Episode 89: Bathsheba Spooner's Colonial Murder-For-Hire; My Funniest Speeding Ticket; Halloween In the 80s; Fastest Canceled TV Shows(10-13-2022)

Episode 89 continues Spooky Season.  It kicks off with potentially the OG of true crime tales in Colonial America.  Bathsheba Spooner was young, rich, and beautiful.  However, she was also married to a much older man she didn't love.  To rectify the situation Bathsheba concocted what was likely the first murder-for-hire plan in America.  How did the plan go?
We go way Back In the Day to reminisce about what it was like to celebrate Halloween as a child of the 1980s.  From the first costume choices to the candies we loved, and hated.  Trick or Treating has changed since then, but the previous generation can always take a trip down memory lane.
There is a brief detour from the horror side of Halloween.  This is the true story of the funniest speeding ticket I ever received.  The ticket itself is hardly funny, but the story behind it has grown into legend.  What happens when a Massachusetts vehicle gets pulled over in North Carolina?
There are some television shows that leave indelible legacies in entertainment history.  This weeks Top 5 is not any of those shows.  This Top 5 looks at the worst of the worst, the fastest canceled shows ever.  It even includes shows that never made it to air. Do you remember any of these?
There is also a brand new This Week In History focusing on the origins of Oktoberfest. As well as a new Time Capsule that celebrates the birthday of my niece Emma!

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

• Purchase Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod
• Buy Me A Coffee!
• Wear Your Wish
• Kiwi's Kustoms - Etsy
• DJ Williams Music
• KeeKee's Cape Cod Kitchen
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• Christopher Setterlund.com
• The In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Searching for the Lady of the Dunes

Listen to Episode 88 here.

Transcript

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Intro

 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 89. This week we're going to continue the spooky season, but I'm going to try to balance it out with some humor. We're going to start it off with the story of Bathsheba Spooner, the first woman executed in America after the Declaration of Independence, and her unbelievable but true murder-for-hire story. We're going to transition into some laughs after that, as I tell the embarrassing but true story of the funniest/worst speeding ticket I ever received in my life. We're gonna go way, way back in the day and look at what it was like as a kid going out trick or treating in the 1980s and 90s. This is going to be a brand new top five that are the top five fastest canceled TV shows. These are the ones that came and went in the blink of an eye. Most of these you probably won't remember. And there'll be a brand new this week in history and time capsule with a special birthday flavor. All that coming up right now on episode 89 of the In My Footsteps podcast.
How's everybody doing? I hope you had a good long weekend. The weather has definitely changed it's fall foliage time take advantage of my episode with the top fall foliage drives. I made it a point at the beginning of the podcast to mention that we're going to balance some humor with horror and true crime. Because I have so many of those types of stories true crime and such. But I figured not everyone's into that. So I wanted to give a little bit of a balance. But don't worry, there's plenty of horror where this stuff came from for the rest of this month and probably going forward. But before we dive into that, I wanted to make sure that I thanked everyone who tunes in if this is your first time or if you've listened to every episode. Thank you for listening, sharing, subscribing, commenting, reviewing. If you want to leave a donation you can buy me a coffee, go to buy me a coffee.com Find the In My Footsteps podcast. You can look using Cape Cod, New England should help you find it. Any donations always go to advertising the podcast like I always say any of you out there have Halloween parties planned. Or those of you with kids do they have their costumes picked out. I believe that my day job we're planning on doing some kind of a costume deal. Any excuse to kind of celebrate the Halloween season even now in my 40s I look forward to I'm always looking to hold on to things like from my childhood, bring them back in some way. I used to be an old soul with a young heart when I was young. Now I'm an old soul with an old heart so it all kind of evens out. And that's part of what makes this podcast so great for me is I get to indulge in my childhood enjoyment things back then, kind of reliving the good old days I guess. And I hope that some of the stuff that I bring up helps you to relive good old days. If you're my age around my age, you're really going to get to dive into that later with a look back at the 80s and 90s Trick or Treating and what it was like the whole Halloween season back then. But before that let's dive into some true crime. This is one of the OGs of American true crime. It's a murder for hire story that's too unbelievable to not be true. And it's local. If you're in New England, this is the story of the murder for hire plot of Bathsheba Spooner on episode 89 of the in my footsteps podcast.

