February 19, 2025 • 50 mins
The Valentine's chocolates are gone, but the sweet nostalgia is just getting started! Episode 183 takes you on a trip back to the sights, smells, and flavors of the past:
✨ Sniffing Out the '80s – Remember the thrill of scratch-and-sniff stickers? From pizza-scented rewards to bizarre fragrances, no one asked for, we uncover the history behind this smelly sensation that had '80s kids obsessed.
🎮 The Weirdest Gameboy Games Ever – Monkey boxing? A game controlled by a sewing machine? Yeti chefs? We’re digging deep to find the strangest, rarest, and most ridiculous Gameboy titles ever made.
🍬 Bubble Gums We Wish Weren’t Gone – From powdery classics to flavor-packed icons, we count down five bubble gums that deserved a longer chew. Did your favorite make the list?
🕰️ This Week in History & Time Capsule – A look back at the legendary first superhero, The Phantom, and the mark he left on pop culture.
Hit play and let the nostalgia rush in! 🚀
For more great content become a subscriber on Patreon!
Helpful Links from this Episode
- Purchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!
- In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)
- Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.com
- DJ Williams Music
- KeeKee's Cape Cod Kitchen
- Christopher Setterlund.com
- Cape Cod Living - Zazzle Store
- Subscribe on YouTube!
- Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog
- Webcam Weekly Wrapup Podcast
- Trend Enterprises Scratch n Sniff Stickers
- CJSetterlundPhotos on Etsy
Listen to Episode 182 here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 01 (00:00):
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 183.
It's the post-Valentine's Dayepisode, so either it's a lot of
(00:21):
Lonely Hearts Club orcelebrating love.
Either way, I've got a lot ofnostalgia to fill up the empty
chocolate hearts box.
We're going to start it off bylooking back at a beloved part
of childhood for 1980s kids.
That is scratch and sniffstickers.
We're going to go way, way backin the day and look at the
(00:44):
rarest and or weirdest Game Boygames ever.
We will get sad at the new topfive as we look at some
discontinued bubble gums.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
capsule looking at the veryfirst superhero comic ever, The
Phantom.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 183 of the In My
(01:08):
Footsteps podcast.
Ah yeah, so what is it?
Is it Lonely Hearts Club time?
Is it Celebration of Love time?
It is the post-Valentine's Dayepisode of the podcast.
Me, I enjoyed Valentine's Day.
A lot of fun stuff I did on myown.
Didn't buy any candy hearts orflowers or anything.
(01:30):
I hope, however, you out therecelebrated your Valentine's that
it was as good as it could be.
If it was terrible, at leastyou didn't have to wait too long
for a new episode of thepodcast filled with the
nostalgia to make you forgetabout Valentine's Day.
Think of it this way, we'realready more than halfway
through the last full month ofwinter.
(01:51):
Spring is about a month awayfrom when this podcast goes
live, so at least you got that.
I mean, on Cape Cod, springdoesn't really start until early
May.
Late March through April ispretty much upper 40s, a lot of
clouds, fog, and drizzle.
But it's technically spring, soI guess you can't complain
(02:13):
much.
I can't start this podcastoff...
without doing what I normallydo, and that is thanking my
Patreon subscribers.
For $5 a month, you can get ashout out and access to bonus
content like Laurie, Mary Lou,Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
Neglectoid, Crystal.
(02:34):
You can also go to the site andlook at the free tier.
I put something up forValentine's Day for the free
tier for everyone to enjoy.
Something new this week fromthe adding things to my plate
department, since my plate isnever too full, I guess.
I have restarted my Etsy shopdedicated to my photography.
(02:55):
Those of you that follow me onsocial media, more specifically
Instagram and threads, you see alot of my photography.
I get a lot of comments frompeople asking if I sell them,
and it always seems like a lotof work.
The idea of posting photos andthen getting the print on demand
services going.
(03:16):
But I finally figured, hey, whynot start up an Etsy shop?
The joke was on me.
I went to Etsy and I was goingto create a shop.
And when I signed in, Googlesigns you in automatically or it
can.
Lo and behold, there was aphotography shop already there
that I'd made in 2017 that Itotally forgot about.
(03:36):
It's been sitting therecollecting dust for almost eight
years.
I'm not saying that this one'sgoing to be much better, but CJ
Sederlin Photos, I kept thename.
I'm going to have a link in thedescription of the podcast.
I've got a lot of work to do onit.
Right now, if you go there,there are several digital prints
(03:58):
you can order and download.
I'm starting to put up physicalones that you can get shipped
to you.
Maybe this will be a fun newside hustle.
Maybe in a couple of weeks,you'll wonder why I don't
mention it anymore on thepodcast.
It'll be because I just forgotabout it until 2033.
So go over there and just checkit out.
You don't have to buy photos.
(04:19):
Just let me know what you thinkof it And those of you that
follow me on social media, onIG, on threads, if you have any
photos that you see of mine thatyou say, ooh, that might make a
good print, even if you don'twant to buy it, just send me a
message.
Because my taste in what Ithink makes a great photo is a
lot different from the averageperson that views my page.
(04:39):
Now, unfortunately, I can'tmake any of these photos scratch
and sniff.
Here's a good segue coming up.
But let's kick this podcastoff, episode 183, with a look
back at something that is areally fun memory from my
childhood in the 1980s.
That is scratch and sniffstickers.
So let the sniffing begin now.
(05:01):
When I think back to school inthe 1980s, specifically
elementary school, there are somany positive memories.
I think because school wasn'tso...
serious, like you didn't feellike your future depended on
what you did in school when youwere in kindergarten through
third, fourth, fifth grade.
(05:22):
I've talked before about Lee J.
Ames and his drawing books,Draw, Draw, Draw, Draw 50
Animals and all that.
I actually recently did a videothat went up on YouTube for
that segment of the podcast ifyou want to go check that out.
And I've talked abouteducational kids shows of the
80s and watching things on theTV on the rolling cart.
(05:45):
At some point I'm probablygoing to do a segment about
school lunch and recess inelementary school so we can all
talk about pizza day and thescoop of mashed potatoes that
held its shape very well.
One of those memories that wasprobably a smaller part of my
childhood in school than I thinkbut made a big impact was
(06:08):
scratch and sniff stickers.
Every now and then when I'mresearching the podcast and I
find things from the 80s thatother people my age put up,
someone will have a picture ofthe little round stickers on a
sheet of paper.
And I'm like, oh, I should do asegment on that for the
podcast.
But I keep forgetting there'sso many other things that I
(06:28):
think about.
So scratch and sniff stickersget put way in the back corner
of my research department.
But they really are symbolic ofthat early time in school, the
more innocent time where you'relearning letters and numbers and
shapes and very basic math.
(06:49):
And like I said, it's notserious.
If you fail a math test infirst grade, you're not going to
then not get into Harvard.
Although, I mean, maybe.
Maybe it's a sign of things tocome.
Anyway.
Those of you that are around myage, a little older, a little
younger, you probably canpicture the scratch and sniff
stickers I'm talking about inyour head.
(07:11):
And those are probably the onesI'm going to be talking about.
A very specific brand from acertain company.
The scratch and sniff stickers,they were a massive craze in
the late 70s and early 80s, mid80s.
Those of you that grew up lateron, you don't understand how
important it was to get thecertain types of scratch and
(07:32):
sniff stickers on your homeworkor on your tests.
One of the biggest companiesbehind the trend of scratch and
sniff stickers was ironicallycalled Trend Enterprises.
And so they're the basic onesI'm going to talk about.
The origins of scratch andsniff technology dates back to
the 1960s when scientistsdeveloped a process called
(07:55):
microencapsulation.
where tiny fragrance-filledcapsules were embedded in a
coating that would release scentwhen scratched or rubbed.
I couldn't find what thepurpose of this technology was
in the first place, but it endedup by the late 1970s finding
its way into the educational andnovelty market, especially for
(08:17):
kids.
A little side note, it's funnyto think about something like
this microencapsulation.
where the scientists arefinding this brand new
technology and they probablyhave these dreams of it being
used for something so importantto change the world.
And it ends up being knownmostly for scratch and sniff
stickers that kids in the 1980sliked, which it's not a bad
(08:40):
thing.
I'm sure it made trendenterprises a lot of money, but
the scientists were probablylike, no, it was supposed to be
for something way moreimportant, not so that kids in
the 80s could smell pizza andpopcorn on their homework.
The kings of scratch and sniffstickers was Trend Enterprises.
They were founded in Minnesotain 1968, and they originally
(09:04):
focused on educational materialsfor teachers.
It was around 1977-78 thatTrend Enterprises introduced
their first line of scratch andsniff stickers as classroom
incentives.
The stickers were used byteachers to reward good
behavior, completed assignments,or achievements in class.
And again, I come back to ifyou didn't grow up back then,
(09:27):
you don't understand how big itwas to get your homework back to
you or a test back to you andhave certain stickers on it.
As a kid at that time, it wasthe scent and it was the
colorful design.
They were highly collectibleamong kids, although...
I don't know how you could takethem home.
(09:48):
I mean, I guess you would keepyour homework, but I also don't
remember trying to keep thesticker, like tearing the corner
off my homework to make sure Ihad it.
By the early 1980s, when Istarted school, scratch and
sniff stickers were everywhere.
And Trend Enterprises was oneof the biggest players.
The OG of these scratch andsniff stickers, they included
(10:11):
ones like Grape Ape.
which I'm shocked they didn'tget sued for from the cartoon,
but it smelled like grape.
Peppermint puppy, which wasmint.
Root beer bear, which was rootbeer.
Orange orangutan, which wasorange.
Pizza, which smelled likecheese and tomato.
And then you got skunk, whichsmelled like not really a skunk.
(10:34):
I mean, I wouldn't have knownwhat a skunk smelled like when I
was six, seven years old.
I just knew I didn't like thatone.
What's great is if you goonline now, you can find on
eBay, on Etsy, on a lot ofshopping sites, you can find
sheets of these stickers fromback then.
