Without A Map #4 - In My Footsteps Podcast

Henry Beston's Outermost House - In My Footsteps Podcast: Episode 13

In My Footsteps: Finding Your Way Back To the Right Road

     'It is never too late to be what you might have been.' George Eliot

    That quote, those words, and the meaning behind them have stuck with me for several years. In a time of self-doubt my grandfather, the man who I model myself after, wrote that quote on a piece of paper for me. I still have it attached to a mirror I see multiple times daily. Two years after his death, and several more after he wrote it down as a way to light my path, I find myself using them once again.

    The last three years were necessary. Let's just get that out of the way first. Anything I say after does not take away from the fact that if I hadn't done the things I've had to do over the last three years I have no clue where I'd be. However the end result as I prepare for a new chapter is the idea of taking a wrong turn and having to double-back to the road you're meant to be on.

    Flashback three years to early 2018. I was working in a pair of local gyms as I had worked hard to become a certified personal trainer a few years earlier. After many years of having cooked as my day job while I pushed my creative outlets, specifically writing, I felt that if I was going to have to have a day job it might as well be something I enjoyed doing. What better choice than helping people get healthy?

    The problem that came with working in a gym at the beginning was the sales pressure necessary to sign new clients up. I wanted to train those who wanted to be trained, not pressure those unsure into spending money they weren't sure they had. Bottom line is a personal trainer is a luxury and I knew that and I had trouble shutting off the empath part of my brain to be the shark necessary to get people to spend their money.

    In early 2018 I left one of my gym jobs to focus on the other, picking up more hours there hopefully in the process. Over the course of a few months the hours increased only slightly with my boss hanging the carrot of more paying clients equaling more hours. It was fair looking back but the sales pressure got to me. It was also at this time that I found myself running out of money. My bills and life expenses were outdrawing my income. Being stubborn and blindly faithful I believed that eventually things would turn around. In April I had reached a tipping point.

    This was when I had nearly bottomed out financially. I had opened a credit card to use as a crutch but had maxed it out. This came as I was so depleted of funds in my bank account that I had days that I could not afford a protein bar and water for lunch. I wanted badly to make it work as a personal trainer but also saw a fork in the road fast approaching. So when an opportunity came I jumped.

    An old friend I worked with cooking was moving to Maine. He called and asked me if I wanted to take his job cooking in a retirement home kitchen. With barely a cent to my name I happily accepted. I did not want to cook again, but I also did not want to be so stubborn that I ended up destitute. I gave my notice at the gym and told my boss there it was one hundred percent financial which it was. I left a job I was passionate about due to financial reasons only.

    That being said having a good, steady income, and a relatively easy job which cooking in a retirement home is, was good for my mental health. I was smart and began saving money immediately, and also managed to keep a foot in training by snatching up a few old clients to train in-home.

    However something began to happen. I began to grow accustomed to my surroundings. The more that I assimilated into the cooking routine again the harder it became to keep up on the training aspect, both clients and my own physical health. As the weeks and months passed it became harder to still call myself a trainer. It got depressing. I saw my adventure into training as a fail and here I was back doing what I had tried so hard to get away from. This is where alcohol became a big part of my life. It helped me to forget that I was not where I wanted to be. When you're unhappy inside, unhappy where you are, feeling like you're lost on a different path, you could have the greatest job ever but it won't matter.

    I worked with a lot of great people at the retirement home I was at. A few of them are among the best people I ever worked with at any job. My heart though wasn't in it. I needed to begin to make my way back toward training. The plan was to leave the retirement home for another job in another retirement home at the start of 2020. The difference was that it would be fewer hours allowing me to start to acquire more in-home training clients. It sounded perfect and I made the switch in February 2020. Only a few weeks later though the Covid-19 pandemic fully struck and shut down any chances I had of in-home training for the foreseeable future.

March 2020 when this became the new normal.

    When the pandemic first began I decided to just roll with it. I would take on a few more hours cooking and consider myself lucky that I even had a job when so many millions had lost theirs. For several months I kept my head down and my mouth shut in the name of self-preservation. This second cooking job was far different from the first though.

    In the interest of being magnanimous since I no longer work there I will keep it as vague as I can. I can say that being the newest member of that kitchen I saw there was a small clique of workers that adhered to their own set of rules. There were many things I saw that went against everything I was taught in coming up in restaurants, things that frustrated and confused me. I had times I thought I was on a reality show, as there could be no way certain things were being allowed to happen. I was at a crossroads.

