In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 193: The Legend of Lawn Chair Larry, ABC After School Specials, Briefly Famous People From the 1970s(4-30-2025)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 193

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The movie Up in real life? After school specials that taught and traumatized? Some briefly famous people from the 1970s?

Episode 193 of the podcast dives into all of that Gen-X nostalgia.

It kicks off with a look back at ABC's After School Specials. These hour-long films shared life lessons with kids from the 1970s through the 1990s. We do a deep dive into these TV shows from their purpose to some of the most well-known episodes.

The movie Up is an engaging and exciting animated film about a man who uses balloons to float his house away. Something like that is fiction, right? Yes and no. It wasn't a house that balloons took away. It was a man in a lawn chair. We go way back in the day to 1982 and discuss the incredible but true story of Lawn Chair Larry.

15 minutes of fame sometimes is just long enough. This week's Top 5 looks at some people who had their brush with fame in the 1970s and then virtually disappeared. Athletes, actors, musicians, and more. Do you remember these briefly famous people?

There is also a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule that looks back at the end of Lou Gehrig's streak of consecutive games played in baseball.

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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 193. The April showers are ending. Hopefully the May flowers are on their way. But until then, I've got a garden full of nostalgia in bloom. We're going to kick it off with a look back at the famed after-school specials that a lot of us kids that grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s are familiar with. We're going to go way, way back in the day to a story that I couldn't not share, and that is the wacky 1980s story of Lawn All of that is coming up right now on episode 193. of the In My Footsteps podcast. So what are we going to talk about this week? About the fact that I have my brand new portable soundproof booth here that I am using to record the podcast. I don't know if it sounds any different. The setup is definitely a bit clunky compared to how it normally is for the show. What it is, is I've got this, it's kind of collapsible There's three sides to it. It all has the soundproofing kind of egg crate stuff you would see. The plan is to use this for some kind of voiceover work, maybe applying for things like that. So this is my test run for it, is right now, this episode of the podcast. You're probably listening saying it sounds exactly the same, which it might. The funny thing is that I keep trying to adjust this thing and it ends up where I've got to unscrew things and it's more steps than I thought it would be, but it's also the first time I'm using it. Anyway, how is everybody doing out there? I hope wherever you are, spring has sprung. Finally on Cape Cod, we had our first 70 degree day a few days ago, which was long overdue. So hopefully you're getting to enjoy that beautiful weather. Maybe you're out there right now in the sunshine listening to my dulcet tones of my voice. I've got a super fun show this week, but I can't start it off without thanking my Patreon subscribers. Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid, Matt, Thank you all so much for being my biggest supporters, my biggest backers. You out there listening, you all can become Patreon subscribers for $5 a month. You get access to bonus podcast episodes, including a brand new one that's going to be going up tomorrow from when this show goes live. They go up the first of the month. You also get access to the remastered Without a Map livestreams. I did those with the podcast way back in the early days, like four years ago. And they've been just kind of sitting around collecting dust. So what I do is I remaster them. I fix up the audio. I fix up the quality of the video. And try to edit out some of the ramblings that I do because it was without a map. I had no notes. So those are fun. Also, I'm kind of waiting with bated breath because I... Put in my very first audition for a movie role. Backgrounds very small. I don't want to give too much away, but I am waiting. I'm hoping maybe by the time this podcast goes live, I'll have an answer if I got the role or not. So there's more excitement to come throughout the spring and into the summer. But before we get too overloaded with excitement, let's start off this exciting podcast filled with Gen X nostalgia. people of my age, little older, little younger, probably have a lot of memories, some great, maybe some traumatizing of what we're going to talk about now. We're going to do a deep dive into the after school specials. So we'll start that now on episode 193 of the In My Footsteps podcast. So picture it. It's three, four o'clock in the afternoon. It is late 1970s, 1980s, early 1990s. You have just gotten out of school, probably middle school, high school. You come home, flip on the TV, probably one of those gigantic TVs that weighed 300 pounds. Maybe you don't have cable TV, so you got to stick with one of the big three networks, and you choose ABC. And there before your eyes is a made-for-TV film, made-for-young-people TV film giving you some important information and sharing some life lessons. These are what was known as the After School Special.