Bathsheba Spooner's Colonial Murder for Hire
It's October, Halloween time, time of the year for scary stories. And sometimes the scariest stories come from reality. Over the decades, New England has seen more than its share of scary stories. I mean, Cape Cod alone has seen the Lady of the Dunes, Tony Costa, Nurse Jane Toppan, and countless stories of paranormal activities in the old homes on the Cape. But when looking back in time, there has to be a first the first true crime story that rocked this area. And this story could have been ripped straight from tabloid headlines of the 21st century. However, it happened during the infancy of the United States during the American Revolution and is a wild and unbelievable crime happened. This is the story of the murder perpetrated by Bathsheba Spooner. It made her the first woman to be executed in America after the Declaration of Independence.

Bathsheba Spooner was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts as Bathsheba Ruggles, on February 15, 1746. She was the daughter of General Timothy Ruggles and his wife who was also named Bathsheba. She was the sixth of seven children the couple had Timothy was a well respected man in town, practicing law, while also helping his wife run the Newcomb tavern that she had inherited upon her first husband's death. The Cape didn't feel big enough for Timothy Ruggles, and he moved his family to the town of Hardwick, Massachusetts, 20 miles west of Worcester. In 1753. Ruggles eventually became a judge in Worcester County, and a representative to the general court. Things changed though as the American Revolution drew nearer. Timothy was fiercely loyal to the British, and even took a position in the Governor's Council, opposing his former colonial allies. In 1776, he left for New York and was eventually relocated to Canada by the British after the Revolutionary War ended. Timothy Ruggles was well off and his daughter Bathsheba grew up wealthy and her attitude reflected this. She was beautiful, and she knew it and developed much of her personality traits from her early years around the Newcomb tavern. Bathsheba was married at 21 to a man more than twice her age named Joshua Spooner. He was a retired trader, and was by all accounts a feeble man not capable of handling a far younger, uninhibited wife. So needless to say the union was not a happy one living in Brookfield near Worcester. During their 12 years of marriage, Bathsheba grew weary of her older husband, and developed a wandering eye. She particularly liked the young soldiers. The first such interest occurred in 1775 16 year old Ezra Ross from Ipswich had joined the Continental Army. He was returning home on foot and ended up getting sick. Ross wound up spending some time convalescing at the Spooner home. Bathsheba treated the sick young man well, and they began a secret affair. Young Ross returned home to Ipswich yet continue to pay visits to the spooners Joshua's seemed blissfully ignorant of the situation though Bathsheba began to realize that would not remain the case forever. Already the mother to two daughters with Joshua Bathsheba became pregnant with a third child. However, this child did not share the same father. She knew that as were Ross would eventually be revealed to be the father, and the fallout would be massive in January 1778, rather than risk losing everything, especially her wealth, should her husband find out of her affair. A plan was hatched, Joshua Spooner needed to go. The first plan failed at the start. As Bathsheba tried to persuade Ezra to poison Joshua. He lost his nerve. Bathsheba then knew that she needed more than as Eros to help her get rid of Joshua. She brazenly ordered her house servant Alex Cummings, to invite inside any British soldier that might be passing by. Two soldiers James Buchanan and William Brooks were alerted into the plan with a little alcohol and promises of sexual favors and money. Joshua returned from being out of town and found the British soldiers in his house and justifiably ejected them. Rather than the young men leaving they ended up stowing away in the barn for three days with Bathsheba secretly bringing them food. With three soldiers in tow. Bathsheba decided it was time to proceed with her murder for hire plot. Joshua returned home on the evening of March 1, 1778, from a night of drinking at Coolies tavern between eight and 9pm. Buchanan and Brooks were essentially ordered to dispatch of Spooner by any means necessary quickly. The men bludgeoned Joshua to death with clubs in his own front yard. The body was tossed down a well on the property and the deed was done. Bathsheba his plan had seemingly gone off without a hitch, and the hindrance to her happiness was gone, but within 24 hours the tide had shifted.