    Things began to swing in the other direction in September 2020. It was right after Labor Day that I finally stopped my drinking that had plagued me from my waning days working in the gyms. I feel as though the alcohol kept me stagnant and accepting of the toxic environment I was living and working in. My head began to clear. I got a brilliant idea for a podcast as a creative outlet. As the days passed I also began to see more clearly that I needed to formulate my exit strategy for the retirement home job. I was again becoming accustomed to my surroundings and not in a good way. When people around you are toxic, when the job is done poorly with no repercussions, you start to drift toward that side yourself.

The time is always right, to do what is right.

    2021 dawned and I decided to start putting my own feet to the fire as far as getting away from cooking and filling my schedule with training, writing, and podcasting. An interview with a friend for the podcast led to a potential gig training later in the spring, while I signed up for a new certification in health to pair with being a personal trainer. I felt momentum building but still had several months to go before I could make the change. However circumstances sort of forced my hand.

    Going back a little over a month from when I am writing this I had a 'final straw' type of moment. One of the higher ups in the kitchen pushed their toxic narcissistic agenda on me for the last time. There's no way someone should accept being bullied and/or spoken to like they are beneath someone else. I finally had enough of that after months of just letting it slide off my back. After that interaction I stepped back and weighed whether to stay until May or leave the job early to get away from the toxicity. I chose the latter.

    In my exit interview with the general manager I vented all of my frustrations with the atmosphere of the kitchen. I summed things up by telling him it was so bad in there that I chose basically being unemployed for a couple months but being at peace mentally over staying there and getting paid but being unhappy. He understood.

It's not always easy finding your way back to the right road.

    I consider this new chapter as a way of betting on myself. There are no guarantees in life for success or failure. You have to try to know for sure. The pieces seem to be there. I was smart and saved money during my three years back in cooking which allows me to have a solid base under me as I take a few months between jobs. The new certification I am going to get will only make me more attractive to perspective clients for training whether in-home or in a gym. I have a new book coming out in May, my 6th overall, which lends some credibility to my name as a creator. Hopefully this leads to an increase in opportunities as a writer. Finally there is my podcast which I really enjoy working on. I have to be patient building an audience but who knows where that could lead in the coming months and years.

    The key points of this entire post are as follows. Life does not give you a GPS, you might get sidetracked on your journey, and the longer you go down the wrong road the longer it will take to get back on track. You only get so many kicks at the can as far as following dreams and passions. There will be plenty of time to take a job that is safe yet mundane. Chase dreams while you're capable. Finally, always bet on yourself. Don't be reckless, but don't sell yourself short. If you don't believe in yourself why the hell would anyone else? That is what I am doing now, betting on myself. Here's to a great rest of 2021 with many brighter days ahead for me, for you, for all of us.

    It is never too late to be what you might have been.

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Previous Blog Posts:

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Charles Hardy and Chatham Bars Inn

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Three Sisters of Nauset

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

Zazzle Store: Cape Cod Living

In My Footsteps: 4K New England - Gurnet Point, Massachusetts

Rocky Point Amusement Park - In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 12

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 12: Ancestry DNA Review; Rocky Point Amusement Park; Classroom Film Strips; This Week In History

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Charles Hardy and Chatham Bars Inn

 

    The Chatham Bars Inn is and has been one of Cape Cod's most iconic and beloved resorts on the peninsula for more than a century. It has roots steeped in the fishing industry of Chatham's past while remaining at the cutting edge of the 21st century. Every story has a beginning and every idea has a creator. What about Chatham Bars Inn? The story of its creator is one of a mix between triumph and tragedy. The story of a man who brought the Cape one of its landmarks yet whose life has been lost to time. This is the story of Charles Ashley Hardy.

    The man who would create the Chatham Bars Inn was linked through heritage to Chatham although he did not grow up there. Charles Hardy was born in Auberndale, a village of the city of Newton located ten miles west of Boston, in 1874. He was the son of Edwin Hardy and though he grew up near Boston Hardy's family for three generations before his father had lived in Chatham. As a young man Hardy frequently visited Cape Cod and partook in his favorite pastime of hunting. After attending Harvard and MIT and making money as an investor and mining engineer in the first decade of the 20th century Hardy decided to make Cape Cod a bigger part of his life.