Unknown:

After School Special

Speaker 00:

And what we're going to do right here on this segment is we're going to kind of go into an overview of what the after school specials were. And in the future, I'll do a segment on what were the best after school specials, what were the worst or most traumatizing. So long before streaming platforms and YouTube tutorials, kids of my generation, 70s, 80s, early 90s, got their life lessons from the after school special. These made-for-TV films aired on weekday afternoons, typically right after school. Obviously, that's where they got the name from. These were a staple of American television for 25 years. They were more than just entertainment. These specials were designed to educate, provoke thought, maybe conversation with parents, help young viewers navigate the often confusing path of adolescence. After School Specials, they debuted on ABC in 1972. The very first After School Special debuted on October 4th of 1972. It was called Last of the Curlews. It was an animated After School Special based on the fictionalized novel about the last of the Eskimo Curlew, which is a bird. The book was written by a man named Fred Bodsworth, who was a Canadian newspaper reporter and naturalist with the book being published in 1954. That was how it came on the air. Eventually you would see, and kids that watched would see, these stand-alone television films tackled serious issues facing children and teens. These topics could range from substance abuse, peer pressure, parental divorce, and bullying. to more sensitive subjects like teen pregnancy, racism, learning disabilities, and sexual abuse. Overall, the after-school specials were an hour in length. They would typically be on four to six times during a school year, with each of these shows featuring a self-contained story, often with young protagonists concluding with a message or a moral takeaway. The series was primarily aimed at preteens and teenagers, and often starred young actors who may have already been familiar to audiences from popular shows. The idea was to make the stories relatable and relevant, while also offering guidance and emotional support. Some of the famous actors and actresses that were in After School Specials included Michelle Pfeiffer and Val Kilmer, who were in the 1985 show After... One Too Many. Marissa Tomei was in the show Supermom's Daughter, which is from 1987. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Alba were in the show Too Soon for Jeff, which is from 1996. Jodie Foster was in Rookie of the Year in 1973. Ben Affleck was in one called Wanted the Perfect Guy from 1986. And there's a ton more. The afterschool specials were unique in their ability to balance realism with empathy. They didn't shy away from tough topics, but they presented them in a way that was accessible to young viewers. At a time in America when many schools and families were hesitant to talk openly about topics like drugs or sexuality, these specials filled a crucial gap. In fact, these afterschool specials often served as conversation starters for parents and children, or were even incorporated into school curriculum. Some episodes concluded with helpline numbers or guidance for seeking further help, which is a practice that predated today's mental health awareness campaign by decades. Do any of you out there remember after-school specials being a part of your school curriculum? Did you watch them in school? Growing up on Cape Cod, I don't remember ever seeing an after-school special not in my living room. I guess maybe it depended on where you grew up and when you grew up. I would think when the after-school specials first came out in the early 70s, schools might not have been using them as teaching aids. But the more popular and respected these shows became, maybe schools became more open to using them. So I said at the top of this segment that eventually I will do... segments in the future about the best and worst slash traumatic after-school specials. I did want to give you a few examples of the notable ones that left a mark on people in case you want to go and check some out and get traumatized again. So I'll give you five of them. There is My Mom's Having a Baby, which is from 1977. This starred Shane Sinutko, Candice Farrell, Jared Johnson, and Rachel Longacre. This was a groundbreaking episode. It was one of the first televised programs in the United States to explain human reproduction to children using animation and documentary style storytelling. This was an episode that received both praise and controversy for its frankness. There was a film called The Wave from 1981. This starred Bruce Davison, and it's based on the third wave experiment put on by teacher Ron Jones to explain to his students how the German populace could accept the actions of the Nazi regime. This one has since become required viewing in some schools. Another famed after-school special was I Don't Know If I Like Myself, which is from 1984. This story tackled self-esteem and body image issues, themes that continue to resonate with teens today. Another famous after-school special is one called A Matter of Time from 1981. This stars Carlene Crockett as a teenager who has to find inner strength when she learns that her mother... played by Rosemary Forsythe, is dying of cancer. This was one of the first shows to deal with terminal illness having to be dealt with by a young person. It introduced kids to the concept of mortality in a compassionate way. And the last example of after-school specials I'll give for this segment is one