The murder of Joshua's Spooner was discovered quickly by police with Bathsheba and her three co conspirators being arrested. Although initially pleading not guilty, Ross Buchanan and Brooks eventually all pointed the finger at Bathsheba for the plot and begged for mercy. The trial was set to commence on April 21, 1778. Of the four perpetrators on trial, the only one with even a shred of a chance of Mercy was Ezra Ross, whose involvement in the actual murder was unknown. The testimony of servant Alex Cummings though, put the nail in the coffin of all of them. He had heard them talking openly of the plot to kill Joshua Spooner. Immediately after the murder coming saw the soldiers burning bloody clothes, and Bathsheba paying them off. Several other witnesses, including other house servants testified. In the end, all four were found guilty, and all four were sentenced to death by hanging. This was not the end of the story. After the sentence, as were Ross's parents sent a letter of appeal to the court. It stated that Ross was young and he had been seduced by an older woman. That appeal was rejected. A larger story developed when a plea was raised by Bathsheba that she was pregnant. She wanted to stay of execution at least long enough to deliver her baby. A jury of 12 nurses 10 women and two men was appointed to examine her. And after the examination, it was a vote of nine to three that Bathsheba was not in fact pregnant. With all of those appeals exhausted, the quadruple hanging took place on July 2, 1778. The three young men went first with Bathsheba has final moments being saved for last, she calmly met her end waving gentle goodbyes to friends among the hundreds in the audience. The last shock of this shocking case came moments after Bathsheba as lifeless body was lowered from the gallows. Upon further more in depth evaluation, it was revealed that in fact, she had been pregnant like she had said Bathsheba son was delivered right there under the gallows mere moments after his mother's death. Bathsheba Spooner grew up wealthy, shaped by her time around strong willed parents and a thriving tavern scene. She married young to a man twice her age, a man she seemingly did not respect and had nothing in common with. She got involved with a younger man. And to the untrained eye, it appears as though the end was inevitable for Bathsheba. She became the first woman to be executed after the Declaration of Independence. And the sensational details of the murder-for-hire plot of her husband gripped the region. For those looking to add to the creepiness of this legendary murder story, the well where Joshua's spooners body was dumped still exists. It's in the town of Brookfield, Massachusetts, and is marked with a stone denoting the fate of the former property owner at the hand of his wife and her three accomplices.

The Funniest Speeding Ticket I Ever Received

 After that sad and dire story of Bathsheba, Spooner and murder for hire. I figured, not every part of the podcast in October should be true crime and horror, although this may end up being that this is the story of Well, looking back now the story of my funniest speeding ticket ever. So the first part of this story will probably be held for another podcast episode. And that is the time that I moved down to Florida, because there's a lot that goes into it, what it was going down there, why it didn't work out and how I ended up coming back to Cape Cod. But the premise is I had lived down in Florida. I ended up needing to move back to Cape Cod just it was mainly financial. And I had driven my car I had a Saturn and I drove it from Cape Cod all the way down to Fort Lauderdale. I ended up centered in Delray Beach on the East Coast. And so when I came back, I had to drive my car all the way back up to Cape Cod. Only when you're driving the entire basically the entire length of the eastern seaboard. Do you realize how big Florida is as a state? I remember crossing into Florida, stopping and calling my cousin to say hey, I'm in Florida, and she was like, good, you got another seven hours until you get to where we are like oh my God, if I drove seven hours straight north, I'd be past Montreal, Canada from here. So I had to pack my Saturn, which was it's a typical sedan for doors, not that big, pack all my stuff up to drive all the way back to Cape Cod, and kind of start over. And the drive back was not going to be as fun as the drive down because the drive down was the thought of some great new chapter with all this potential. And it didn't happen. So I'm getting ready to drive back to Cape Cod. For the second time in my 20s. Well, there was a third that third time that almost happened. But I basically spent my 20s trying to move away from Cape Cod and it was like the mafia, he kept getting pulled back in. I knew that driving back from the middle of Florida all the way to Cape Cod, I was not going to be able to do it in one day. I ended up stopping somewhere in North Carolina and spending the night who which when you've got your car filled with everything you own, and you've got to leave it in a hotel parking lot. You talk about not sleeping much. I basically sat by the window to watch my car, I put like a blanket over the back seat, because I was figuring to be perfect, leaving Florida to go back to Cape Cod, and get halfway there and have my car broken into and everything stolen out of it. But it didn't happen. I got a little bit of sleep got out to my car, everything was still there. So now it was destination Cape Cod. From about the center of North Carolina to Cape Cod, you're looking at 13 hours of driving. So my plan was to get up as early as I could get on the road, and hopefully be back at my mother and stepfather's house by late that night. I got into my car and I was already dreading it knowing that I had well over 700 miles to go. And this was back in 2005. So smartphones with GPS and GPS in general was not a thing. Luckily, if you follow I-95 along the East Coast, it's going to lead you pretty much anywhere you need to go. But still, I couldn't even just set in an address and let it go. I was planning on having to pay attention. I wasn't far from the highway where I stayed. So I started up the car and got ready to go to I-95 and head north back to Cape Cod. The next part of this story is 100% true, I couldn't make this up. I'm getting onto the on-ramp, full acceleration of the car, I haven't even taken my foot off the gas to speed up to get on the highway. And I hear the sirens. So I literally got pulled over just getting past the on ramp on the I 95 You want to talk about a bad beginning of a day of a long trip. But it only got worse. Anybody out there who's gotten speeding tickets in the state you don't reside in, you know, the cops immediately look at your license plate, and it's like they lick their chops like Ooh, boy, I'm gonna get them. So you can only imagine a North Carolina State cop seeing a Massachusetts plate. And I had been pulled over before so I was thinking it was going to be a ticket you pay a fine, but it wasn't that easy. According to the state cop and his radar, I was going so far over the speed limit, which was probably BS. That meant I needed a court appearance. And it was, I believe, a Saturday that I was driving back to the Cape. No courts were open until Monday. So I'm screwed. I told the cop I said I'm moving back to Cape Cod. I don't have the money to live in Florida. So I'm driving back to Cape Cod. What makes you think I have the money to pay for a hotel room for two nights here. But you know, state cops, they're so friendly and understanding. He said I could pay for an attorney to appear in court for me. That was the compromise. He gave me my ticket gave me my marching orders of what I had to do. You better believe I slowed down a lot driving the wave the rest of the way back home. I finally made it to Cape Cod exhausted stressed out now because I've got this ticket hanging over my head. And I laugh looking back at what he said I was going for the speed. It's like I wasn't even done accelerating to get on the highway. But yet I was magically going like 20 miles over the speed limit. But I digress. I get home I have to move back into my mother and stepfathers. Then I have to get to looking in North Carolina for attorneys that will appear in court for me, I never thought that would be something I do. I wasn't looking for reputation or ratings on Google, I was looking for cheap. And I did find one that did go to court and appear for me on that Monday, which just, I could never thought that would be something in my life, driving back from Florida to Cape Cod, getting a ticket in North Carolina, and having to pay an attorney to appear in court for me for a speeding ticket. I think it ended up costing me $250 For the speeding ticket and not quite as much for the attorney, there was a lot of paperwork that had to go back and forth email. Luckily, we had, but I had to mail out checks. my stress level didn't go down for a while because I knew that my insurance would go up, especially for a ticket like that out of state. It became a funny running joke in the family, especially among my siblings, where I would tell them about pulling onto the on ramp and getting pulled over before I even made it to the highway. And it was one of those things, I couldn't even be mad about it because it was all my own fault. My own doing. state cops aren't meant to be your friend. And I've been pulled over out of state before and I have seen cops look at your license plate. So I know what goes through their head. I hadn't even made it. Not even mile one, like 1000 feet on my drive home and I was instantly pulled over. I drove like an old lady the rest of the way probably took me an extra two hours to get home because of that. I figured I was going to end up getting pulled over again. And I have this outstanding ticket on my record. But hey, it could have been worse. I found the attorneys, they went to court for me, and I paid my ticket. But to serve as a reminder of how things could always be worse. I stayed on that law firms mailing list for God at least 10 years. And every time I got an email from them their newsletter, it would just remind me like, hey, remember, if you ever think things are bad, you got that ticket in North Carolina had to hire a lawyer to go to court for you. So that's my funniest speeding ticket. Do you have anything like that where at the time, it probably wasn't funny, but as you look back, it ended up becoming funnier. I've got plenty of those stories and I share a lot of them with you on here. So I'm sure my family's laughing listening to this, but they've heard it all before. Now I'm glad you all got to hear it and take a little bit of a break from the true crime and horror of October spooky season.

