years old, it can be pretty confusing with two different Ghostbusters cartoons on. And it was made all the more confusing when the real Ghostbusters premiered within the same week that the Ghostbusters original Filmation's Ghostbusters came out. God, it's like my head is spinning thinking of this timeline. But there are 65 episodes of Filmation's Ghostbusters out there. All you need to do is watch one and you'll see the differences between the two. Number four is Danger Mouse. This British show was on Nickelodeon. That's how I was introduced to it. Count Duckula that I mentioned in the honorable mentions. He was in this cartoon as a villain. Danger Mouse was a parody of the British spy genre 007 and Danger Man. This is a great retro 80s show if you've never seen it. Danger Mouse is the hero. Such a secret, secret agent that even his codename has a codename. With Penfold, the hamster that's his sidekick. There are 89 episodes of Danger Mouse. And like I've said at the top of this segment... These cartoons appear to be more lost to time because there's so many choices out there, but at the time it was really popular. I watched it all the time when I was growing up watching Nickelodeon. And finally, number five on the top five forgotten 1980s cartoons is The Go-Bots. I don't know about any of you out there, boys that grew up in the 80s. I always considered GoBots to be kind of the dollar store version of Transformers. The cartoon itself was technically called the Challenge of the GoBots and served kind of as an infomercial for the toys, much like the Pound Puppies show that I mentioned in the Honorable Mentions. There are 65 episodes of Challenge of the Gobots. You only really need to see one to kind of get the gist of the whole show. It's the Guardians versus the Renegades, much like the Autobots and Decepticons of the Transformers. The Guardians were led by Leader One, Turbo, and Scooter, and they'd always be challenged by the Renegades leaders, Psy-Kill, Cop, Tor, and Crasher. and a bunch of other ones that would come and go. I know that whenever I played Transformers and had GoBots there, the GoBots were the little brothers that would always just get beat up. But that wraps up the top five. How many of these do you remember watching when they were on? Like I said, the top five themselves, it didn't take me long to pick out these ones from my childhood that I remembered watching but didn't think that they got a lot of love today, except for the Ghostbusters one. That one was more, I just wanted to share the fact that there were two cartoons with basically the same plot and same idea that got released within the same week. So there's your homework. Go watch some of those shows and reminisce about the 80s cartoons that were popular but faded away. than visiting McDonald's for lunch or dinner, fast food as a kid might as well be one of the seven wonders of the world. Whereas fast food as an adult can be the bane of your existence that you just can't stop eating. Much like a lot of kids, my favorite thing growing up at McDonald's was the chicken McNuggets. Nothing beats McNuggets with barbecue sauce or honey and fries. But did you ever wonder about how the McNuggets got made? I know you have. So this week we're going to go way, way back in the day, in the first of what will likely be a recurring series, as I review a training video about how to make chicken McNuggets from McNuggets McDonald's from 1983. Like I said this will probably be a series I do because I happened upon this particular video and then the YouTube algorithm started recommending tons of other official training videos from the 70s and 80s from not just fast food restaurants but other restaurants and stores in general. For someone who loves nostalgia this is like a treasure chest. And I'll link to this video in the description of the podcast because it's so much fun to watch. It's kind of familiar but totally new for people that grew up in that time period. So the video starts by saying that this is official for McDonald's employees, trainees only. But yet here we are watching it. Somehow it got on YouTube. It's May 1983. So Chicken McNuggets were pretty brand new at the time. So this training video explains them and goes really in depth on how to make them. It starts off as we creep towards the counter of a typical 1983 McDonald's restaurant, but it's dark and there's this ominous music. And then you start hearing voices. And these voices belong to puppets that look just like the ones that they would have in the typical McDonald's commercials from back in the 1980s. So there's a regular hamburger who seems to be like a little boy with a higher pitched voice. There's a small french fries and a soda in that typical white cup. There's an egg McMuffin that looks like an old granny. And then the king of all is Big Mac, who's the big star of McDonald's. And he's got this... dignified British voice and they're chatting about the mysterious box that is there and the lid of the box starts to open with more scary music like it's a UFO and all the puppets are scared and shaking and inside naturally are the chicken McNuggets and the other McDonald's puppets think they're aliens but the leader of the McNuggets whose voice is kind of like Bing Crosby starts to explain who they are and why they're there and I noticed right away that the leader of the McNuggets looked more like an apple pie than a chicken McNugget would. And one of the plot lines of this video is the fact that Big Mac hates these McNuggets and he's jealous of them. But the leader of the McNuggets explains that they're white meat and dark meat chicken and that they were created by French chefs. Then we start to get deeper into what would be the fever dream part. I'd recommend an edible or something as you watch this to make it seem more normal because it's pretty weird. The Bing Crosby McNugget explains about how they taste so good because of the four sauces they have. And with each of these sauces, the McNugget that gets dipped in them changes their personality to fit the sauce. So barbecue sauce turns the McNugget into a cowboy with the Texan accent. But then we get into... the it was a different time part of the video, where for the sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard, which I didn't know they even had, the McNuggets are turned into stereotypical and somewhat racist depictions of Asian people. Especially the hot mustard one, because the McNugget turns into a samurai that's just shouting gibberish that's supposed to be Japanese. I guess you can chalk that up to being a different time. 40 years ago. And the final one, the honey sauce, which was always my favorite. The average-looking female Chicken McNugget transforms into Marilyn Monroe, complete with the mole on her face. But the best part of each one of these four introductions of the McNuggets and sauces is that after they get done talking, some giant hand reaches in and grabs them to eat, and they kind of scream a little and say goodbye. So they get killed right after introducing themselves.