called The Day My Kid Went Punk from 1987. This one stars Jay Underwood, Christine Belford, and Bernie Koppel. It's a bit more lighthearted but still impactful as it addresses parental judgment and teen identity through the lens of a straight-A student who decides to adopt a punk rock look. In its 25-year history, the After School Specials series was nominated for 158 different awards, including winning one primetime Emmy. The last ever After School Special was aired on January 23rd, 1997, at least the last new one. And this was titled Miracle at Trapper Creek. In total, in the 25 years of After School Specials, there were 154 different episodes. Of course, there were imitators. CBS came up with their own version of After School Specials, known as School Break Special. These aired from 1978 to 1996. There were 89 episodes of the CBS School Break specials that were originally known as the After School Playhouse. That's something that if you want me to do a deep dive into those in the future, let me know. Although the original After School specials are now long since a part of TV history, their influence is still felt today. They paved the way for more realistic, youth-centered programming. Even though production values and narrative complexity have evolved since, the core mission, which was to help kids make sense of the world, remains the same. In an era now dominated by digital media, there's something quaint and comforting about the earnestness of the after-school special. They might feel dated in style, and they have a look that screams 70s, 80s, but it took a lot of courage back in the day to address these uncomfortable truths in timeless form. People change, times grow and evolve, but the messages stay the same. In retrospect, these shows were ahead of their time. Tackling topics that society would only begin addressing openly many years later, long after I was out of school. So whether you watched them at home with a bowl of cereal after a long day of school, maybe like me, or if you were in school and got to watch it instead of doing actual work, after school specials had a way of sticking with you. That's why I'm going to do a segment in the future about best and worst, because I know there are some out there that you're thinking of that I didn't mention. And don't worry, they'll be on in the future. After School Specials, they made us think, they made us feel, and they reminded us that we weren't alone in facing the ups and downs of growing up in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. After School Specials This week in history, we are going back 86 years to May 2nd, 1939 and the end of the consecutive games played streak by New York Yankees baseball legend Lou Gehrig. On May 2nd, 1939, a quiet moment at Briggs Stadium in Detroit marked the end of one of baseball's most iconic achievements and the beginning of a heartbreaking chapter in sports history. Lou Gehrig, the legendary first baseman for the New York Yankees, removed himself from the lineup, thus ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. It was the first time since June 1st, 1925, that Gehrig did not take the field. Nicknamed the Iron Horse for his incredible durability and work ethic, Lou Gehrig was a cornerstone of one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. Gehrig's accomplishments are staggering. A career batting average of .340, 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI. He was a two-time American League MVP, a seven-time All-Star, and a six-time World Series champion. But beyond those numbers, Gehrig was known for his humility, consistency, and quiet leadership. He proved to be a perfect complement to his flamboyant teammate, Babe Ruth. Gehrig's consecutive game streak began on June 1st, 1925, when he pinch hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanager. The next day, he replaced starting first baseman Wally Pipp and never gave back the job. For over 13 seasons, through injuries, slumps, even broken bones, Gehrig played every single game. The streak became a symbol of Gehrig's iron will and blue-collar ethic that resonated with Depression-era America. But in 1938, something changed. Observers began to notice that Gehrig, once a powerhouse at the plate, was slowing down. His coordination seemed off, he stumbled over routine plays, struggled to hit fastballs he once crushed with ease... By the start of the 1939 season, it was clear to Gehrig and to those closest to him that something was seriously wrong. On May 2nd, 1939, Gehrig approached Yankees manager Joe McCarthy and quietly told him he was benching himself for the good of the team. It was a stunning moment. There was no ceremony, no spotlight, just the absence of a name on the lineup card. Sadly, Gehrig's decline didn't stop. In June 1939, he traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, where doctors delivered the diagnosis, amyotromorphic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS. The progressive neurodegenerative disease affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, gradually robbing the body of its ability to control muscles. At the time, little was known about the disease and there was no treatment. Doctors told Gehrig he had little time left. In North America to this day, ALS is often referred to simply as Lou Gehrig's disease. That's how I knew it as a kid growing up. On July 4th, 1939, the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium, where he stood before a crowd of nearly 62,000 and delivered one of the most famous speeches in sports history, concluding