This Week In History

This week in history, we are going back 212 years ago, October 12, 1810. And the very first Oktoberfest celebration. Sometimes it's hard to believe that Oktoberfest was actually a true celebration. I think of it as like Cinco Demayo, where a lot of people these days use either of those celebrations as just an excuse to drink. It's like they don't even know what they really mean. Not that I knew what it meant, but right now I'll share it. Oktoberfest is an annual festival spans two weeks it's held in Munich, Germany. This year it lasted from September 17 Through October 3, so it's already passed. But the original was a celebration of the marriage of the Crown Prince of Bavaria. He later became King Louie the First and it's celebrated his marriage to Princess to Rhys von Sashen Hilberg housing. The original was only five days, which concluded with a horse race. So the original October Fest was not that big of a deal compared to how it would later become. But the following year, the horse race was combined with an agricultural fair. And by 18, a team booths that serve food and drink were introduced and that's where Oktoberfest kind of got the look that it still has today. By the end of the 20th century, the booths developed into large beer halls, which There you go. Each of the brewers in Munich erects the one of these temporary beer halls, but they're big some of them can seat up to 6000 people. And the festival is started off by the mayor of Munich tapping the first keg there's more entertainment too. There's games amusement rides, music dancing. The Oktoberfest in Munich draws more than 6 million people each year with a lot of them being tourists. I know you're all wondering exactly how much beer do they drink at Oktoberfest. Well, on average, the total beer consumption for the Oktoberfest in Munich is about 2 million gallons. That doesn't count any Oktoberfest that's celebrated elsewhere. That's just Munich. But overall Oktoberfest is as much as it is drinking it's a celebration. With a lot of good food, good people, just a chance to interact. And the very first Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany took place 212 years ago, this week in history.

