1.The Return

#1 - The Return

    This is a return to my roots as a blogger. So to catch any newbies up to speed. I began a blog in October 2008 that was sporadically updated. It evolved into a travel blog I called In My Footsteps in January 2010. That blog was meant to be professional. Each post was a specific town I visited complete with photos, places to visit, stay, and eat. 

    Along the way, I noticed that I’d end up with some funny anecdotes from my road trips and just from life in general. I decided to create a second blog in May 2010 to highlight these funny and sometimes unbelievable stories. I called it Initial Impressions as I thought each post would deal with my first reactions to road trips and random events with little in the way of rewrites or taking time to let more lucid opinions form. It was purely spur of the moment.

    Over the ensuing years, the blog evolved into a chronicle of my running career before slowing down and eventually being rarely updated.

    In the fall of 2023, I created a Patreon page for subscriptions to support my content. One bit of exclusive content I created was a podcast where I reviewed and tried to shed some light on the fever dream that was the Initial Impressions blog. It was so much fun to relive and I enjoy creating new episodes of that Patreon podcast monthly.

    Recently I thought that since I enjoyed recording those podcasts so much, and since my life is still filled with weird, funny, and odd stories, why not start crafting new Initial Impressions blogs? So here we are in February 2024 with the first new Initial Impressions blog in almost 12 years. 

    These will start as a sort of weekly recap, rather than specific days. It gives me more time to experience more craziness and form odd opinions, and maybe a cryptic post or two.

1. I am a member of a Planet Fitness gym. At times while I’m there a commercial for Planet Fitness will come on one of the TVs. I have to laugh because I’ll look around and say ‘Hey, we don’t have any equipment like that here. No battle ropes, no TRX, no medicine balls, not even any foam rollers.’ It’s like seeing the pristine food in a fast food commercial and then when you get it it looks like someone just stepped on it.

2. I never thought the sound of the Recycle Bin on Windows would be something that brought me nostalgia until it was accidentally turned off for months. When I turned the sound back on and heard that crinkling paper it got me right in the feels.

3. It’s funny how even in a small community if you work hard enough you can avoid seeing someone you don’t want to see for many years. It takes talent to be this good at avoiding someone.

4. I have found myself over the last several years in a constant state of working on, editing, or marketing various creative projects in the hopes of a bigger breakthrough. At times it feels like being on a treadmill where no matter how fast I go I don’t get anywhere.

5. As I look around my place here in the first week of February I see Christmas lights up(well, white string lights), and my mini Halloween pumpkin going strong. I also have sliced turkey in the fridge but not from Thanksgiving.

The Nightmare Before Christmas at Thanksgiving Dinner

6. I highly recommend Exercise With Oxygen Therapy(EWOT) for anyone who has access. The 93% pure oxygen you breathe during cardio has so many benefits, a major one for me is allowing my body to run like it used to, even briefly. The oxygen tricks your brain into thinking it’s not working as hard as it is, thus you feel you can go harder. Here’s a link to explain more: Superhuman Protocol

7. If you had told teenage me that I’d be listening to a ton of downtempo music in my mid-40s I’d have likely shook my head in embarrassment and said I’m getting old. While that is true I find that music triggers something in my focus and creativity, plus there are some great beats.

8. I was training a client the other day, a nice older lady in her early 70s. It was going great until she got irritated at the ‘hip-hop’ music I was playing during the session. The song that was playing? Mickey by Toni Basil from 1981. Jay-Z or 2Pac it was not.

Hip-Hop?

9. Driving down a quiet road in the early morning on the way to work I encountered a raccoon walking directly toward me along the yellow median line. I stopped and eventually, it moved. I had to play chicken with a raccoon. I am now waiting for the day that I play raccoon with a chicken.

10. I have come to realize that some people will just never be happy. They could have everything they want exactly the way they want it and they would still find a reason to be upset. It’s as if they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they didn’t have something to be angry about.

Wise Words at the Sagamore Bridge, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

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Child of the 1980's - The Happy Meal Age

           “You deserve a break today!” 

The Golden Arches, the king of fast food, and surely a big part of the childhoods of most 1980’s kids, that is McDonald’s.  For me trips to McDonald’s in the 1980’s are associated with birthdays, good report cards, and successful sporting events.  The first half of the 1980’s also included another thing during McDonald’s trips, that being the Happy Meal.  I spent my early childhood years excitedly ordering them during my special trips to the fast food giant, eagerly anticipating the toy inside.

                When I first experienced a McDonald’s Happy Meal they were still a new choice.  The very first were tested locally in Kansas City markets in October 1977 before being launched nationally in June 1979 at a cost of $1.10.  The idea of a colorfully illustrated lunch pail type package aimed toward children is credited to a McDonald’s advertising executive named Dick Brams.  The very first nationally released Happy Meals had a circus wagon design and had handles on top to make it easy for kids to carry.

                Inside of the package children were greeted by a hamburger or cheeseburger, cookies,  and small French fries, in addition to a small drink of their choosing.  This would remain the same until McDonald’s introduced their Chicken McNuggets nationwide in 1983.  In recent years the company has attempted to become more health conscious by giving the options of apple slices and milk in addition to the old standbys.

                The first toys inside the Happy Meals were subpar compared to later years.  Kids would find a ‘McDoodler’ stencil, a ‘McWrist’ wallet, or an eraser shaped like a McDonaldland character inside.  Those characters included Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, Mayor McCheese, the Fry Kids, and more.  Children were likely pleased with their toys since there was nothing else to compare them to, today though it would be seen as a disappointment.

McDonaldland Characters

               
      Later in 1979 McDonald’s stepped up their game and had toys in the Happy Meals promoting Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  In the 1980’s the fast food giant would gain a reputation by having some legendary toys in the children’s meals.  Some of the greats include: Changeables which were essentially McDonald’s food products that transformed into robots, McNugget Buddies which were dressed in different occupational costumes, a set of colorful Halloween pails, and the iconic Mac Tonight Moon Man figures.  They also hit on many of the popular kids shows of the 80’s with their toys like Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Garfield, DuckTales, and more. 

It is easy to see why sales of the meals are still so high.  For example, according to Time Magazine in 2012 1.2 billion Happy Meals were sold worldwide.  Granted not all of the news is great, the childhood obesity rate has grown from 4.2% in 1979 when Happy Meals were introduced to 18.5% in 2017.  That is not all due to one restaurant though.  On a lighter note if you saved any of your toys from that era some are worth good money.  Some of the most valuable include the Roary the Lion Beanie Baby which can go for as much as $750, the 1990’s fad Furby’s are also quite valuable. 

Did you ever have a Happy Meal during your childhood?  Do you still have any of the toys?   Stay tuned for more killer 80’s memories!

Click here for my last Child of the 80's blog all about the Atari 2600!