with the epic line, Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Gehrig never played another professional game. In 1940, he briefly worked as a parole commissioner in New York City, but his health declined rapidly. On June 2, 1941, just 17 days before his 38th birthday, Lou Gehrig died at his home in the Bronx. His number four was the first number ever retired by a Major League Baseball team. And in 1939, the same year he stepped away from the game, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in a special vote. And Lou Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive games played streak ended 86 years ago this week in history. I will do my best to make the time capsule less sad and depressing. We're gonna go back 66 years ago to May 2nd, 1959. What was going on in the world of pop culture back then? Well, let's find out. The number one song was Come Softly to Me by the Fleetwoods. Interestingly, this song was originally called just Come Softly. and they thought that the title was too risque for 1959, so they called it Come Softly to Me. The song was off of the Fleetwoods album Mr. Blue. In fact, that song Mr. Blue also went to number one, just like Come Softly to Me. The group of three was active from 1958 to 1983, but never had bigger hits than they did in 1959. The number one movie was Imitation of Life, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing 51 cents. This is a melodrama starring Lana Turner as a white single mother who has dreams of being on Broadway, and she has a chance encounter with a black widow, not a spider, an actual person, a black woman who's a widow, that becomes caretaker of her daughter while she pursues her stage career. It's 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was a modest hit, making about $6.5 million on a budget of just over $1 million. The number one TV show was Gunsmoke, because it's the late 50s and of course it's Gunsmoke. This is the famed western. It aired on television for 20 total seasons and 635 episodes. But it was also a radio program with nine seasons and 480 episodes, although some of those crossed over with TV and radio. And if you were around back then, May 2nd, 1959, maybe you went to see a game at Fenway Park. You're looking for something sweet to eat after. Well, you're in luck, at least if you're in the Boston area, because it's a grand opening of a new Mr. Donut. Oh, boy. From 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Mattapan Square. Free 15-cup package of coffee with every dozen donuts you buy. 44 different types of hand-cut donuts. With a guarantee that they're the best that money can buy. And why would Mr. Donut lie to you? There's also free balloons and pop for the youngsters. You can tell what year this is from. Can I have some pop, please? If you want to go to Mr. Donut, there's one in Godfrey, Illinois. But there's also more than a thousand locations over in Asia. So get on a plane and get some hand-cut donuts. But that wraps up another time capsule, another This Week in History. Now we'll look at some famous people of the 1970s whose fame was here and gone quicker than you could eat a frosted crawler donut from Mr. Donut. Ah yes, it's time for Where Are They Now? People who were briefly famous in the 1970s This week's top five was a lot of fun to put together, but it was also a little bit difficult. Back in episode 148, I did a segment on briefly famous people of the 1980s. And that was easier because I grew up then. I have memories of people that I was like, wait, what happened to so-and-so that used to be on this show or whatever? Yes, I was born in the 70s, but I don't really have any memories. So this was a lot of research. It's going to be a lot of fun for those of you that have lots of memories of the 70s to hear about these people. They were famous, then they were gone. I may end up doing where are they now segments about celebrities or products or companies. I'm thinking about also doing segments about teen idols because you'll find a few in this top five. As with many of these top fives, they're in no particular order. We have some honorable mentions. And even though all of these people were briefly famous and then kind of became has-beens, I would kill for their level of fame. So I can't hate on them. So let's kick off this top five with some honorable mentions for briefly famous 1970s people. They include Carl Douglas... who had the song Kung Fu Fighting from 1974. Another honorable mention is actor Robbie Rist, who played Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch and kind of became a scapegoat for the decline of the show. Another honorable mention is Terry Jacks, the singer who had the hit song Seasons in the Sun in 1974. Another honorable mention is Nadia Comaneci, the 1976 Olympic gold medalist who was briefly the name in gymnastics. And a final honorable mention I threw in there, it's kind of an odd one, it was Vicki Lawrence, the actress who was from the Carol Burnett show. She did have a modest hit show with Mama's Family that I remember as a kid, but she never reached the heights that she was on Carol Burnett's show. Do you remember all of those celebrities from the 70s? Well, let's get into the actual top five, starting with number one, Mark Fidrich. Nicknamed the Bird, he was Major League Baseball's oddball rookie sensation in 1976. Fidrich was a big story in baseball, in sports in general. A baseball pitcher who talked to the ball, smoothed the mound with his hands, and captured America's hearts. He ended up Rookie of the Year in 1976. He won 19 