Boondoggle…it’s a funny sounding word isn’t it? I’ve always loved it. Hours spent dreaming of setting up a bookshop and café in York and naming it ‘Boondoggle’. In my teens, whilst planning my book shop adventure, I had googled ‘procrastinate’ and it came up as a synonym. Over time though, I’ve seen varying definitions. The harshest being ‘fraudulent passing of time’. Not sure I like that one so much.
The one I’m leading with today and will stick with forever more is ‘an extravagant and useless project’. Without doubt, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now; setting up a blog to document our adventures, the books we read, the places we’ll go (once COVID decides to bugger off). Instead of spending my ‘free’ hours planning my online French and Spanish lessons – oooo I can’t wait to be actually back in school. Virtual me is exhausted.
I digress. The origin of Boondoggle is rather more interesting – not than our adventures, I’m not going to hype it up too much!
During the early 1920s, Boy Scouts spent their summer camps swimming, climbing and exploring right? Right. The Brookwood Family are Boy Scouts it seems. But there was a new craze that rolled through the camps, it involved twisting and knotting colourful plastic, leather and fabric together to make useful lanyards, neckerchief toggles and keyrings. It was declared that they were ‘boondoggling’
Wow. A verb. You weren’t expecting that were you?
There’s more. I hope you can contain yourself.
In 1935, Boondoggling became front page, national news in the U.S.A. The Great Depression was in full swing, devastating the country. A city alderman gave 2 hours of ‘boondoggling’ training to out of work teachers. They, in turn, launched programs to teach deprived children across New York how to turn everyday litter into useful items. Rebulicans in America deemed it a frivolous waste of time and money and so the definition stuck.
You can see why this word is glorious. I’m also constantly surprised at how well it entangles itself into The Brookwood lives so well. Teachers…working with deprived communities….creative….procrastinators.
Wait though….this bit is awesome.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was quoted saying ‘it’s a great word, if we can boondoggle our way out of this depression, the word will be enshrined in our nation’s heart for years to come.’ Roosevelt did a lot of good, despite his critics. But for me his greatest achievements (set aside his Nobel prize) – was the expansion of national parks and his love of Boondoggling.
So, yey Roosevelt!
Boondoggle Adventures 