I don't know how long they holdtheir scent, but you're more
(10:54):
than welcome to go and find outfor yourself.
There were other stickers, likeone that smelled like a
Christmas tree or cinnamonrolls.
My favorite was the popcornone.
Poppin' good.
That was the one.
I don't remember in school ifwe could choose our stickers.
Like, we were thatpresumptuous.
Like, I know my homework isgood, so give me this sticker as
(11:17):
a reward.
Or if the teachers were like,you look like someone that would
like the skunk one, so you getthat.
Or you get the bat one, which,I mean, I don't know what that
smelled like.
I'm finding pictures of some ofthese old stickers.
I'm like, I don't remember thebat.
But there were gumballs.
There was fried chicken.
There was a kind of rainbow onethat just said fantastic.
(11:38):
I can't remember what itsmelled like.
Maybe the glass cleanerfantastic.
Trend Enterprises wasn't theonly brand though.
There were other ones.
Mellow, Smellow, CreativeTeaching Press, Hallmark.
But they didn't succeed likeTrend Enterprises.
Those of you that are picturingscratch and sniff stickers in
(12:00):
your head, the ones I've named,you can see those.
If you don't go and Google it,can you picture any other type
of scratch and sniff stickersfrom Hallmark?
I don't know.
I know that there were timesthat I would get the stickers on
my homework.
There were other times thatyou'd get the stickers still on
the paper, the smooth paper.
(12:21):
So if you wanted to use it, youcould.
If you didn't want to, youcould trade with others.
That was a thing in elementaryschool.
The scratch and sniff stickersthat weren't used, they became
prized possessions.
And some of the rarer TrendEnterprises stickers are still
sought after by collectors of myage and around my age today.
(12:42):
I keep saying how powerfulnostalgia is.
The older I get, the more Icrave these things from my
childhood.
Because unfortunately, youcan't stop the hands of time.
But at least for a few moments,you could sniff old stickers
while you watch Reading Rainbowon an old TV, if you have one.
(13:04):
Like a lot of things, theScratch and Sniff stickers were
more of a fad, a craze, that bythe late 80s, early 90s, had
been replaced by other things.
There were the Lisa Frankstickers, which were a lot of
different animals, a lot ofunicorns, a lot of sparkles and
(13:24):
rainbows in these stickers.
There were pogs, which lookedlike thin coasters that you'd
almost want to set your drinkon, but they had images on them
of all different pop culturethings.
And things like slap bracelets,which were huge in the early
90s until they got bannedbecause I guess people were
(13:46):
getting hurt by them.
I remember those specificallyfrom sixth grade.
For me, nothing tops thescratch and sniff stickers.
I can still remember them andmaybe even vaguely remember the
smell of the popcorn or thepizza and unfortunately the
skunk.
You out there who began schoolin the early, mid-80s, do you
(14:08):
remember the scratch and sniffstickers?
And those of you out there thatare all different ages, what
was the first...
trend in school that youremember was it pogs or slap
bracelets if you were interestedyou can find the scratch and
sniff stickers from trendenterprises on ebay and other
collector sites like i mentionedetsy but the crazy thing is
(14:31):
trend enterprises is stillaround today if you go to
trendenterprises.com they have acollection of these retro
scratch and sniff stickers Thereare 25 different scents.
And if you click on one, like Iclicked on the popcorn one, you
get two sheets with 24 stickerson each for $3.99.
(14:53):
Or if you want to drown innostalgia, you can get all of
them, 25 different scents, 24stickers in each for $90.
It's on sale.
I just looked.
So there you go, Gen Xers.
Go out there and get yourfavorite scratch and sniff
stickers and give them to yourkids for chores well done.
(15:15):
Or just save them for yourself.
This week in history, we aregoing back 89 years ago to
February 17th, 1936, and thedebut of the very first
superhero comic, The Phantom.
(15:37):
It's wild to think that in aworld of comic books and
superheroes, where there'sSuperman, Batman, Spider-Man,
that none of them were thefirst.
If you had asked me before Idid my research, I would have
thought the first superhero wasSuperman.
That kind of made sense to me,but nope.
Before any of those iconicfigures emerged, there was the
(16:01):
Phantom, who was created bywriter Lee Falk, and it debuted
in newspapers on February 17th,1936.
The Phantom predated Supermanby more than two years.
Lee Falk was a young writer andtheater director, and he had
already created Mandrake theMagician, which was a successful
syndicated comic strip in 1934.
(16:22):
Falk conceived of the Phantomwith inspiration from
mythological and literary heroeslike Tarzan, Robin Hood, and
Zorro.
He wanted to create a maskedvigilante with a strong moral
code, someone who would fightagainst injustice across the
globe.
I won't dive too deep into theorigin story of the character
(16:45):
the Phantom, but he lived in afictional country.
And he was different from theother heroes of the time, like
the Shadow or the Green Hornet,because he wore a skin-tight
purple bodysuit, black mask, andskull-emblazoned ring, which he
used to leave a permanent markon criminals.
This type of outfit became atemplate for future superheroes
(17:09):
like Superman, Batman, and TheFlash.
Another innovation of thePhantom was having a secret
identity.
And even if you've never heardof the Phantom character, like I
hadn't until I did my research,its legacy is undeniable.
The use of a costume and a maskset the stage for the superhero
genre.
The concept of an oath-boundhero who fights crime as part of
(17:33):
a long-standing tradition.
That influenced the characters.
But beyond comics, the Phantominfluenced film, television, and
literature.
The Phantom character has beenadapted into more comics,
animated series, and a 1996live-action film starring Billy
Zane.
(17:53):
The movie is 43% fresh onRotten Tomatoes and was a bomb,
losing tens of millions ofdollars.
So I don't know if you've neverseen The Phantom.
That might not be the bestplace to start.
It is true often that theoriginals in a certain genre are
overshadowed by what comesafter because there's no
(18:14):
template.
So there was no template forsuperheroes before the Phantom.
That being said, the Phantomstands as a pioneering figure in
comic history.
His introduction laid thegroundwork for the superhero
genre as we know it today.
So every Marvel movie that youwatch, any superhero movie, it
all traces its origins back toThe Phantom.
(18:36):
And that very first comicstrip, the very first superhero
comic, The Phantom, came out 89years ago this week in history.
Oh, we'll keep the good timesrolling with the new time
capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame date.
(18:57):
So the Phantom is debuting innewspapers, February 17th, 1936.
What is going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was Penniesfrom Heaven by Bing Crosby.
This single by Bing Crosby, thelegendary crooner, was number
(19:18):
one for 10 weeks.
This song has been recorded bysome of the biggest names in the
history of music like BillieHoliday, Doris Day, and Tony
Bennett.
As for Bing Crosby, he was thefirst true multimedia star, a
celebrity in music, in radio, inmotion pictures.
What's crazy is that BingCrosby had sold a total of more
(19:43):
than 200 million albums as faras records, 45s, like the
singles, by 1960.
He's one of the biggest sellingartists of all time, rivaled by
the Beatles, Elvis Presley,Michael Jackson.
That's it.
The number one movie was ModernTimes, and you could get into
(20:04):
the theater with a ticketcosting 25 cents.
This is a Charlie Chaplinpartial talkie comedy film.
It was his last everperformance in a motion picture
as his famed Little Trampcharacter.
Which is basically, if youpicture Charlie Chaplin, the top
hat, the cane, the littlemustache, that's the little
(20:25):
tramp character.
The film was not a massive hit.
It basically broke even withits budget, but it's 98% fresh
on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's gota lot of love, and especially if
you like old-school comedy.
A fun fact about CharlieChaplin was he was the first
ever Hollywood actor to be paid$1 million per year.
(20:47):
And that was in 1918.
And if you were wondering, thatis a shade under $21 million
when adjusted for inflation to2025.
The number one radio show,because there was no television,
was Amos and Andy.
This is definitely one of themost controversial shows ever in
(21:07):
entertainment history.
Two white men basically doing aminstrel show, which was them
playing black people, but on theradio.
So very stereotypical voices.
The show starred Amos Jones andAndy Brown, and it ran as a
radio show from 1926 to 1960.
At its peak in the early 1930s,Amos and Andy had 40 million
(21:34):
weekly listeners.
For a little scale there, thepopulation of the United States
in 1930 was just over 122million people, meaning that
basically about one out of threepeople in the United States
would listen to Amos and Andy ona weekly basis.
And if you were around backthen, February 17th, 1936...
(21:55):
Maybe you missed Valentine'sDay and now you feel bad, so
you've got to get yoursignificant other some kind of
gift to make up for it.
Whoa, boy, you're in luck.
I found something for you.
At your local Sears, yes, thedepartment store, you can get
yourself day-old baby chicks,Rhode Island Reds, for 12 cents
(22:19):
each.
Why get a bouquet of roses anda box of chocolates when you can
get a box of baby chickens tobring home?
Have no fear.
They are all polyrim tested,which was a type of typhoid, so
you're not going to get diseasedchickens to bring home.
I mean, you think about that,going to a department store and
(22:40):
you just got chickens there youcan buy.
That was a different world inthe 1930s.
Well, there you have it.
Another time capsule, anotherThis Week in History.
You can't go buy chickens atSears anymore.
You really can't go to Searsanymore at all.
But as we get into the new topfive, I've got more things you
can't buy as we look atdiscontinued gums.
(23:03):
We should all take a moment ofsilence, chew up a piece of gum,
stick it under our table, desk,wherever we are, and bow our
heads in the memory of fruitstripe gum.
(23:23):
The fact that that gum wasdiscontinued was what got me to
do this top five segment aboutdiscontinued bubble gums.
The funny thing is, FruitStripe gum was discontinued
about a year ago, and I justfound out about it a few weeks
ago, which shows how much Ichewed Fruit Stripe gum.
As a kid growing up in the 80s,early 90s, I loved Big League
(23:48):
Chew, the shredded gum, orBubblicious, or Hubba Bubba gum.