games and had a 2.34 ERA for the Detroit Tigers. Then injuries happened. After going 19-9 in 1976, he played four more seasons in the majors, going 10-10 with a 4.28 ERA. He was out of Major League Baseball in 1980 at the age of 25. Number two is Leif Garrett. This is where my idea for doing teen idols came in because he was definitely a teen idol in the late 70s. TV, music, magazine covers. He was everywhere and then he wasn't there. His first album, Leif Garrett, was released in 1977 and it had a lot of covers of 1950s songs that charted modestly. His second album, Feel the Need, was a bigger hit, with the single I Was Made for Dancing reaching the Billboard Top 10 in 1978. The end of his fame came on November 3rd, 1979, when an intoxicated Garrett, just five days before his 18th birthday, crashed a Porsche that was being leased to his mother, He was going to buy cocaine, he was drunk, he was high on Quaaludes, and it left his friend Roland Winkler a paraplegic. Since then, he's had more brushes with the law, and that's more of what he's been known for since the 80s, 90s, 2000s. Number three is Andrea True. She went from adult films to the disco charts in 1976. The song that Andrea True is known for is More, More, More, which was released in early 1976. The song topped at number four on the charts, but what makes it crazier is that her career before this hit song was as a porn star. Any of you out there that need to know the movie she was in, okay, I'll give you a few. Her first prominent role was in 1972 in a film called Head Nurse. There's the double entendre there. She also directed a film called Once Over Nightly, which was another adult film, in 1975. It's crazy, by the time of her singing career, she said she was burned out of doing porn, so she got into disco music. It's like such a 70s career change. Andrea True had one more kind of hit song, New York You Got Me Dancing, in 1977. And she released more albums, but they were all commercial flops. So more, more, more is her big claim to fame besides adult films. Number four is Jan Michael Vinson. He was a leading man in the 70s, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the 1971 film Going Home. He managed to stay relevant in the 80s where he was on the TV show Airwolf. So, I mean, that show was pretty good, but it was nothing near what he was doing in the 70s, earning Golden Globe nominations. But he had a lot of personal issues. He was arrested three times in the late 70s for cocaine possession, twice in the early 80s for bar fights. So when it comes to Jan Michael Vincent, he had the looks, the roles, the name, but his demons took it all away. And finally, number five on the top five briefly famous people of the 1970s is Debbie Boone. I know this name quite well because her big hit song, You Light Up My Life, was the number one song when I was born in November 1977. You Light Up My Life was one of the biggest songs of the 70s, but she was under so much pressure to replicate that success that it just crushed her career. Debbie Boone is the daughter of 50s singer, actor, Pat Boone. Her song, You Light Up My Life, spent 10 weeks at number one and led to her winning the Grammy for Best New Artist the following year. After You Light Up My Life, Debbie Boone tried but couldn't replicate the pop aspect of music, so she went into country and Christian music in the 1980s, having some success. But when your biggest hit... is still considered one of the biggest hit songs ever on the Billboard charts. It's kind of hard to top that. So there you have it. Five briefly famous people of the 1970s. Like I said, I was born in the 70s, but I don't have any memories of it. So it was a lot of research trying to find people that were briefly famous then. If there are any that I missed, let me know. I can always do a second part sometime in the future. But I know before then I'll be doing people who were briefly famous in the 90s. I've got way more info about those. The movie Up came out in 2009. It's a beloved animated film starring Ed Asner as an old man who has lost his wife and he fulfills their dream of going to South America by attaching thousands of balloons to his house and then floating his way to South America. Pure fantasy, right? Well, I'm not saying that Up was influenced by this story I'm about to tell now. But the similarities, or at least the mode of transportation, is the same. So travel with me back in time, won't you please, to the summer of 1982 and the story of a man who would become known simply as Lawn Chair Larry. This story for me, when it comes to sharing it on the podcast, stems from me looking for weird news stories from different decades. I've done the 60s, I've done the 70s, and I haven't done the 80s yet. But this story here was one that I kind of put a pin in and filed away for when I did 80s weird news stories. And I finally was like, I need to share this because this is going to be something that sounds so unbelievable, but it's true. The CliffsNotes version of this story is in the summer of 1982, a truck driver from California named Larry Walters took to the skies in what became one of the most bizarre and iconic do-it-yourself aviation stunts of the 20th century. He was armed with nothing but a lawn chair, some sandwiches, a pellet gun, and 45 weather balloons. I'm sure lots of you listening, me included, when we were growing up had dreams of flying. Not just in a plane, but just being able to take off like a bird. How many of you actually attempted it? I'm jumping off the roof or something, but Lawn Chair Larry, Larry