Speaker 05:

You said you had another one, McNugget?

Speaker 00:

That's right.

Speaker 05:

Honey? I was just a plain Jane. Until I took my first dip in a souffle cup filled with honey.

Speaker 00:

Big Mac comes back in with his dignified British voice complaining that the McNuggets must be hard to make. We get really crazy when the leader McNugget pitches it to a coach McNugget with a hat and a whistle to really give you the nuts and bolts on how to make McNuggets.

Speaker 04:

Look alive, shake a leg, let's have that blackboard. Sit down, shut up, and listen up good. Coke. What's that? Gum in your mouth? Ten laps. Let's move it. Next guy talks, 50 sit-ups.

Speaker 00:

So all the other puppets are sitting at desks while the coach McNugget is at the front with his blackboard. And it's very much a sign of the times where the coach is as stereotypical as you could imagine. A lot of shouting, a lot of telling different puppets to run laps and do push-ups. acting surprised when they give correct answers, saying he thought fries were stupid until he heard the fries give a right answer. And even though it's puppets, it is very 1980s. There's a lot of 80s lingo. Things like far out or daddy-o or au contraire mon frere, which was, god, that was said a lot in the 80s and early 90s. Anyway, the coach starts talking about handle the McNuggets with care because they're shipped in frozen. In case you ever thought they were freshly made. I didn't, but you know. And you get clips spliced in of people at a McDonald's. There's a guy with a green uniform. And then the boss checking the boxes to make sure they're not broken. And they're very specific on how to store them. Literally keep them two inches from the wall in the walk-in freezer. And don't stack the boxes more than five high, which it's a lot of this stuff is common sense. But those of us that have been to McDonald's over the last 40 years know that that's not always there. Even back here in 1983, it was all computerized and timed so that all you really had to do was drop the McNuggets in the fryer and it would count down the timer halfway through it beeps so you know to shake the McNuggets so they're not stuck together. So it really is, if you have a shred of a brain, you could do this with no problem. I laugh because everything is McNugget-centric. McNugget sauce holder. McNugget transfer basket. McNugget scoop. This video in total is about 18 and a half minutes. I should have counted because they said McNugget got it a hundred times. The thing I laughed at, among many things in this... was the fact that Coach McNugget said after the McNuggets are cooked, they can only be stored for 30 minutes. Now, honestly, how long do you people out there think they store McNuggets or burgers under the heat lamp or fries? Maybe that's just an urban legend from years of growing up that some of the fast food stuff was stored under heat lamps for hours. But at least according to corporate McDonald's, it's 30 minutes. They even show you how to lay out the nuggets in the classic old school styrofoam containers. Six piece, nine piece, or 20 piece McNuggets. And it was back then where the boxes on the top, it had the piece numbers on it. These are little touches that immediately brought me back to being a kid because I always loved nine piece McNuggets. I'm a big boy. I don't want just six, but I'm not that big that I could eat 20. But to keep prospective employees and trainees entertained while they watch this video there's an endless stream of cheesy jokes

Speaker 04:

uh coach hamburger have you ever heard of raising your hand i don't i don't have a hand sir oh well then uh will somebody please give burger a hand over there now cut that out