When I got older, I startedchewing the quote-unquote
healthy gum that would help yourteeth dentine, things like
that.
I haven't chewed gum in years.
I don't know about you outthere.
What is your favorite gumthat's out there now?
There are a lot of classicbubble gum, chewing gum.
(24:12):
And what I wanted to do herewas go through some discontinued
gums from yesteryear.
As with most of these topfives, they are in no particular
order.
There are some honorablementions.
I'm going to say that maybehalf of these you will remember.
That's me just assuming.
But let's just get right intoit.
(24:34):
Let's start with some honorablementions.
So honorable mentions fordiscontinued bubblegum chewing
gum include Skittles Bubblegum.
This was the bubblegum versionof the popular candies, Taste
the Rainbow.
The best I could see, Skittlesbubblegum was around from
roughly 2004 to 2010.
Another honorable mention isGator Gum.
(24:58):
This was the gum version, Iguess, of Gatorade.
This was around in the late80s, discontinued in 1989.
I remember loving it in 5thgrade, 6th grade, and then it
was gone.
Another honorable mention isBeachy's gum.
This used to be known as beachnut gum.
It was discontinued in 2023after being around for almost a
(25:22):
century.
Another honorable mention isouch bubble gum.
This was around from the 90s tothe late 2000s and its claim to
fame was that each stick of gumwas wrapped in a way that made
it look like a band-aid.
The final honorable mention isstride gum.
This had the big swooping S onthe front of the package.
(25:46):
It was discontinued in theUnited States in 2023, although
technically it's still availablein China and Australia.
But are you really going toorder stride gum from China or
Australia?
I mean, come on.
So there are some honorablementions.
Sad last days of discontinuedgums.
Do you remember any of those?
(26:08):
Well, the actual top five isgoing to be full of ones I bet
you'll remember.
Bets will not be honored.
So let's dive into the actualtop five, starting with number
one.
You heard me talk about it.
Fruit Stripe Gum.
The infamous gum wheresupposedly you would get about
15, 20 seconds worth of flavorand then it was just useless.
(26:30):
I didn't try it enough toreally be able to validate that
claim.
Family Guy had that clip wherePeter eats it and after like two
chews, he's got no flavor.
Speaker 00 (26:42):
Oh, man, you're more of a letdown than fruit stripe
gum.
Speaker 01 (26:49):
Now, because fruit stripe was discontinued in
January 2024, you cantechnically get it still as some
of the gum would not haveexpired yet.
So you got the people thathoarded it once they found out
it was discontinued and theysell it on eBay.
Much like stride gum.
Are you really going to go oneBay and pay $80 for a couple of
(27:11):
packs of Fruit Stripe gum?
That being said, Fruit Stripewas around for a long time.
Created by Beach Nut, the samecompany that made the Beachies
gum that got discontinued.
It came out in 1960 and lastedall the way until last year.
It was known for the zebramascot, the really colorful
stripes on the front of thepackaging.
(27:33):
Obviously, the majority ofthese gums, bubble gums, they're
meant to appeal to kids andteenagers, not to adults.
Adults have chewing gum.
That's more mature.
Number two is chicklets.
Speaker 03 (27:47):
Well, cowboy, I think chicklets flavor is
outside.
I can't decode it.
Superficial thinking, comrade.
The flavor of chicklets is inthe gum.
Outside.
It's out here.
You may be partly right, butmostly left.
Chicklets.
Two flavor.
Great.
No debate.
Speaker 01 (28:02):
Well, this is another one I remember from
being a kid.
My mother liked Chicklets.
Chicklets, this is kind of aconfusing one here.
I've seen where it's still kindof available, but the brand was
sold in 2023.
So you'll have to let me knowwhere you are, if you can find
Chicklets gum.
Because I can see it onlinethat you can order it.
(28:25):
But like Fruit Stripe, is itstuff that's just, they're
running out the string as far aswhat they've got in stock?
Chicklets are, instead of beingflat pieces of gum, they're
smaller, square, with kind of ahard coating on it that you
would crunch through first andthen you'd have your gum.
The Chicklets brand dates backto 1900, with the name being
(28:47):
derived from an Aztec word,chicle, meaning sticky stuff.
What I saw in my research isthat Chiclets was discontinued
in the United States in 2016,but it's still available in
Mexico.
So just like stride gum or oldstock of fruit stripe gum, I
think you can get it.
But how much effort are yougoing to go into to get Chiclets
(29:11):
gum?
Number three is Chewles gum.
Speaker 04 (29:16):
Chules
Speaker 01 (29:32):
was a cube-shaped gum that had kind of a liquid
center that when you would bitein, it would ooze out.
Chules debuted in 1977.
and was one of the very firstadvertisements on MTV on its
first day in 1981.
The big claim to fame byChewles is that it was an
alternative to sugar-filledgums.
(29:53):
So it didn't have sugar, but ithad saccharin, which was like
worse than sugar, artificialsugar.
In fact, saccharin was evenbanned, taken off the market in
1981.
Although it's still around now,but for a while it was actually
banned.
The best I could see is Chewleswas discontinued in 1992,
(30:17):
although you can go on eBay andfind vintage packs of Chewles
gum for sale.
I have no idea how30-plus-year-old gum would
taste, but I'm sure anyone thatgets it is not getting it to eat
it.
They're getting it just tohave.
Number four is Super Bubble.
(30:37):
Lost in the shuffle of FruitStripe gum getting discontinued,
Super Bubble was alsodiscontinued around the same
time last year.
Super Bubble, much like FruitStripe, it's been said that the
decline of chewing gum, bubblegum habits, chewing habits by
people in general, is what ledto the discontinuation of them.
(31:01):
Super Bubble first came out in1946.
then known as Bub's Daddy.
All right.
So Super Bubble was around foreven longer than Fruit Stripe.
You're looking at almost 80years.
I'm sure at its peak, SuperBubble, Fruit Stripe, they
(31:22):
probably didn't see changing inconsumer habits with bubble gum.
I mean, I thought it was onlyme that wasn't chewing gum
anymore, but I guess it's waymore.
And that'll lead us into numberfive, Freshen Up.
Speaker 04 (31:36):
Freshen
Speaker 01 (31:52):
Up was one of those gums that was supposed to be
breath freshening as well.
It had crystals inside thatwere made by the Cadbury
Company.
It first came out in 1975 andhad all the classics,
peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon.
and regular bubblegum flavor.
Freshen Up was big in the 1980swhen bubblegums were meant to
(32:14):
be as much breath freshenersmore than brushing your teeth or
mouthwash.
You chew Freshen Up or Dentineor Big Red.
It's like chewing gum.
to clean your teeth is like thesame as on The Simpsons when
Bart and Homer were home aloneand Bart said, do I really have
(32:35):
to brush my teeth?
And Homer said, no, just rinseyour mouth out with soda.
That's like chewing gum toclean your teeth is about the
same as that.
Freshen Up was discontinued in2019.
So it's wild to think four ofthe top five were all
discontinued within the last 10years, less than 10 years.
But there you have it.
(32:55):
Top five discontinued bubblegums or chewing gums.
Which of these was yourfavorite that was gone?
I enjoyed Chewles.
I like the idea of that firstbite into the gum, getting like
that ooze of something sweet.
Maybe for old time's sake, I'llgo get a pouch of Big League
Chew and just shove all thatshredded gum in my mouth just to
(33:18):
pretend like it's the old days.
Oh, you kids today, and evenmost of you adults, spoiled by
the availability of handheldvideo games, whether consoles or
on your phone, those of youaround my age, you know what a
(33:43):
huge deal it was in April 1989when the Nintendo Entertainment
System released their handheldGame Boy console.
I got mine as a Christmaspresent, Christmas or birthday
present, In 1989, so I wouldhave been turning 12.
Nothing beat sitting in bedplaying Super Mario Land or
(34:07):
baseball or Tetris.
Sure, the screen was prettysmall and it was green, but you
didn't know what was coming asfar as evolution of video games.
To me, it was the greatestthing ever.
Just a few years earlier, I wasplaying Pitfall on the Atari
2600.
or going nuts over the OregonTrail game on the PC at school.
(34:30):
Back in episode 47, I did adeep dive into the origins of
the Game Boy and my firstexperiences with it and such.
So you may be asking, why am Italking about it again?
Well, I'm running out ofcontent.
No, that's not it.
What I wanted to do was take alook at some of the rarest and
weirdest games that werereleased for the Game Boy.
(34:52):
It was originally going to bejust the original Game Boy.
And what ended up happening wasI found some of the funniest
ones were for the Game Boy Colorand Game Boy Advance.
So it became all hands on deck.
What I have are eight titles.
And they're a mix of games thatare hard to find because either
(35:14):
they weren't released for long,weren't popular, or were just
odd.
And also weird games.
So let's jump into this list.
The first game I found was onecalled Robopon.
This was a game for the GameBoy Color, and it focuses on a
boy named Cody and hisadventures on this island with
(35:35):
his robot friends.
It was released in NorthAmerica for the Christmas season
in 2000, and it doesn't seemthat odd until you get into the
kind of the actual makeup of thegame cartridge.
What makes Robopon weird is thecartridge itself is longer than
a typical Game Boy cartridgebecause at the top of it,
(35:56):
there's a heat sensor.
This heat sensor, infraredsensor, could allow you to do
things like point your TV remoteat the cartridge and get a stat
boost or wirelessly tradecharacters.
It's definitely innovative,definitely ahead of its time.
I think part of the reason itwasn't as popular as they
(36:17):
probably wanted it to be wasthat it was a blatant ripoff of
Pokemon.
You can't blame them fortrying, though.
Creating a game with a heatsensor, infrared sensor on it,
that's really unique.
The second one I want to talkabout is definitely a weird
game.
It's called Avenging Spirit.
So this game came out in 1991for the original Game Boy.