And now it's time for a brand new time capsule. We are going back 21 years ago this week, to October 10, 2001. And the birth date of my second niece Emma, who now turns 21 which talk about making me feel old. But let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture. On the day my niece Emma was born, the number one song was Fallin by Alicia Keys. This was off of her debut album Songs and A Minor was her debut single and it's still considered to be her signature song. The song and the album were massive hits and made Alicia Keys an immediate superstar. She won three Grammy awards based around the song and album. The album debuted at number one and has sold more than 12 million copies thus far in its existence. The number one movie was American Pie 2. This is the sequel starring all the same cast from the original American Pie, but now they've gone from high school to college. It starred Jason Biggs, Sean William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, Mena Suvari, Alyson Hannigan, Tara Reid, and so many more. I guess it can be considered a gross-out teen movie, it's not so bad. The original American pies a classic and this one's just as good. I think the movie made $288 million worldwide on a budget of $30 million. So it was a huge success. It's a 52% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So critically, it's not seen as a great movie, but that shouldn't stop you from going and seeing it. And if you were curious, there are total of nine American Pie films. I have only seen three so I have no idea about all these other ones, but maybe you can let me know if they're any good. The number one TV show was Friends. Friends is considered one of the greatest sitcoms ever. It was on for 10 seasons, and a total of 236 episodes between 1994 and 2004. Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow. Those are all the friends just there growing up in New York in their 20s 30s. Friends ranked in the top 10 in ratings for every season, and they were in the top five for nine of the 10 seasons. So that'll tell you what a juggernaut that show was. And if you were around back then October 10, 2001. Maybe you had a newborn baby, you wanted to get them a fun toy. Although this might not be good for a baby. You could get the brand new Tickle Me Elmo surprise. The surprise was that he had five different zones where he was ticklish, but it would change which ones would make him laugh, and he would say he wasn't ticklish there. At certain times, it was like a guessing game. But that toy sold big. It was the biggest toy of 2001. And you could get one if you're lucky for $28.99. And I wanted to end this by wishing my niece Emma a happy 21st birthday. It's crazy to think about how time flies. And it's one of those things that makes you think to make time for those who matter because you don't get the time back. But all the way from the McDonald's commercials we used to watch when YouTube was first around to your famous blue dress and now to being a forensic psych college students smarter than I could ever hope to be. I hope the birthday was great. Hopefully, we'll get to see you. And I'm very proud and I'm very lucky to be able to call you family to Happy birthday to my niece Emma. Now we're going to dive into a brand new top five for some laughs these are going to be some of the worst TV shows ever created. As we look at the fastest canceled TV shows ever get ready to shake your head at some of these.