Speaker 00:

And after they get through the whole procedure on how to make the nuggets and package them and hand them off, then the coach makes all the puppets recite the whole thing again from the beginning just for those employees that weren't paying attention during the video. And you could imagine the thousands of employees that had to watch this video in the mid-1980s. Back then, there was no internet. There were no smartphones. But yet you know that a lot of them didn't pay attention to the video. And then the first thing that happens when they make nuggets is they're burned or stuck together. You get the manager yelling at them. Don't you remember that training video with the puppet McNuggets? And then at the end, it's a big happy ending when Big Mac now likes the McNuggets and he and the Bing Crosby McNugget are chatting. And Big Mac tells the crew to suggest these McNuggets to the customers.

Speaker 03:

It's all up to the crew. And that's the end

Speaker 00:

of the McDonald's Making Chicken McNuggets training video from May 1983. Go and watch for yourself. I tried to add some clips in there and do justice to the video, but if you watch it, it tickles you right in that nostalgic funny bone. And when I tell you I found a lot of other training videos, I'm not kidding. I could theoretically make the training videos and this type of stuff the back in the day segment on the podcast and have enough to do for probably the rest of the year. But there's also the old educational short films I've been reviewing. Because as much as I like sharing the 70s, 80s, 90s nostalgia, it's even better when I have, I guess, audio aids where I can share clips of things. These videos were things I didn't even know about when I first started researching the podcast, so it's like a whole brand new thing. But let me know if you enjoy these types of video reviews, the training videos or the educational short films. Because I don't have to restrict them to the back in the day segment. I could do another segment strictly for video reviews or something like that. But until then, go watch this video with Squeaky Voice Hamburger and British Big Mac and Bing Crosby McNugget. It's definitely a good time. And that's going to wrap up episode 127 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you to everyone for tuning in. I hope you had some laughs. I hope you learned a few things. If you enjoy the podcast, go give it a review wherever you get your podcast from. Share it. Tell others to check it out. If you are so inclined, you can become a subscriber on Patreon and get the access to the bonus episodes, other exclusive content. I'm adding more stuff as we go. You can find me all over social media. Instagram threads. I still have an X page, my YouTube channel. I'm really working on the videos there, the content. You can email me, ChristopherSetterlin at gmail.com. Visit my website, ChristopherSetterlin.com. It's got links to all of my books. Next week, the podcast train keeps rolling with episode 128. We're going to have another fun slice of Cape Cod history as I tell you all about the history of the Mill Hill Arena in West Yarmouth on Cape Cod. Not the Mill Hill Club, the Mill Hill Arena. Totally different. We're going to go way, way back in the day and look at some classic MS-DOS computer games. These will bring a lot of fun flashbacks to a lot of you, especially my buddy John. There may or may not be a special appearance by Dr. Spezo, but we'll have to see. All of that and more is coming up next week on episode 128 of the In My Footsteps podcast. I guess when it comes to New Year's resolutions, I think the best resolution you can have is to just be a little bit better every day or at least no worse. And I don't know what that is for everyone. Like I said, my resolution is to do more with the podcast, with my content creation. But like I said, I don't know what that means. I don't know if it's a certain number of downloads, a certain number of subscriptions on the YouTube channel, hitting a certain number of Patreon subscribers. But I think just putting out the best possible show I can weekly will lead me to whatever those goals are. And I think it's the same for anyone, for any resolution that you have. It's great to have a concrete goal in mind, but it's also important to realize that not all roads are straight A to B. There can be lots of curves, lots of ups and downs, but you still get there in the end. I guess this is my writer's mind, my storyteller's mind way of saying that if your New Year's resolution has already fallen by the wayside, don't give up. Every day is a perfect day to start over if you have to. Sometimes I think I share these sort of motivational things at the end of the podcast as much for me as it is for any of you that it speaks to. Sometimes you need to hear the words out loud for them to actually get through your head. Be sure to focus on your mental health. It's winter. It's dark a lot of the time. It can be cold, snowy. just terrible outside. You want to just stay hunkered down and hibernate next to the fire if possible. So you need to lean into the things that make you happy, whether it's certain foods, certain YouTube channels, videos, certain people, certain podcasts, maybe one you're listening to now. Because do the best with what you've got. There is no textbook. There's no manual on life. There are a lot of self-help videos and books. Those are guides. 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. Thank you again to everybody for tuning into episode 127. 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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