(36:39):
The game starts with you as theplayer walking with your
girlfriend.
You're ambushed by this crimesyndicate.
They kidnap your girlfriend andkill you.
So you are in the game as aghost.
And you get to possessdifferent characters in it who
have different abilities.
It was said at the time thatthe game was praised for its
(37:04):
uniqueness and the longevity ofthe game.
You could play it forever.
But that it came with a reallysteep learning curve, which
meant that most casual playerslike I would have been at the
time wouldn't have put in thetime and effort to learn
avenging spirit.
I just find it weird because,boy, this is a really dark and
morbid game to start whereyou're murdered in the first few
(37:26):
seconds of it.
I don't know why, but this gamemade me think of a very, very
obscure and not good movie from1990 called Heart Condition
starring Bob Hoskins, who was inWho Framed Roger Rabbit, where
he has a heart attack and hereceives the heart of Denzel
Washington, who then is like aspirit inside of him.
(37:48):
I don't know why it made methink of that with this avenging
spirit game.
Heart condition.
Boy, referencing that movie maybe the most random bit of
nostalgia pop culture you mightever hear on this podcast.
The next game is a religiousgame.
The NIV Bible and the Last 20Levels of Joshua.
(38:09):
This falls into the ultra-rarecategory.
Creating a very serious,educational, religious video
game that really carves away atyour general audience.
The game basically wouldconvert your Game Boy into a
portable NIV Bible.
And it's filled with educationabout religion.
(38:30):
That's why it's so rare.
If you go online looking forit, you can find copies of it
for sale.
The cheapest I found, and Idon't even know if the game
works, was almost $150.
And I've seen it for over $700for this Game Boy cartridge.
The next rare and weird game Ifound was Fish Dude, which was
(38:53):
for the original Game Boy in1991.
The game is pretty simple.
You're a fish in the ocean.
You eat smaller fish and try toavoid getting eaten by bigger
fish.
There's 18 levels that getprogressively harder.
You get three lives in eachgame, and there are cheap
deaths, like swimming right intothe mouth of a bigger fish that
(39:15):
appears in front of you.
This falls more into the rarecategory than weird.
I've seen new-in-box versionsof Fish Dude going for well over
$400, and it seems from whatI've read about it that after
about five minutes of playingit, you've kind of seen
everything the game has, so itwould be a major waste of money.
(39:35):
Now I'll cue the angry commentsonline from people that love
Fish Dude.
So the first four, they werekind of straightforward.
The last four are where the funreally begins.
The fifth game I wanted to talkabout is the reason why this
list went from the original GameBoy to all incarnations of it.
(39:57):
And the game is called MonkeyPuncher.
I mean, right there, as soon asI saw that title, I was like,
that needs to go in.
Because every time I see it orsay it, it makes me laugh.
Monkey Puncher came out for theGame Boy Color in 2012.
And I've seen it described aspart virtual pet and part boxing
(40:18):
simulator.
Like, how do you mix thosetogether?
From what I've read, it's likethe game starts, you're gifted
this monkey, and then it's justtraining and fighting.
And I've seen screen capturesof the game where it tells you
how the monkey is feeling at thetime.
Like, when I see it say themonkey's angry, it's like, yeah,
(40:39):
of course, if you're beatingthe hell out of it, it's not
going to be happy.
Monkey Puncher sounds likesomething I would have come up
with my friends in high schoolwith my camcorder for a skit.
Oh man, that's a hard one totop.
The next game I found is calledSpud's Adventure.
In this game, the maincharacter is an anthropomorphic
(41:02):
potato.
This game came out in 1991 forthe original Game Boy.
Like I said, Spud is the hero.
He's a cape-wearing potato.
He has to rescue Princess Mado,who is a tomato.
Basically, all the charactersin this are different
vegetables.
Terry Turnip, Arnie Eggplant,Garrett Carrot.
(41:24):
These are some of the ones thatyou will find in Spud's
Adventure.
This game seems like it wouldbe fun and unique.
Like something that a kid wouldwant to play for the original
Game Boy.
But it did not sell well.
It is very rare.
I've seen it on eBay forupwards of $350.
So that's a pretty good markupwhen considering that the
(41:46):
original games in 89, 90, whenit came out, they were usually
about $49.
The irony is that even thoughSpud's Adventure didn't do well,
Game Boy seemed to be obsessedwith superhero potatoes.
They came out with another gamea few years later called
Amazing Tater, and that one alsodidn't do well.
(42:07):
It's like, did you learn?
Now you should never makepotato-based superhero games
ever.
Anyway, moving on.
The seventh game I found, thisseems to be one that...
A lot of chatter I've seenonline considers it the weirdest
Game Boy game ever.
You be the judge.
It's called Mario Family.
(42:28):
This game was only released inJapan, and it really doesn't
even qualify as a game.
It was designed to work inconcert with a JN sewing
machine.
So right there, you know, it'sweird, a game and a sewing
machine together.
But you were supposed to feedthese Mario themed patterns into
(42:51):
this sewing machine and thenhopefully watch the machine
recreate them.
So it's like if there was animage of the ending of Super
Mario Brothers with the castleand Mario and the princess, you
would then craft that onto apillowcase or something like
that.
It's one of those ideas thatyou wonder how in the world that
(43:11):
first came out.
Did the sewing machine companysay, you need to make a game
that works with our machine?
And how did that even start?
The game was released in 2001for the Game Boy Color.
Like I said, only in Japan.
I have not found any...
real images of these createdpatterns by the sewing machine.
(43:32):
So I'd love to know if anyonehas seen those.
I'm figuring most of you havenot heard of Mario Family,
though.
But that leads us to the lastgame on the list here.
It's the only one where thetitle rivals Monkey Puncher.
It's called Urban Yeti.
This game was from 2002, andit's about a yeti that has to
(43:54):
make a go of life in the bigcity.
It is said that this game has abig open world, kind of like
Grand Theft Auto.
But I read somebody describedone of the scenes where the Yeti
is working in a soup kitchen topay a bridge toll.
I mean, stop and think aboutthat sentence I just said.
(44:16):
And that's a video game whereyou can be a Yeti in a city
working in a soup kitchen to paya bridge toll that you owe.
It's like that South Parkepisode where the manatees take
the balls and push them togetherto form weird ideas for the
show's family guy.
It's like that's how theycreated Urban Yeti.
(44:37):
That's another one that I couldhave seen my friends and I
making a skit about.
I mean, we made a skit about aboy that was raised by trees and
somehow grew roots.
So I could easily see UrbanYeti or Monkey Puncher being
things we would have come upwith.
So what did you think of thosegames?
Have you heard of any of those?
(44:58):
When I started researching thissegment, I can tell you none of
these games I had ever heardof.
Monkey Puncher changedeverything for this segment.
Can you tell I like just sayingthat?
But yeah, if you want to findany of these games, get ready to
fork over at least a couplehundred dollars for most of
them.
And yes, if you want to watchreal gameplay of Monkey Puncher,
(45:20):
it's on YouTube, so you'rewelcome.
But until next time, that'sgoing to do it for episode 183
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
I hope that I soothed yourbroken heart if Valentine's
wasn't great or added to youramazing week if Valentine's Day
was awesome.
If you enjoyed my show, if youenjoy my content, you can become
(45:44):
a subscriber on Patreon, $5 amonth.
You can buy me a coffee.
You can find me all over socialmedia, Instagram and threads
where you can see my photos, butI'm on Blue Sky.
There's a Facebook fan page.
I do TikTok videos, not dancingor anything, mostly scenes of
Cape Cod.
Subscribe on YouTube.
(46:06):
I've got hundreds and hundredsof videos on there.
New England travel videos,podcast segments.
I said, if I get to the pointwhere I can monetize my channel,
I will likely bring back theWebcam Weekly Wrap-Up podcast as
a live stream because right nowit's on pause because I just
don't have time for everything.
(46:27):
You heard at the top of theshow, I'm bringing back my Etsy
Photoshop.
It's like right there.
I don't even know if I haveroom for that, but I got a good
idea and it's like I got tocapitalize on it.
I'm getting...
closer to filming some of myscenes for Frank Durant's
upcoming horror film.
I'm actually, when I get donewith this podcast, I'm going to
(46:49):
practice my scenes.
I now have two people that haveproducts that are going to be
featured in my scenes.
There's always room for more.
Frank said if we got three,four, five different people that
wanted to be in it, we'd findways to put them in it.
For me, I'll just crowd themall into my scenes that I have.
It'll be me and then it'll bejust all kinds of product
(47:11):
placement around me.
Thank you as always to all ofyou that tune into the show,
that find me all over the restof my content.
I put loads of work in everyweek on this content.
So those of you that check itout, I really appreciate it
because I spend probably 10 to15 hours a week doing this type
(47:32):
of stuff.
Recording, editing, marketing.
And the podcast train doesn'tstop.
Next week is episode 184.
My math might be off, but asfar as I'm seeing, I believe
episode 200 is going to be June18th.
I'll try to figure outsomething good to do for it,
whether it's another listener'schoice episode or some kind of a
(47:56):
bigger deep dive intosomething.
I'll make it worthwhile for a200th episode.
But that's heading towards thesummer.
We've still got winter andspring to go through.
It's definitely been thedoldrums of winter on Cape Cod
and New England.
But hopefully wherever you are,you're getting to get outside,
get a little bit of sun, alittle bit of vitamin D.
(48:19):
This is that time of year wheremost people are deficient in
it.
Days are still short and coldand filled with either snow or
rain.
So lean into the things thatmake you happy.
Whether that's favorite foods,people, podcasts, whatever your
content choices are.
Special happy birthday shoutout at the end of the show to
(48:42):
one of my good friends.
You've heard her on the podcastbefore.
Kaylin Orr, trainer TKO, coachKO, owner of the Misfits Gym.
She's one of the sponsors of mein my film debut.
I've known her since day onethat I was a trainer.
And she's someone that I'vecalled her a tornado of sunshine
(49:04):
probably since day one.