Top 5: Fastest Canceled TV Shows
This is going to be a top five where I really drop some knowledge on you. Because in this top five, there is a list of five and I got five honorable mentions. And I'll be shocked if any of you out there have heard of two of these TV shows. And that's nothing against you. It's just these shows were canceled either after one episode, or maybe two episodes, and some of them never even aired at all. So I guess the list is the fastest canceled TV shows. But I guess it could also be terrible TV shows that were canceled fast. I had to do a lot of research. I did not watch any episodes of any of this. But I did get as much info as I could about each one. So with the honorable mentions, I'm going to give you the name of the show when it came out, maybe a sentence about it. And you're more than welcome to go and look them up and find what you can about them. But I'm not going to spend that much time on the honorable mentions. Honorable Mentions for super fast canceled TV shows include Dot comedy from 2000, which was about the explosion of the internet. The Will from 2005, which was a reality show about people fighting to get in a family member's will. Welcome to the Neighborhood from 2005, which was an unaired reality show Co-Ed Fever from 1979, which was basically a TV show based on the movie Animal House, and South of Sunset from 1993, which was a detective show starring Glenn Frey from the band The Eagles. So those are the honorable mentions. Have you heard of any of those? Well, let's get into the actual top five. And remember, these aren't in any particular order. Even though it says the fastest canceled one to five does not go in order. Number one is Snip, which was a TV show in 1976 It never aired any episodes. But it was supposed to be about a hairstylist played by David Brenner, who worked at the same Cape Cod salon as his ex-wife. I thought it was interesting that the show would have been based on Cape Cod, but the reason it never aired was because the owner of the salon was gay. And in 1979, you know, obviously, rampant homophobia. They just didn't want to deal with the backlash of having a gay character on TV. Number two is a show called Heil Honey, I'm Home. This was a British show. It had one episode aired in 1990. And it's supposed to be basically a found footage TV show of what if Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun lived next to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1938. Supposed to be a comedy, so you can see why that might not make the air. They actually had filmed eight episodes of the show and aired the first one and the backlash was so bad they just shelved the whole rest of the series. If you are curious, though, about this show and what it's like you can go and find it on YouTube they have the only aired episode. Number three is a show called Lawless from 1997. It was canceled after one episode aired on Fox. This was supposed to be a more sophisticated take on the A team and it starred former NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth. He was going to be a former Special Ops agent turned PI. And it was on a Saturday night and they said the numbers were so low even for Saturday night that they just canceled it and said forget it. But hey, if you've got a hankering for some Brian Bosworth acting, you can always go watch his 1991 movie Stone Cold or just go watch the highlight of Bo Jackson plowing him over to get into the endzone from when he played in the NFL. That's more laughs than any movie he's been in. Number four is a TV show called The Dictator. Of all the ones that I saw all 10 This would be the one I would have been most interested in. It was an unaired sitcom from 1988 starring Christopher Lloyd as a dictator from a small Caribbean island who gets deposed to Queens, New York. And there he runs a laundromat and that's kind of the whole premise of the show. They filmed two episodes before a Writers Guild strike. And they didn't want to premiere the series without more than two shows. Sidney just scrapped the whole thing. I'm still doing my research, but if I can find those honored episodes somewhere I'll share a link on social media cuz I want to watch it too. And finally, number five on this list of top five fastest canceled terrible TV shows is Garbage Pail Kids. Yep. They had a terrible movie. So they said why not have a terrible TV show too? This was an animated series from 1987. And so it actually aired elsewhere, but it did not air any episodes in the United States. There were a total of 13 episodes and I'm sure you can find at least one of them on YouTube, but because of the controversial nature of Garbage Pail Kids, if you've seen the cards or if you grew up in that time, you know, it's not exactly family-friendly animation, it was decided to just not aired in the US. But that wraps up the top five. Have you ever heard of any of these TV shows? I had only heard of Garbage Pail Kids based on the movie in the actual trading cards. But as far as the TV shows, none, zero. But let me know if there are any I missed or any other quickly canceled TV shows that were just awful that I did not include on this list. Because there were more. It's just I tried to keep the top five and a few honorable mentions. And I'll be back next week with another brand new top five that will be just as random. And maybe it'll drop some knowledge on you like this and get you to watch terrible TV.