Walters, boy, he really took his dream to the next level. Larry Walters had dreamed of flying since childhood. It was his poor eyesight that kept him from becoming a pilot in the military, but he was undeterred when it came to flying, and he decided to do it his way. The date of his grand experiment was July 2nd, 1982. It was in the town of San Pedro, California, in the backyard of his girlfriend, where Lawn Chair Larry would be born. Unlike the character in the movie Up, Larry Walters was only 23 years old when he decided to take flight. It was Larry and his girlfriend, Carol Van Dusen, who bought 45 8-foot diameter weather balloons from a military surplus store and helium tanks from California Toy Time Balloons. So your first question, like mine was, is why in the world at this military surplus store were they allowed to buy all these weather balloons? Like there was no question of what they needed them for? Well, he had that covered. He forged a request from his boss at Filmfare Studios saying the weather balloons were for a commercial. So he got away with that. He bought the lawn chair at Sears for $109, which in 1982, when the world of lawn chairs that expensive, I guess he didn't want to buy one that would just collapse the bottom out when he was up in the air with his balloons. That adds up to $361 when adjusted for inflation to 2025. Would you go to a store like Sears and spend $360 on one lawn chair? Anyway, Larry attached 42 of the balloons to his lawn chair. The balloons were inflated with helium. He was attached by rope, or at least the chair was, to his Jeep. He had a parachute on. He was bringing a pellet gun, a CB radio, two liters of Coca-Cola, some sandwiches, some beer, which that's a smart idea, and a camera to capture his moments or his end. Larry was not going to be just a rebel. He actually had intentions to tell authorities what he was doing. I don't know if it was to talk him out of it. What ended up happening, though, was the rope tied to his Jeep broke prematurely and there he went, shooting off into the sky. Before he launched, what Larry's idea was, he thought he was going to ascend to about 100 feet and gently float over the Mojave Desert. That is not what happened. Once he was at his peak elevation, lawn chair Larry was up to 16,000 feet, nearly three miles up in the air. It was at this point that two commercial airliners spotted him. So you imagine being these pilots and you look out your window and there's a lawn chair with balloons attached to it floating by you. It's all fun and games, but the problem was that the commercial airline pilots radioed in the sightings because he was floating in controlled airspace near Los Angeles International Airport. So that's not fun and games. Larry was in airspace usually reserved for Boeing jets. I couldn't imagine thinking you're going to go 100 feet in the air and instead you go 16,000. That's like, man, once you get about 1,000 feet up, you're probably like, this is trouble. He dubbed his lawn chair Inspiration One, which I don't know if that meant he was going to try again. His plan with the pellet gun was once he got up to a certain height, he assumed 100 feet, He was going to start shooting the balloons, popping one at a time to slowly lower himself safely to the ground. It was after about 45 minutes that Larry was up in the sky that he started to put his plan into action of coming down. He had to shoot these balloons, but he had to make sure he did it in such a way that he didn't unbalance the load and end up tipping himself out. Now, granted, he had his parachutes. But still, if you're 16,000 feet up and you get jostled and kind of fall out of your lawn chair, I don't know, I would think in the moment you may have a panic attack and not remember to pull the chute. Slowly, Larry descended, but it wasn't a safe landing. He ultimately got caught in power lines in Long Beach and it ended up blacking out a neighborhood for 20 minutes. This plan really went off the rails. He went way higher than he thought, got reported for being in controlled airspace, and blacked out a neighborhood because of his lawn chair hitting power lines. For his troubles, Larry was arrested. He was fined $1,500 for violating airspace regulations. Just after landing, Larry gave kind of a press conference talking to the reporters. He said, quote, it was something I had to do. I had this dream for 20 years, and if I hadn't have done it, I think I would have ended up in the funny farm, end quote. It wasn't all bad news for Lawn Chair Larry. Ten days later, he was on the David Letterman Show. He was briefly in demand as a motivational speaker, which I don't know if it's for follow your dreams, I guess, to fly your lawn chair. Larry ended up giving his lawn chair away to a young admirer, and he regretted it later because the Smithsonian Institute wanted it for their collection. So again, I can't say that Lawn Chair Larry inspired the movie up, but what he did do was inspire a brief cluster-ballooning craze. There was a wave of imitators in the 1980s, other people trying to succeed where Larry had failed. There was a man named Kevin Walsh from San Diego. He made several attempts to recreate what Lawn Chair Larry did. In 1984, he ascended with 57 helium balloons. He flew for over two hours but didn't reach the 16,000 feet like Larry did. There was a later one, a man named Kent Couch. who in 2008 flew from Oregon to Idaho with a lawn chair and 150 helium balloons. There were a bunch of balloon-based art stunts and various record-setting attempts. Balloon