But knowing her for almost 10years, seeing where she is,
everything she's gone through,her evolution.
Like you want to talk aboutinspiring to start your own
business, to have the guts to dothat.
It makes me happy and proud toknow her and to be her friend.
So I hope you have a happybirthday.
(49:26):
Don't do anything too crazy.
And all of you that are on CapeCod, go to her gym, Misfits,
M-S-F-T-S.
Visit the website.
Go to her studio.
You won't be disappointed.
And as for me, I'll be backnext week with more podcast fun,
nostalgia fun.
Find me everywhere.
(49:47):
I've always got content comingup.
And remember, in this life,don't walk in anyone else's
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew me.
(50:09):
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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 183.
It's the post-Valentine's Dayepisode, so either it's a lot of
(00:21):
Lonely Hearts Club orcelebrating love.
Either way, I've got a lot ofnostalgia to fill up the empty
chocolate hearts box.
We're going to start it off bylooking back at a beloved part
of childhood for 1980s kids.
That is scratch and sniffstickers.
We're going to go way, way backin the day and look at the
(00:44):
rarest and or weirdest Game Boygames ever.
We will get sad at the new topfive as we look at some
discontinued bubble gums.
And there'll be a brand newThis Week in History and Time
capsule looking at the veryfirst superhero comic ever, The
Phantom.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 183 of the In My
(01:08):
Footsteps podcast.
Ah yeah, so what is it?
Is it Lonely Hearts Club time?
Is it Celebration of Love time?
It is the post-Valentine's Dayepisode of the podcast.
Me, I enjoyed Valentine's Day.
A lot of fun stuff I did on myown.
Didn't buy any candy hearts orflowers or anything.
(01:30):
I hope, however, you out therecelebrated your Valentine's that
it was as good as it could be.
If it was terrible, at leastyou didn't have to wait too long
for a new episode of thepodcast filled with the
nostalgia to make you forgetabout Valentine's Day.
Think of it this way, we'realready more than halfway
through the last full month ofwinter.
(01:51):
Spring is about a month awayfrom when this podcast goes
live, so at least you got that.
I mean, on Cape Cod, springdoesn't really start until early
May.
Late March through April ispretty much upper 40s, a lot of
clouds, fog, and drizzle.
But it's technically spring, soI guess you can't complain
(02:13):
much.
I can't start this podcastoff...
without doing what I normallydo, and that is thanking my
Patreon subscribers.
For $5 a month, you can get ashout out and access to bonus
content like Laurie, Mary Lou,Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
Neglectoid, Crystal.
(02:34):
You can also go to the site andlook at the free tier.
I put something up forValentine's Day for the free
tier for everyone to enjoy.
Something new this week fromthe adding things to my plate
department, since my plate isnever too full, I guess.
I have restarted my Etsy shopdedicated to my photography.
(02:55):
Those of you that follow me onsocial media, more specifically
Instagram and threads, you see alot of my photography.
I get a lot of comments frompeople asking if I sell them,
and it always seems like a lotof work.
The idea of posting photos andthen getting the print on demand
services going.
(03:16):
But I finally figured, hey, whynot start up an Etsy shop?
The joke was on me.
I went to Etsy and I was goingto create a shop.
And when I signed in, Googlesigns you in automatically or it
can.
Lo and behold, there was aphotography shop already there
that I'd made in 2017 that Itotally forgot about.
(03:36):
It's been sitting therecollecting dust for almost eight
years.
I'm not saying that this one'sgoing to be much better, but CJ
Sederlin Photos, I kept thename.
I'm going to have a link in thedescription of the podcast.
I've got a lot of work to do onit.
Right now, if you go there,there are several digital prints
(03:58):
you can order and download.
I'm starting to put up physicalones that you can get shipped
to you.
Maybe this will be a fun newside hustle.
Maybe in a couple of weeks,you'll wonder why I don't
mention it anymore on thepodcast.
It'll be because I just forgotabout it until 2033.
So go over there and just checkit out.
You don't have to buy photos.
(04:19):
Just let me know what you thinkof it And those of you that
follow me on social media, onIG, on threads, if you have any
photos that you see of mine thatyou say, ooh, that might make a
good print, even if you don'twant to buy it, just send me a
message.
Because my taste in what Ithink makes a great photo is a
lot different from the averageperson that views my page.
(04:39):
Now, unfortunately, I can'tmake any of these photos scratch
and sniff.
Here's a good segue coming up.
But let's kick this podcastoff, episode 183, with a look
back at something that is areally fun memory from my
childhood in the 1980s.
That is scratch and sniffstickers.
So let the sniffing begin now.
(05:01):
When I think back to school inthe 1980s, specifically
elementary school, there are somany positive memories.
I think because school wasn'tso...
serious, like you didn't feellike your future depended on
what you did in school when youwere in kindergarten through
third, fourth, fifth grade.
(05:22):
I've talked before about Lee J.
Ames and his drawing books,Draw, Draw, Draw, Draw 50
Animals and all that.
I actually recently did a videothat went up on YouTube for
that segment of the podcast ifyou want to go check that out.
And I've talked abouteducational kids shows of the
80s and watching things on theTV on the rolling cart.
(05:45):
At some point I'm probablygoing to do a segment about
school lunch and recess inelementary school so we can all
talk about pizza day and thescoop of mashed potatoes that
held its shape very well.
One of those memories that wasprobably a smaller part of my
childhood in school than I thinkbut made a big impact was
(06:08):
scratch and sniff stickers.
Every now and then when I'mresearching the podcast and I
find things from the 80s thatother people my age put up,
someone will have a picture ofthe little round stickers on a
sheet of paper.
And I'm like, oh, I should do asegment on that for the
podcast.
But I keep forgetting there'sso many other things that I
(06:28):
think about.
So scratch and sniff stickersget put way in the back corner
of my research department.
But they really are symbolic ofthat early time in school, the
more innocent time where you'relearning letters and numbers and
shapes and very basic math.
(06:49):
And like I said, it's notserious.
If you fail a math test infirst grade, you're not going to
then not get into Harvard.
Although, I mean, maybe.
Maybe it's a sign of things tocome.
Anyway.
Those of you that are around myage, a little older, a little
younger, you probably canpicture the scratch and sniff
stickers I'm talking about inyour head.
(07:11):
And those are probably the onesI'm going to be talking about.
A very specific brand from acertain company.
The scratch and sniff stickers,they were a massive craze in
the late 70s and early 80s, mid80s.
Those of you that grew up lateron, you don't understand how
important it was to get thecertain types of scratch and
(07:32):
sniff stickers on your homeworkor on your tests.
One of the biggest companiesbehind the trend of scratch and
sniff stickers was ironicallycalled Trend Enterprises.
And so they're the basic onesI'm going to talk about.
The origins of scratch andsniff technology dates back to
the 1960s when scientistsdeveloped a process called
(07:55):
microencapsulation.
where tiny fragrance-filledcapsules were embedded in a
coating that would release scentwhen scratched or rubbed.
I couldn't find what thepurpose of this technology was
in the first place, but it endedup by the late 1970s finding
its way into the educational andnovelty market, especially for
(08:17):
kids.
A little side note, it's funnyto think about something like
this microencapsulation.
where the scientists arefinding this brand new
technology and they probablyhave these dreams of it being
used for something so importantto change the world.
And it ends up being knownmostly for scratch and sniff
stickers that kids in the 1980sliked, which it's not a bad
(08:40):
thing.
I'm sure it made trendenterprises a lot of money, but
the scientists were probablylike, no, it was supposed to be
for something way moreimportant, not so that kids in
the 80s could smell pizza andpopcorn on their homework.
The kings of scratch and sniffstickers was Trend Enterprises.
They were founded in Minnesotain 1968, and they originally
(09:04):
focused on educational materialsfor teachers.
It was around 1977-78 thatTrend Enterprises introduced
their first line of scratch andsniff stickers as classroom
incentives.
The stickers were used byteachers to reward good
behavior, completed assignments,or achievements in class.
And again, I come back to ifyou didn't grow up back then,
(09:27):
you don't understand how big itwas to get your homework back to
you or a test back to you andhave certain stickers on it.
As a kid at that time, it wasthe scent and it was the
colorful design.
They were highly collectibleamong kids, although...
I don't know how you could takethem home.
(09:48):
I mean, I guess you would keepyour homework, but I also don't
remember trying to keep thesticker, like tearing the corner
off my homework to make sure Ihad it.
By the early 1980s, when Istarted school, scratch and
sniff stickers were everywhere.
And Trend Enterprises was oneof the biggest players.
The OG of these scratch andsniff stickers, they included
(10:11):
ones like Grape Ape.
which I'm shocked they didn'tget sued for from the cartoon,
but it smelled like grape.
Peppermint puppy, which wasmint.
Root beer bear, which was rootbeer.
Orange orangutan, which wasorange.
Pizza, which smelled likecheese and tomato.
And then you got skunk, whichsmelled like not really a skunk.
(10:34):
I mean, I wouldn't have knownwhat a skunk smelled like when I
was six, seven years old.
I just knew I didn't like thatone.
What's great is if you goonline now, you can find on
eBay, on Etsy, on a lot ofshopping sites, you can find
sheets of these stickers fromback then.
I don't know how long they holdtheir scent, but you're more
(10:54):
than welcome to go and find outfor yourself.
There were other stickers, likeone that smelled like a
Christmas tree or cinnamonrolls.
My favorite was the popcornone.
Poppin' good.
That was the one.
I don't remember in school ifwe could choose our stickers.
Like, we were thatpresumptuous.
Like, I know my homework isgood, so give me this sticker as
(11:17):
a reward.
Or if the teachers were like,you look like someone that would
like the skunk one, so you getthat.
Or you get the bat one, which,I mean, I don't know what that
smelled like.
I'm finding pictures of some ofthese old stickers.
I'm like, I don't remember thebat.
But there were gumballs.