80s 90s Halloween Memories

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, one of my favorite days of the year, ever since I was a kid. And when I knew that you could dress up as someone different, and walk around your neighborhood and have people give you candy. It's a kid's dream come true. Now I'm in my 40s Now don't have any kids. So I have no real reason to go trick or treating. Although I wish I could I wish I could get into costume and pass off for like a 13-year-old kid. But yeah, that wouldn't happen. So I figured for the podcast rather than risking going out trick or treating as a man in my 40s, I would reminisce with you about what it was like growing up in the 1980s and into the 90s trick or treating. Because I think today it's different, it's got to be different. So '80s or '90s, probably back before the 70s, 60s. It was a different world trick or treating the idea of getting dressed up and going out and asking for candy at houses that became popular in the 1930s. That term Trick or treat. The idea of it was first mentioned in 1932, with the first use of the words in a national publication coming in 1939. Before then Halloween was around, but it was more of just the costume party type idea. And if you go back and look at Halloween costumes from the 1920s in some photos, it's terrifying. It's scarier than any horror movie that's out. Now. What's interesting to me when I talk about Halloween seeming different as far as trick or treating work, you don't see kids out on their own by themselves trick or treating. It's a lot of parents driving their kids around in cars, or maybe going to the mall. What's interesting is that the parents of the kids these days are my age. So they grew up with the idea of trick or treating going off on their own. So it was wild to think that they're the ones that changed it. I honestly have no idea when I first went trick or treating. I'm assuming my mother took me and probably my next youngest sister out when we were little so I was probably five years old, maybe no idea what I went dressed as. But it had to be one of those vinyl suits that were like pajamas with the plastic mask, the eye holes that dug into your eyes, and the little rubber band mask. Because when you're a little kid, yeah, you might choose what you want. But more than likely your parents will kind of guide you towards what they think you'll look cute as. Do any of you remember when you first went trick or treating? I was lucky growing up because I had a really big neighborhood safe neighborhood with lots of kids. So the idea of trick or treating, I would just go on my own with several friends. It was never alone. There were always at least two others. So we were safe, but we were on our own. As a boy I immediately I wanted to be GI Joe I think that was one of my first that I can remember being that it was all of the horror movie villains of the 80s Freddy Krueger, I had the hat and the latex mask in the glove, like glove was awesome. I had that for a long time one of our dogs chewed up some of the plastic razor fingers. And of course, I went as Jason Vorhees. I mean, you've heard me talk several times about that iconic hockey mask I have that my nephew Landon now has possession of but things 30-something years old. I wore the mask and drew all over it to make it look like the Jason mask, but ended up wearing like a grey sweatshirt covered in fake blood. The grosser the better. I think most little boys when they trick or treat want to be as disgusting and scary as they can be. While a lot of the girls want to be princesses, fairies, or maybe witches, I could be wrong. Those of you that grew up in the 80s and 90s What did you like being like? What are your memories of the costumes you had? And when you went out? Did you go on your own? And did you go before sunset? I remember we always had to go after it got dark. What's the point of being out there when it's laid out? I typically had a pillowcase that I would fill with candy. Did any of you get the plastic jack o lantern buckets? McDonald's had those for a while in the early to mid-80s. Pumpkin, a ghost, and a witch face. I think I figured a pillowcase was bigger because we were gonna go to more houses and get more candy. And our parents would always tell us to be safe. It wasn't like we got dressed up for Halloween. And we're just like gone. I remember going way outside the boundaries of my immediate neighborhood, figuring there might be places that would have candy that wouldn't get as many kids. And you get those amazing fun-size Snickers little kick cats and stuff like that. Or then you get the houses you knew would give you like toothpaste, or religious pamphlets, or pennies. I never egged houses, but God those ones that gave you stuff that wasn't candy, it was like they were asking for from someone. Then there'd be the houses where nobody was home and they'd leave a bucket of candy out and put the sign that said please take one. Now be honest, how many of you just took one, and how many took handfuls like me and my friends would? We would also stay out late like we were trying to get to these houses as the last kids so that if the owners had candy leftover, they just be like, we're trying to get rid of it here and they dumped the bowl into our bags. Even the rain wouldn't stop us. We were like the Postal Service rain. No, we'd still be out trick or treating. There were so many fun stories from Halloween past, being out after dark dressed up on your own with your friends. It was like a great adventure. And it's something that a lot of kids today will never know. Just because of the safety of the world. It's just different. I understand that. But there was nothing like being out for two hours, three hours wandering around, knowing that you could be on people's property and not get in trouble because they were giving you candy. There was even one year that we did kind of a remote Halloween, my buddy John and I went to another kid's neighborhood. This was a year that it rained, not too bad, but sprinkling enough. And I remember because our other friend was walking down someone's sloped driveway and slipped and fell in the rain. I can see it in my head right now. And it was 30 years ago. That night was epic, we went back to this other kid's house. And his father was yelling at him in the other room about some chore he hadn't done before he went trick or treating. And John and I are in the kitchen. I think it wasn't it was dark. And on the kitchen table was his pillowcase of candy. And John and I started raiding it. It's so funny because here he is getting yelled at. And then he's getting robbed blind in the other room by his friends. I love trick or treating so much that I trick or treated long enough, that people would ask me, aren't you a little old? That's kind of when you know that it's time to give it up. But getting all that free candy, what would probably amount to $50 worth of free candy, it's too much to pass up. And it's one of those things where when you give up that bit of your childhood, it's just another piece, it's gone. And I think I enjoyed the time I grew up in so much that I wanted to hold on to every little shred as long as I could. Because like I said at the beginning of this segment, I can't go trick or treat anymore ever. Well, unless I have kids then I can.  Do you out there who go trick or treating, that bring your kids, do you dress up too or do you just kind of let them do their thing? I feel like I'd be one of those parents that I would dress up to to relive my childhood. There are Halloween parties now. And they're fun, but they're more adult-themed. Yeah, you get dressed up, but it's mostly finger foods and booze. Not that I'd want it to be bowls of candy. But it's just different. I don't know when it changed from the freedom of the 80s and maybe into the early 90s of the trick or treating just going on your own just in general leaving the house and your parents telling you to be home when the street lights are on. I don't know when it changed, or maybe it hasn't changed as much as I think I don't exactly sit outside and watch to see how many kids go trick-or-treating. Oh, and I always love the people that would decorate their houses. Do you out there? Do you decorate your houses? You know, if you can't go out trick or treating if you don't have kids, do you go through all the effort? My sister Ashley is great at decorating. I know right now I can picture she's got at least six to eight pumpkins, I believe. And that's the thing you keep that spirit alive. Even if you can't trick or treat you can at least make your house look appealing to the kids that come over. That's my wistful look back at my childhood and trick-or-treating. And my favorite Halloween story of our friend falling down the driveway and stealing his candy. That's one of my favorite stories of life. Share your stories with me find me on social media, and shoot me an email because the spooky season is still going on. So I have a lot more Halloween stuff coming up for the rest of October.