clusters were used in science experiments, publicity stunts, charity events. One of the men that inspired Larry Walters was a man named Joseph Kittinger, who he wasn't a cluster balloonist. But he did a lot of high-altitude balloon jumps in the 1960s, including holding the record for the highest skydive ever at more than 102,000 feet up in 1960, a record that held until 2012. Coming all the way back around, Lawn Chair Larry, Larry Walters, he became a cult hero. Celebrated in documentaries, late-night talk shows, referenced in The Simpsons and Mythbusters. Sadly, he doesn't have a happy ending. He broke up with his girlfriend after 15 years, and he ended up sadly killing himself in 1993. But he's got that one epic flight, and it lives on as a symbol of eccentric bravery, absurd ambition. And while it's far from the mainstream, cluster ballooning has evolved. The spirit of Larry's Wild Ride still inspires dreamers and DIY pilots. Because after all, sometimes the sky is not the limit. It's just the beginning, even if you're strapped to a lawn chair. But before I strap myself to a lawn chair and weather balloons, I'll wrap up saying thank you for tuning in to episode 193 of the In My Footsteps podcast. We're getting closer and closer to episode 200. Be on the lookout on Patreon, whether free or paying members, for the polls as far as voting in what I'm going to talk about on episode 200. It's listener's choice again, but it's strictly for Patreon. Even if you're not a subscriber on Patreon, I have a good free tier of stuff. That's where you can read my Vegas journals as I tell the tale of my time of living in Las Vegas 25 years ago. Obviously, though, if you want to become a paying member, that is a great way to support me, to support any content creator who's on Patreon. You can also buy me a coffee. I know you can go as low as a dollar with donations on there, which won't buy you a coffee, but that's fine. However, I say it all the time that the best way to support me, to support content creators, it's sharing our work, telling others about what you see, what you like, what you listen to. I can promote and market myself and say it's such an excellent podcast, Gen X Nostalgia. And why wouldn't I promote myself? But it means more when people out there who aren't me tell others to listen. And if you don't like listening, I've got loads of videos on my YouTube channel. Go subscribe. The newest one is the video version of when Cape Cod became a vacation destination. It chronicles the rise of my home to the tourist destination it is and has become through my lifetime as far as summer just being packed with people. As I said at the top of the show, I will keep you informed as far as my first ever audition went. seeing if I got the part in this film. Also, I'll let you know when my first acting gig when the movie is out. The one that I shot last month that Frank Durant produced. I've heard June, so that's what I'm hoping for. It's definitely going to be a fun and exciting rest of the spring into summer. Lots of possible opportunities. That was a big thing with my 2025 was keeping a lot of things open, keeping my schedule clear to see what might drift into my orbit that I'm not even thinking of. A lot of success and opportunities comes from just being open, being receptive to things that come around you. I'm not saying say yes to everything that anyone offers you, but you never know. Also, by the time some of you listen to this, I might have already run my next comeback race. It's a 5K. It is May the 3rd. It's a Saturday. As of right now, the weather doesn't look great, but I'm hoping that changes. I'll let you know on next week's show how it went. I'll have a review of my race. Unless I'm in the hospital from tearing something, but even then I could probably put together some kind of podcast and tell the nurse to bring my laptop and my microphone in. Whether you're a runner or a cyclist or just enjoy walking outside, or even if you don't, if you have the chance to get outside and enjoy the weather, do it. This is the time of the year that us in the Northeast, that we live for. Once it gets warm enough that you can be outside and just enjoy. And it's kind of the time before all the bugs are out. They're starting to come out, but it's not as bad as it gets in July and August. I ended up recently doing a little bit of an adventure to the remains of the West Barnstable Brick Factory. Long-time Cape Codders might know what I'm talking about. West Barnstable bricks are pretty valuable if you have mint condition ones. We're talking $30 to $50 a brick. I went a little late in the season, though. When things start to bloom, getting out to the remains of the factory is rough. You've got to bushwhack. But I wanted to go so bad because the weather was nice and I got out there, got pictures, videos. I got home and because I actually have hair now, instead of having a shaved head like I did for basically 14 years, I didn't notice that a tick had crawled up into my hair. God, thankfully I wasn't on the school bus to have that get noticed. I had to flick it out of my hair and dive in the shower and turn it up to a thousand degrees and just scald myself in case I guess that's not a great endorsement to tell you to get outside and enjoy the weather but it it's a funny story to end off the show so I can say remember to check for ticks and also 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 all again for tuning in. 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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