There was fried chicken.
There was a kind of rainbow onethat just said fantastic.
(11:38):
I can't remember what itsmelled like.
Maybe the glass cleanerfantastic.
Trend Enterprises wasn't theonly brand though.
There were other ones.
Mellow, Smellow, CreativeTeaching Press, Hallmark.
But they didn't succeed likeTrend Enterprises.
Those of you that are picturingscratch and sniff stickers in
(12:00):
your head, the ones I've named,you can see those.
If you don't go and Google it,can you picture any other type
of scratch and sniff stickersfrom Hallmark?
I don't know.
I know that there were timesthat I would get the stickers on
my homework.
There were other times thatyou'd get the stickers still on
the paper, the smooth paper.
(12:21):
So if you wanted to use it, youcould.
If you didn't want to, youcould trade with others.
That was a thing in elementaryschool.
The scratch and sniff stickersthat weren't used, they became
prized possessions.
And some of the rarer TrendEnterprises stickers are still
sought after by collectors of myage and around my age today.
(12:42):
I keep saying how powerfulnostalgia is.
The older I get, the more Icrave these things from my
childhood.
Because unfortunately, youcan't stop the hands of time.
But at least for a few moments,you could sniff old stickers
while you watch Reading Rainbowon an old TV, if you have one.
(13:04):
Like a lot of things, theScratch and Sniff stickers were
more of a fad, a craze, that bythe late 80s, early 90s, had
been replaced by other things.
There were the Lisa Frankstickers, which were a lot of
different animals, a lot ofunicorns, a lot of sparkles and
(13:24):
rainbows in these stickers.
There were pogs, which lookedlike thin coasters that you'd
almost want to set your drinkon, but they had images on them
of all different pop culturethings.
And things like slap bracelets,which were huge in the early
90s until they got bannedbecause I guess people were
(13:46):
getting hurt by them.
I remember those specificallyfrom sixth grade.
For me, nothing tops thescratch and sniff stickers.
I can still remember them andmaybe even vaguely remember the
smell of the popcorn or thepizza and unfortunately the
skunk.
You out there who began schoolin the early, mid-80s, do you
(14:08):
remember the scratch and sniffstickers?
And those of you out there thatare all different ages, what
was the first...
trend in school that youremember was it pogs or slap
bracelets if you were interestedyou can find the scratch and
sniff stickers from trendenterprises on ebay and other
collector sites like i mentionedetsy but the crazy thing is
(14:31):
trend enterprises is stillaround today if you go to
trendenterprises.com they have acollection of these retro
scratch and sniff stickers Thereare 25 different scents.
And if you click on one, like Iclicked on the popcorn one, you
get two sheets with 24 stickerson each for $3.99.
(14:53):
Or if you want to drown innostalgia, you can get all of
them, 25 different scents, 24stickers in each for $90.
It's on sale.
I just looked.
So there you go, Gen Xers.
Go out there and get yourfavorite scratch and sniff
stickers and give them to yourkids for chores well done.
(15:15):
Or just save them for yourself.
This week in history, we aregoing back 89 years ago to
February 17th, 1936, and thedebut of the very first
superhero comic, The Phantom.
(15:37):
It's wild to think that in aworld of comic books and
superheroes, where there'sSuperman, Batman, Spider-Man,
that none of them were thefirst.
If you had asked me before Idid my research, I would have
thought the first superhero wasSuperman.
That kind of made sense to me,but nope.
Before any of those iconicfigures emerged, there was the
(16:01):
Phantom, who was created bywriter Lee Falk, and it debuted
in newspapers on February 17th,1936.
The Phantom predated Supermanby more than two years.
Lee Falk was a young writer andtheater director, and he had
already created Mandrake theMagician, which was a successful
syndicated comic strip in 1934.
(16:22):
Falk conceived of the Phantomwith inspiration from
mythological and literary heroeslike Tarzan, Robin Hood, and
Zorro.
He wanted to create a maskedvigilante with a strong moral
code, someone who would fightagainst injustice across the
globe.
I won't dive too deep into theorigin story of the character
(16:45):
the Phantom, but he lived in afictional country.
And he was different from theother heroes of the time, like
the Shadow or the Green Hornet,because he wore a skin-tight
purple bodysuit, black mask, andskull-emblazoned ring, which he
used to leave a permanent markon criminals.
This type of outfit became atemplate for future superheroes
(17:09):
like Superman, Batman, and TheFlash.
Another innovation of thePhantom was having a secret
identity.
And even if you've never heardof the Phantom character, like I
hadn't until I did my research,its legacy is undeniable.
The use of a costume and a maskset the stage for the superhero
genre.
The concept of an oath-boundhero who fights crime as part of
(17:33):
a long-standing tradition.
That influenced the characters.
But beyond comics, the Phantominfluenced film, television, and
literature.
The Phantom character has beenadapted into more comics,
animated series, and a 1996live-action film starring Billy
Zane.
(17:53):
The movie is 43% fresh onRotten Tomatoes and was a bomb,
losing tens of millions ofdollars.
So I don't know if you've neverseen The Phantom.
That might not be the bestplace to start.
It is true often that theoriginals in a certain genre are
overshadowed by what comesafter because there's no
(18:14):
template.
So there was no template forsuperheroes before the Phantom.
That being said, the Phantomstands as a pioneering figure in
comic history.
His introduction laid thegroundwork for the superhero
genre as we know it today.
So every Marvel movie that youwatch, any superhero movie, it
all traces its origins back toThe Phantom.
(18:36):
And that very first comicstrip, the very first superhero
comic, The Phantom, came out 89years ago this week in history.
Oh, we'll keep the good timesrolling with the new time
capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame date.
(18:57):
So the Phantom is debuting innewspapers, February 17th, 1936.
What is going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was Penniesfrom Heaven by Bing Crosby.
This single by Bing Crosby, thelegendary crooner, was number
(19:18):
one for 10 weeks.
This song has been recorded bysome of the biggest names in the
history of music like BillieHoliday, Doris Day, and Tony
Bennett.
As for Bing Crosby, he was thefirst true multimedia star, a
celebrity in music, in radio, inmotion pictures.
What's crazy is that BingCrosby had sold a total of more
(19:43):
than 200 million albums as faras records, 45s, like the
singles, by 1960.
He's one of the biggest sellingartists of all time, rivaled by
the Beatles, Elvis Presley,Michael Jackson.
That's it.
The number one movie was ModernTimes, and you could get into
(20:04):
the theater with a ticketcosting 25 cents.
This is a Charlie Chaplinpartial talkie comedy film.
It was his last everperformance in a motion picture
as his famed Little Trampcharacter.
Which is basically, if youpicture Charlie Chaplin, the top
hat, the cane, the littlemustache, that's the little
(20:25):
tramp character.
The film was not a massive hit.
It basically broke even withits budget, but it's 98% fresh
on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's gota lot of love, and especially if
you like old-school comedy.
A fun fact about CharlieChaplin was he was the first
ever Hollywood actor to be paid$1 million per year.
(20:47):
And that was in 1918.
And if you were wondering, thatis a shade under $21 million
when adjusted for inflation to2025.
The number one radio show,because there was no television,
was Amos and Andy.
This is definitely one of themost controversial shows ever in
(21:07):
entertainment history.
Two white men basically doing aminstrel show, which was them
playing black people, but on theradio.
So very stereotypical voices.
The show starred Amos Jones andAndy Brown, and it ran as a
radio show from 1926 to 1960.
At its peak in the early 1930s,Amos and Andy had 40 million
(21:34):
weekly listeners.
For a little scale there, thepopulation of the United States
in 1930 was just over 122million people, meaning that
basically about one out of threepeople in the United States
would listen to Amos and Andy ona weekly basis.
And if you were around backthen, February 17th, 1936...
(21:55):
Maybe you missed Valentine'sDay and now you feel bad, so
you've got to get yoursignificant other some kind of
gift to make up for it.
Whoa, boy, you're in luck.
I found something for you.
At your local Sears, yes, thedepartment store, you can get
yourself day-old baby chicks,Rhode Island Reds, for 12 cents
(22:19):
each.
Why get a bouquet of roses anda box of chocolates when you can
get a box of baby chickens tobring home?
Have no fear.
They are all polyrim tested,which was a type of typhoid, so
you're not going to get diseasedchickens to bring home.
I mean, you think about that,going to a department store and
(22:40):
you just got chickens there youcan buy.
That was a different world inthe 1930s.
Well, there you have it.
Another time capsule, anotherThis Week in History.
You can't go buy chickens atSears anymore.
You really can't go to Searsanymore at all.
But as we get into the new topfive, I've got more things you
can't buy as we look atdiscontinued gums.
(23:03):
We should all take a moment ofsilence, chew up a piece of gum,
stick it under our table, desk,wherever we are, and bow our
heads in the memory of fruitstripe gum.
(23:23):
The fact that that gum wasdiscontinued was what got me to
do this top five segment aboutdiscontinued bubble gums.
The funny thing is, FruitStripe gum was discontinued
about a year ago, and I justfound out about it a few weeks
ago, which shows how much Ichewed Fruit Stripe gum.
As a kid growing up in the 80s,early 90s, I loved Big League
(23:48):
Chew, the shredded gum, orBubblicious, or Hubba Bubba gum.
When I got older, I startedchewing the quote-unquote
healthy gum that would help yourteeth dentine, things like
that.
I haven't chewed gum in years.
I don't know about you outthere.
What is your favorite gumthat's out there now?
There are a lot of classicbubble gum, chewing gum.
(24:12):
And what I wanted to do herewas go through some discontinued
gums from yesteryear.
As with most of these topfives, they are in no particular
order.
There are some honorablementions.
I'm going to say that maybehalf of these you will remember.
That's me just assuming.
But let's just get right intoit.
(24:34):
Let's start with some honorablementions.
So honorable mentions fordiscontinued bubblegum chewing
gum include Skittles Bubblegum.