Closing
And that's going to do it that's going to wrap up episode 89 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you again to everyone who has been tuning in. I hope you've enjoyed the content that I've put together not only here but everywhere else Instagram, my YouTube channel i just put up a video on Point Judith Lighthouse in Narragansett the In My Footsteps podcast blog that's at blogger.com. I've got another true crime article going up on that blog soon it's going to be this really creepy unsolved case of Thomas Powers from Sandwich Massachusetts. Let's just say that he was found burned alive in 1898. And the crime is unsolved. It's pretty wild. But yeah, I'm all over social media. So find me. It's crazy to think coming up next week is episode 90. I can remember Episode One and trying to figure out how making a podcast would go just how to talk into the microphone and make it sound professional. And not like how I sounded when I was in sixth grade. First creating fake news and fake commercials and skits. Episode 90 is going to see me share a recent blog post that I'm I guess proud of I want more people to hear about the story of the tragic obsession murders of Lizzie Coleman and Sadie Hassard. If you read the blog, you know it's coming. If you haven't read it, it's a really interesting, sad, True Crime Story. We're gonna also have a road trip to Weathersfield Connecticut which is considered one of the spookiest towns in all of New England. It was a toss-up between that in Salem, Massachusetts. I figured everybody has heard about Salem and no Salem weathers feel deserves a little bit of shine. We're gonna go way back in the day and talk about a subject I had totally forgotten about, but you're gonna love to hear me laugh about the Jerky Boys comedy tapes and prank phone calls. Oh boy. There'll be a brand new top five, that's probably going to be my most controversial yet, as I pick the top five worst Halloween candies, what you hated to get in your pillowcase or little plastic bucket when you went out trick or treating. And of course, as always, there'll be a brand new this week in history and time capsule. Coming up next week on episode 90 of the In My Footsteps Podcast. I'm still trying to figure out if for episode 100. What I'm going to do if there's going to be just another episode, I might do a supersized episode where I pick subjects from my most downloaded episodes of the podcast and kind of put them together almost a greatest hits to kind of draw in maybe some new people and remind others that might not have listened to all the episodes what this podcast has been all about. So we've still got several months, but let me know what your favorite segments in these podcasts have been. And I'll try to put together a pretty good supersized 100th episode. And being old. I forgot last week to mention Kiwis Kustoms at etsy.com. All sorts of handcrafted homemade gifts. It's the holiday season is going to be coming up soon. Kaleigh Marks has worked hard to hone her craft of crocheting it's really some excellent work. She's got fairy hats, baby fairy hats, dog and cat sweaters baklava she's got jewelry she makes all by hand. There are little crocheted stuffed animals like rabbits. I mean, it's amazing. And it costs nothing to look Kiwis' Kustoms both spelled with Ks. There's a link in the description of the podcast so all you got to do is click and check it out. I don't know how many of you click on the links that are in there. I've got a bunch usually it's like 10 I've got one of my books, kiwis Kustoms. I got KeeKee's Cape Cod kitchen book I interviewed Crystal last year. I have DJ Williams, whose song James River is the beginning and end of every podcast the song is awesome. And any of you out there people that I know that listen to this podcast, if you've got something to promote, let me know. Because that's a big thing. I've got an audience, people that tune in to listen to my voice, as good as that can be. So if you have something to promote, let me know. And I wanted to make sure I took another opportunity to wish a happy 21st birthday to my niece, Emma. Like I said, I'm so proud of who you are and what you've become and how smart you are, I look at you, and thank God, if only I'd applied myself a little bit more, maybe I'd be smart like you. And hopefully, we will get to spend some time together. I know you're busy with college and college life. But hey, you can always come back down to Cape Cod and spend a little time with your family a little bit. Because family, and friends, are the kind of stuff that is good for your mental health, spending time with the people who matter and making time for them. Always be grateful for who you have in your life. Never take them for granted. Because one day will be the last time you see someone and you don't know when that's going to be. So always make time and it's good for your mental health and God knows we all need good vibes and good mental health. I mean, I love this time of year it's my favorite time. I will say that ad nauseam but good people good times help good food, and maybe good podcasts. Hey, if you're listening, I hope you think this is one. But lean into the things that make you happy. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path. Leave the biggest footprint you can because you never know what tomorrow could bring. Thank you again so much for tuning in. This has been the in my Footsteps podcast. I have been Christopher Setterlund And I'll talk to you all again soon.