    Hardy began by buying a house on the bluffs overlooking Chatham's Mill Pond in 1911. It sat near the Godfrey Windmill and had been built in 1908 by Nelson Floyd. He then got down to business buying real estate plots in town, specifically along the ocean-paralleling Shore Road. After shelling out good money for some elite-level property Hardy put together an idea for a summer lodging conglomerate including several cottages and a hotel that would also double as a hunting lodge in 1912. Chatham had been an up-and-coming tourist destination, as the entirety of the Cape had been, for a few decades. Only a few years earlier in 1910 Chatham's original luxury resort, Hotel Chatham, had finally been demolished after years of sitting in limbo on Nickerson's Neck. It was only fitting that a new resort rise up to take its place.

Chatham's Godfrey Windmill

    The new hotel was built under the banner of Hardy's new company the Chatham Associates with George Hopkins winning the bid for the actual construction. Seeing the potential as a travel destination Hardy downplayed the hunting lodge part of Chatham Bars Inn opting for a straight up luxury hotel. The anticipation was high for opening night in the weeks leading to it.

    On June 10, 1914 Charles Hardy's Chatham Bars Inn debuted. It was originally 50 rooms, nine guest cottages, a 9-hole golf course, a pool, and a tennis court. A pier connecting the mainland to the barrier North Beach was added later that summer. Hardy's new hotel was an immediate and massive hit for Chatham. He rode the wave of success for the remainder of the decade. However Hardy had another Chatham icon to be a part of.

    Decades earlier Cape Cod's first luxury resort, Hotel Chatham, had been built on a 250-acre peninsula known as Nickerson's Neck. In 1917 Hardy began discussions for a golf course in the area. By 1920 the plans had been created by London architect W. Herbert Fowler who was widely considered as the most gifted golf course architect in the world. There was one man to be trusted to do the work as designated and that was Charles Ashley Hardy who had created a golf course with his Chatham Bars Inn.

    Hardy went with Fowler to England to tour his most famous creation, the Westward Ho! golf course. Construction began in 1921 with Fowler and Hardy shouldering the load. It actually opened for playing in 1922 long before it was considered complete. After two years of work the Eastward Ho! Golf Course opened to members with ownership certificates available for $1,000 ($15,500 in 2021).

The fabulous views at the Eastward Ho! golf course.

    Though a success today Eastward Ho! was initially a financial bust. This came to a head when in January 1927 the property was put up for bid at auction after its mortgages were foreclosed upon. Being a savvy businessman and not wanting to see his hard work fall into a stranger's hands Hardy bought the property outright and ran it under Chatham Associates in 1927 and 1928. He eventually sold it in the fall of 1928 to Roy Tomlinson for $75,000 ($1.1 million in 2021). Tomlinson sold it to the group of original creators, known as the Chatham Country Club, paving the way for the establishment of Eastward Ho Country Club, Inc. and a stable future.

    Charles Hardy had created an iconic resort and helped create and then save a picturesque golf course. He had become a beloved figure in Chatham during his time living there. In addition to Chatham Hardy had real estate ties to his home near Boston as well as endeavors as a New York City stockbroker. For all of his work it seemed Hardy had an endless supply of energy. Sadly it would be his leisure time that spelled his end.

Looking back toward Chatham Bars Inn from its private beach.

    Always making time for hunting Hardy visited Chatham in November 1929 to check on Chatham Bars Inn. On the day of November 30th he decided to take a walk from the home of Roland Snow, with whom he was staying, to look over some property. He brought along his gun in the hopes that he might get off a few shots on his walk. When Hardy failed to return after sunset Snow set out to look for him. He was joined by several others with the search going into the following afternoon.

    One member of the search group, Harold Sawyer, found the lifeless body of Charles Hardy slumped against a tree not far from Godfrey Windmill. He had been walking through the woods and caught his leg trying to step over a barbed-wire fence. Hardy tripped causing his gun to go off accidentally, shooting him in the chest and killing him instantly. One of the most important people in Chatham's 20th century was dead at 55.

    The town was in mourning through his funeral with flags flown at half staff. His death was reported on throughout Cape Cod, Boston, and New York. Hardy's family and his Chatham Associates group maintained control of Chatham Bars inn until January 1953 when it was sold to a Boston-based group headed by E. Robinson McMullen. It has since passed more than a century in existence.

The view from the entrance of Chatham Bars Inn.

    Though it has been nearly a century since his passing, and his name is not spoken of nearly as much as it should when it comes to Cape Cod's vibrant tourism industry, Charles Ashley Hardy left an indelible mark on the region. Anytime anyone, local or visitor, spends a night at Chatham Bars Inn or hits the links at Eastward Ho! they have Hardy to thank in some way, shape, or form for that.

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Previous Blog Posts:

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Hangar Tea Room, Falmouth Heights

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Three Sisters of Nauset

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

Zazzle Store: Cape Cod Living