This was the bubblegum versionof the popular candies, Taste
the Rainbow.
The best I could see, Skittlesbubblegum was around from
roughly 2004 to 2010.
Another honorable mention isGator Gum.
(24:58):
This was the gum version, Iguess, of Gatorade.
This was around in the late80s, discontinued in 1989.
I remember loving it in 5thgrade, 6th grade, and then it
was gone.
Another honorable mention isBeachy's gum.
This used to be known as beachnut gum.
It was discontinued in 2023after being around for almost a
(25:22):
century.
Another honorable mention isouch bubble gum.
This was around from the 90s tothe late 2000s and its claim to
fame was that each stick of gumwas wrapped in a way that made
it look like a band-aid.
The final honorable mention isstride gum.
This had the big swooping S onthe front of the package.
(25:46):
It was discontinued in theUnited States in 2023, although
technically it's still availablein China and Australia.
But are you really going toorder stride gum from China or
Australia?
I mean, come on.
So there are some honorablementions.
Sad last days of discontinuedgums.
Do you remember any of those?
(26:08):
Well, the actual top five isgoing to be full of ones I bet
you'll remember.
Bets will not be honored.
So let's dive into the actualtop five, starting with number
one.
You heard me talk about it.
Fruit Stripe Gum.
The infamous gum wheresupposedly you would get about
15, 20 seconds worth of flavorand then it was just useless.
(26:30):
I didn't try it enough toreally be able to validate that
claim.
Family Guy had that clip wherePeter eats it and after like two
chews, he's got no flavor.
Speaker 00 (26:42):
Oh, man, you're more of a letdown than fruit stripe
gum.
Speaker 01 (26:49):
Now, because fruit stripe was discontinued in
January 2024, you cantechnically get it still as some
of the gum would not haveexpired yet.
So you got the people thathoarded it once they found out
it was discontinued and theysell it on eBay.
Much like stride gum.
Are you really going to go oneBay and pay $80 for a couple of
(27:11):
packs of Fruit Stripe gum?
That being said, Fruit Stripewas around for a long time.
Created by Beach Nut, the samecompany that made the Beachies
gum that got discontinued.
It came out in 1960 and lastedall the way until last year.
It was known for the zebramascot, the really colorful
stripes on the front of thepackaging.
(27:33):
Obviously, the majority ofthese gums, bubble gums, they're
meant to appeal to kids andteenagers, not to adults.
Adults have chewing gum.
That's more mature.
Number two is chicklets.
Speaker 03 (27:47):
Well, cowboy, I think chicklets flavor is
outside.
I can't decode it.
Superficial thinking, comrade.
The flavor of chicklets is inthe gum.
Outside.
It's out here.
You may be partly right, butmostly left.
Chicklets.
Two flavor.
Great.
No debate.
Speaker 01 (28:02):
Well, this is another one I remember from
being a kid.
My mother liked Chicklets.
Chicklets, this is kind of aconfusing one here.
I've seen where it's still kindof available, but the brand was
sold in 2023.
So you'll have to let me knowwhere you are, if you can find
Chicklets gum.
Because I can see it onlinethat you can order it.
(28:25):
But like Fruit Stripe, is itstuff that's just, they're
running out the string as far aswhat they've got in stock?
Chicklets are, instead of beingflat pieces of gum, they're
smaller, square, with kind of ahard coating on it that you
would crunch through first andthen you'd have your gum.
The Chicklets brand dates backto 1900, with the name being
(28:47):
derived from an Aztec word,chicle, meaning sticky stuff.
What I saw in my research isthat Chiclets was discontinued
in the United States in 2016,but it's still available in
Mexico.
So just like stride gum or oldstock of fruit stripe gum, I
think you can get it.
But how much effort are yougoing to go into to get Chiclets
(29:11):
gum?
Number three is Chewles gum.
Speaker 04 (29:16):
Chules
Speaker 01 (29:32):
was a cube-shaped gum that had kind of a liquid
center that when you would bitein, it would ooze out.
Chules debuted in 1977.
and was one of the very firstadvertisements on MTV on its
first day in 1981.
The big claim to fame byChewles is that it was an
alternative to sugar-filledgums.
(29:53):
So it didn't have sugar, but ithad saccharin, which was like
worse than sugar, artificialsugar.
In fact, saccharin was evenbanned, taken off the market in
1981.
Although it's still around now,but for a while it was actually
banned.
The best I could see is Chewleswas discontinued in 1992,
(30:17):
although you can go on eBay andfind vintage packs of Chewles
gum for sale.
I have no idea how30-plus-year-old gum would
taste, but I'm sure anyone thatgets it is not getting it to eat
it.
They're getting it just tohave.
Number four is Super Bubble.
(30:37):
Lost in the shuffle of FruitStripe gum getting discontinued,
Super Bubble was alsodiscontinued around the same
time last year.
Super Bubble, much like FruitStripe, it's been said that the
decline of chewing gum, bubblegum habits, chewing habits by
people in general, is what ledto the discontinuation of them.
(31:01):
Super Bubble first came out in1946.
then known as Bub's Daddy.
All right.
So Super Bubble was around foreven longer than Fruit Stripe.
You're looking at almost 80years.
I'm sure at its peak, SuperBubble, Fruit Stripe, they
(31:22):
probably didn't see changing inconsumer habits with bubble gum.
I mean, I thought it was onlyme that wasn't chewing gum
anymore, but I guess it's waymore.
And that'll lead us into numberfive, Freshen Up.
Speaker 04 (31:36):
Freshen
Speaker 01 (31:52):
Up was one of those gums that was supposed to be
breath freshening as well.
It had crystals inside thatwere made by the Cadbury
Company.
It first came out in 1975 andhad all the classics,
peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon.
and regular bubblegum flavor.
Freshen Up was big in the 1980swhen bubblegums were meant to
(32:14):
be as much breath freshenersmore than brushing your teeth or
mouthwash.
You chew Freshen Up or Dentineor Big Red.
It's like chewing gum.
to clean your teeth is like thesame as on The Simpsons when
Bart and Homer were home aloneand Bart said, do I really have
(32:35):
to brush my teeth?
And Homer said, no, just rinseyour mouth out with soda.
That's like chewing gum toclean your teeth is about the
same as that.
Freshen Up was discontinued in2019.
So it's wild to think four ofthe top five were all
discontinued within the last 10years, less than 10 years.
But there you have it.
(32:55):
Top five discontinued bubblegums or chewing gums.
Which of these was yourfavorite that was gone?
I enjoyed Chewles.
I like the idea of that firstbite into the gum, getting like
that ooze of something sweet.
Maybe for old time's sake, I'llgo get a pouch of Big League
Chew and just shove all thatshredded gum in my mouth just to
(33:18):
pretend like it's the old days.
Oh, you kids today, and evenmost of you adults, spoiled by
the availability of handheldvideo games, whether consoles or
on your phone, those of youaround my age, you know what a
(33:43):
huge deal it was in April 1989when the Nintendo Entertainment
System released their handheldGame Boy console.
I got mine as a Christmaspresent, Christmas or birthday
present, In 1989, so I wouldhave been turning 12.
Nothing beat sitting in bedplaying Super Mario Land or
(34:07):
baseball or Tetris.
Sure, the screen was prettysmall and it was green, but you
didn't know what was coming asfar as evolution of video games.
To me, it was the greatestthing ever.
Just a few years earlier, I wasplaying Pitfall on the Atari
2600.
or going nuts over the OregonTrail game on the PC at school.
(34:30):
Back in episode 47, I did adeep dive into the origins of
the Game Boy and my firstexperiences with it and such.
So you may be asking, why am Italking about it again?
Well, I'm running out ofcontent.
No, that's not it.
What I wanted to do was take alook at some of the rarest and
weirdest games that werereleased for the Game Boy.
(34:52):
It was originally going to bejust the original Game Boy.
And what ended up happening wasI found some of the funniest
ones were for the Game Boy Colorand Game Boy Advance.
So it became all hands on deck.
What I have are eight titles.
And they're a mix of games thatare hard to find because either
(35:14):
they weren't released for long,weren't popular, or were just
odd.
And also weird games.
So let's jump into this list.
The first game I found was onecalled Robopon.
This was a game for the GameBoy Color, and it focuses on a
boy named Cody and hisadventures on this island with
(35:35):
his robot friends.
It was released in NorthAmerica for the Christmas season
in 2000, and it doesn't seemthat odd until you get into the
kind of the actual makeup of thegame cartridge.
What makes Robopon weird is thecartridge itself is longer than
a typical Game Boy cartridgebecause at the top of it,
(35:56):
there's a heat sensor.
This heat sensor, infraredsensor, could allow you to do
things like point your TV remoteat the cartridge and get a stat
boost or wirelessly tradecharacters.
It's definitely innovative,definitely ahead of its time.
I think part of the reason itwasn't as popular as they
(36:17):
probably wanted it to be wasthat it was a blatant ripoff of
Pokemon.
You can't blame them fortrying, though.
Creating a game with a heatsensor, infrared sensor on it,
that's really unique.
The second one I want to talkabout is definitely a weird
game.
It's called Avenging Spirit.
So this game came out in 1991for the original Game Boy.
(36:39):
The game starts with you as theplayer walking with your
girlfriend.
You're ambushed by this crimesyndicate.
They kidnap your girlfriend andkill you.
So you are in the game as aghost.
And you get to possessdifferent characters in it who
have different abilities.
It was said at the time thatthe game was praised for its
(37:04):
uniqueness and the longevity ofthe game.
You could play it forever.
But that it came with a reallysteep learning curve, which
meant that most casual playerslike I would have been at the
time wouldn't have put in thetime and effort to learn
avenging spirit.
I just find it weird because,boy, this is a really dark and
morbid game to start whereyou're murdered in the first few
(37:26):
seconds of it.
I don't know why, but this gamemade me think of a very, very
obscure and not good movie from1990 called Heart Condition
starring Bob Hoskins, who was inWho Framed Roger Rabbit, where
he has a heart attack and hereceives the heart of Denzel
Washington, who then is like aspirit inside of him.
(37:48):
I don't know why it made methink of that with this avenging
spirit game.
Heart condition.
Boy, referencing that movie maybe the most random bit of
nostalgia pop culture you mightever hear on this podcast.
The next game is a religiousgame.
The NIV Bible and the Last 20Levels of Joshua.
(38:09):
This falls into the ultra-rarecategory.
Creating a very serious,educational, religious video
game that really carves away atyour general audience.
The game basically wouldconvert your Game Boy into a
portable NIV Bible.
And it's filled with educationabout religion.
(38:30):
That's why it's so rare.
If you go online looking forit, you can find copies of it
for sale.
The cheapest I found, and Idon't even know if the game
works, was almost $150.
And I've seen it for over $700for this Game Boy cartridge.
The next rare and weird game Ifound was Fish Dude, which was
(38:53):
for the original Game Boy in1991.
The game is pretty simple.
You're a fish in the ocean.
You eat smaller fish and try toavoid getting eaten by bigger
fish.
There's 18 levels that getprogressively harder.
You get three lives in eachgame, and there are cheap
deaths, like swimming right intothe mouth of a bigger fish that
(39:15):
appears in front of you.
This falls more into the rarecategory than weird.
I've seen new-in-box versionsof Fish Dude going for well over
$400, and it seems from whatI've read about it that after
about five minutes of playingit, you've kind of seen
everything the game has, so itwould be a major waste of money.
(39:35):
Now I'll cue the angry commentsonline from people that love
Fish Dude.
So the first four, they werekind of straightforward.
The last four are where the funreally begins.
The fifth game I wanted to talkabout is the reason why this
list went from the original GameBoy to all incarnations of it.
(39:57):
And the game is called MonkeyPuncher.
I mean, right there, as soon asI saw that title, I was like,
that needs to go in.
Because every time I see it orsay it, it makes me laugh.
Monkey Puncher came out for theGame Boy Color in 2012.
And I've seen it described aspart virtual pet and part boxing
(40:18):
simulator.
Like, how do you mix thosetogether?
From what I've read, it's likethe game starts, you're gifted
this monkey, and then it's justtraining and fighting.
And I've seen screen capturesof the game where it tells you
how the monkey is feeling at thetime.
Like, when I see it say themonkey's angry, it's like, yeah,
(40:39):
of course, if you're beatingthe hell out of it, it's not
going to be happy.
Monkey Puncher sounds likesomething I would have come up
with my friends in high schoolwith my camcorder for a skit.
Oh man, that's a hard one totop.
The next game I found is calledSpud's Adventure.
In this game, the maincharacter is an anthropomorphic
(41:02):
potato.
This game came out in 1991 forthe original Game Boy.
Like I said, Spud is the hero.
He's a cape-wearing potato.
He has to rescue Princess Mado,who is a tomato.
Basically, all the charactersin this are different
vegetables.
Terry Turnip, Arnie Eggplant,Garrett Carrot.
(41:24):
These are some of the ones thatyou will find in Spud's
Adventure.
This game seems like it wouldbe fun and unique.
Like something that a kid wouldwant to play for the original
Game Boy.
But it did not sell well.
It is very rare.
I've seen it on eBay forupwards of $350.
So that's a pretty good markupwhen considering that the
(41:46):
original games in 89, 90, whenit came out, they were usually
about $49.
The irony is that even thoughSpud's Adventure didn't do well,
Game Boy seemed to be obsessedwith superhero potatoes.
They came out with another gamea few years later called
Amazing Tater, and that one alsodidn't do well.
(42:07):
It's like, did you learn?
Now you should never makepotato-based superhero games
ever.
Anyway, moving on.
The seventh game I found, thisseems to be one that...
A lot of chatter I've seenonline considers it the weirdest
Game Boy game ever.
You be the judge.
It's called Mario Family.
(42:28):
This game was only released inJapan, and it really doesn't
even qualify as a game.
It was designed to work inconcert with a JN sewing
machine.
So right there, you know, it'sweird, a game and a sewing
machine together.
But you were supposed to feedthese Mario themed patterns into
(42:51):
this sewing machine and thenhopefully watch the machine
recreate them.
So it's like if there was animage of the ending of Super
Mario Brothers with the castleand Mario and the princess, you
would then craft that onto apillowcase or something like
that.
It's one of those ideas thatyou wonder how in the world that
(43:11):
first came out.
Did the sewing machine companysay, you need to make a game
that works with our machine?
And how did that even start?
The game was released in 2001for the Game Boy Color.
Like I said, only in Japan.
I have not found any...
real images of these createdpatterns by the sewing machine.
(43:32):
So I'd love to know if anyonehas seen those.
I'm figuring most of you havenot heard of Mario Family,
though.
But that leads us to the lastgame on the list here.
It's the only one where thetitle rivals Monkey Puncher.
It's called Urban Yeti.
This game was from 2002, andit's about a yeti that has to
(43:54):
make a go of life in the bigcity.
It is said that this game has abig open world, kind of like
Grand Theft Auto.
But I read somebody describedone of the scenes where the Yeti
is working in a soup kitchen topay a bridge toll.
I mean, stop and think aboutthat sentence I just said.
(44:16):
And that's a video game whereyou can be a Yeti in a city
working in a soup kitchen to paya bridge toll that you owe.
It's like that South Parkepisode where the manatees take
the balls and push them togetherto form weird ideas for the
show's family guy.
It's like that's how theycreated Urban Yeti.
(44:37):
That's another one that I couldhave seen my friends and I
making a skit about.
I mean, we made a skit about aboy that was raised by trees and
somehow grew roots.
So I could easily see UrbanYeti or Monkey Puncher being
things we would have come upwith.
So what did you think of thosegames?
Have you heard of any of those?
(44:58):
When I started researching thissegment, I can tell you none of
these games I had ever heardof.
Monkey Puncher changedeverything for this segment.
Can you tell I like just sayingthat?
But yeah, if you want to findany of these games, get ready to
fork over at least a couplehundred dollars for most of
them.
And yes, if you want to watchreal gameplay of Monkey Puncher,
(45:20):
it's on YouTube, so you'rewelcome.
But until next time, that'sgoing to do it for episode 183
of the In My Footsteps podcast.
I hope that I soothed yourbroken heart if Valentine's
wasn't great or added to youramazing week if Valentine's Day
was awesome.
If you enjoyed my show, if youenjoy my content, you can become
(45:44):
a subscriber on Patreon, $5 amonth.
You can buy me a coffee.
You can find me all over socialmedia, Instagram and threads
where you can see my photos, butI'm on Blue Sky.
There's a Facebook fan page.
I do TikTok videos, not dancingor anything, mostly scenes of
Cape Cod.
Subscribe on YouTube.
(46:06):
I've got hundreds and hundredsof videos on there.
New England travel videos,podcast segments.
I said, if I get to the pointwhere I can monetize my channel,
I will likely bring back theWebcam Weekly Wrap-Up podcast as
a live stream because right nowit's on pause because I just
don't have time for everything.
(46:27):
You heard at the top of theshow, I'm bringing back my Etsy
Photoshop.
It's like right there.
I don't even know if I haveroom for that, but I got a good
idea and it's like I got tocapitalize on it.
I'm getting...
closer to filming some of myscenes for Frank Durant's
upcoming horror film.
I'm actually, when I get donewith this podcast, I'm going to
(46:49):
practice my scenes.
I now have two people that haveproducts that are going to be
featured in my scenes.
There's always room for more.
Frank said if we got three,four, five different people that
wanted to be in it, we'd findways to put them in it.
For me, I'll just crowd themall into my scenes that I have.
It'll be me and then it'll bejust all kinds of product
(47:11):
placement around me.
Thank you as always to all ofyou that tune into the show,
that find me all over the restof my content.
I put loads of work in everyweek on this content.
So those of you that check itout, I really appreciate it
because I spend probably 10 to15 hours a week doing this type
(47:32):
of stuff.
Recording, editing, marketing.
And the podcast train doesn'tstop.
Next week is episode 184.
My math might be off, but asfar as I'm seeing, I believe
episode 200 is going to be June18th.
I'll try to figure outsomething good to do for it,
whether it's another listener'schoice episode or some kind of a
(47:56):
bigger deep dive intosomething.
I'll make it worthwhile for a200th episode.
But that's heading towards thesummer.
We've still got winter andspring to go through.
It's definitely been thedoldrums of winter on Cape Cod
and New England.
But hopefully wherever you are,you're getting to get outside,
get a little bit of sun, alittle bit of vitamin D.
(48:19):
This is that time of year wheremost people are deficient in
it.
Days are still short and coldand filled with either snow or
rain.
So lean into the things thatmake you happy.
Whether that's favorite foods,people, podcasts, whatever your
content choices are.
Special happy birthday shoutout at the end of the show to
(48:42):
one of my good friends.
You've heard her on the podcastbefore.
Kaylin Orr, trainer TKO, coachKO, owner of the Misfits Gym.
She's one of the sponsors of mein my film debut.
I've known her since day onethat I was a trainer.
And she's someone that I'vecalled her a tornado of sunshine
(49:04):
probably since day one.
But knowing her for almost 10years, seeing where she is,
everything she's gone through,her evolution.
Like you want to talk aboutinspiring to start your own
business, to have the guts to dothat.
It makes me happy and proud toknow her and to be her friend.
So I hope you have a happybirthday.
(49:26):
Don't do anything too crazy.
And all of you that are on CapeCod, go to her gym, Misfits,
M-S-F-T-S.
Visit the website.
Go to her studio.
You won't be disappointed.
And as for me, I'll be backnext week with more podcast fun,
nostalgia fun.
Find me everywhere.
(49:47):
I've always got content comingup.
And remember, in this life,don't walk in anyone else's
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund.
You already knew me.
(50:09):
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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