Did you ever do something that others labelled as folly.

Was it a good experience, a bad one, mixed?

Do you regret it?

I think of things like Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness, and a bet that some said it was folly.

When I was a young woman about 25/26, I headed off camping...with my car packed up with a tent,  stove, a bunch of books, and a mix of new & borrowed equipment...three weeks off work .and my bank book (no interac back then)

I spent a few days where my sister was camping to learn the equpment -- (and got food poisoning with my own cooking -- who knew hamburger meat would turn that quickly)

Then I headed north.

I ended up on the shores of Lake Superior , Agwawa Bay... 

I had never been tent camping (other than a short camp at guides). I had never been away like that, or been north....though i had lived on my own for  a few years, and away from home for 6 or so.

I read, slept, walked, sat on the rock overlooking the bay...and then came home...with the chichima..and a short stay on the bruce.

it was an important point in my life....but, i know that my parents were very nervous (this was wya before cell phones)....and my friends  couldn't figure out why I wanted to do it.

I am sre they would have called it folly.

yet, it was profoundly important to me

To parents, it's always folly, isn't it?  Risk-taking is part of the rites of passage for a young person and a way to see what you're made of.

That being said, you should not have gone alone.  We are also very oblivious of danger when we're young.  I'm glad it went well for you and it probably became a touchstone for all the many other challenges that followed.  I'm sure it was a confindence-builing experience. 

I wish I had done something like that while I was brave and foolish enough.

I couldn't possibly isolate once instance of folly in my misspent youth.  Folly is what seemed to characterize my life.  Choices that took me all over the map,

The closest I came to your experience was taking a lengthy bike trip on my own, but I wasn't completely isolated at the campground.

Maybe I should plan on some "folly" for my retirement.

"A wasted Youth

is better by far

than a wise and productive old age"

-Meatloaf

To me, 'folly' is the foolishness where you don't come away any richer for the experiences.  Maybe fun, but in the long run a sheer waste of time, money or brainpower.  If you have found out more about yourself, the world, other people or God through it, it isn't 'folly' it's a 'learning experience.' 

The one thing that comes to mind when someone says 'folly' is the time, some years ago, when I plunked down money to join a dating service.  Talk about learning more about yourself.... 

NF, i'm not so sure that I shouldn't have gone alone.  Had I gone with someone, it would have totally altered the experience.  I do feel we over-exaggerate the amount of danger out there.  Shucks, on that trip I met some guys working the chi-chi-ma....got snuck through for a private tour where only crew could go, went drinkign with them after at the legion, and then had a campfire...and they were perfect gentlemen.  I was never actually alone with them..sure there was risk,but it was measured.  I also met some good people, including a widow who was raising daughters and wondered how he could instill an independence in them.    I had more risk at home in a house living on my own with solid walls.

RedBaron, great example of folly that is spending money &/or something which seems ot of character.   Question: do you consider it a waste to you, or do you think others would think of it as folly?

 Hi Pinga,

I once tried to stop a half-ton sow from bolting through a door by standing in the door-way as opposed to say, just closing the door.

I gave her an 800lb advantage.

On the flip-side, I have never enjoyed a pork roast more.  It is a toss-up as to who was tenderized more.  Myself or the sow.

Grace and peace to you.

John

When we were kids, a few of my cousins and my brother and I went fishing.  All we were catching were sheephead, which we threw back (good old Lake Erie).  One of my cousins asked if he could have ours.  We thought, "Yea, he's crazy".  When we were done, he went along the dock and ended up selling the whole string of fish to an American guy who was going to be leaving empty handed.  His 'folly', in our eyes, netted him money.  Who were the real fools?  Us, of course.

Revjohn -- oh, yeah....that bbq would be good -- luckily, all it cost you were some bruises..and i am guessing a  bit of ribbing from friends

JoeJack -- yes, another good example of what one person thinks of as folly being actually quite clever if you can see what they are thinkin'

well... it seemed like a good idea at the time... and I did learn a few things...  no, no one else thought of it as folly, because I was too embarrassed to tell anyone else what I had done.  If they had known, I'm sure the word 'folly', as well as other disparaging words, would have crossed their minds.

How about going to a foreign country (Canada) on my own and meeting up with folks I've only met on this (for me) new medium called the internet????   

My best friend is already worried. ("You always were too trusting - remember that time when we were nineteen and met those two boys in Surfer's Paradise?"..............)
 

Pilgrim bites her lip, she's beginning to have doubts.

"I'm just extending my comfort zone - I'll be fine."

Best friend shakes her head and sighs, "Just leave me your itinerary."

aaah, pilgrim......please do come...it gives us a great excuse to get together.

I know a bunch of the folks on here, and they are a kind, gentle group of folks.....hearts too big sometimes....and, well, just wonderful to get along with.

actually, what i should say is ....over time, you get to know folks on the site.

people can't disguise who they are for long....and in all cases so far, people's personalities have matched who they were....(though, looks, well, i can never guess)

This is not something I have done.  It is something I want to do.

I want to buy a red convertabile and drive across the States for a whole summer.  Not sure how well that would work with a 2 month old baby though.  Maybe next year...

Pinga,

I've told my friend that, although I know I trust too easily, I have a well developed intuition.

Thus, if you say the wondercafe group are both kind and gentle, then they, in all probability, are.

She is correct about one thing though, I'm hopelessly impractical.

To prepare myself for this , er, pilgrimage, I intend to start a thread shortly where I hope to pick the brains of all those from Toronto to  get to understand how things like ATM's work in your city.

After I leave Toronto, it's the tour guide's responsibility.

(Experience has taught me I can have too much of a good thing!) 

Pilgrims you  are wanted and needed.

Aw, sheesh, crazyheart - what a lovely thing to say. 

(But  not enough to put an end to my liaison with the roofer).  

I drove from Newfoundland to Ontario on my own when I was done working there. I toured the Cabot Trail and stayed at B&B's. I visited a friend in Halifax. I had my camera at the ready. It took me a few days to do the trip. Like Pinga, I had no cell phone or ATM to rely on. That drive was pivotal for me. It gave me a lot of confidence and was sort of a transition into adulthood. Since then, I have driven to other places on my own. From southern Ontario to Connecticut (day's drive) or from here to Vancouver (15ish hours).

I don't know if it is folly, but it was good.

Heh northwind..i knew we were alike!

Yes, since that trip, I too will launch off on my own.

This is the year I"m making the car trip to the East Coast.  I won't make to to Nfld, but hope to spend time in Cape Breton.  I had ancestors in Ille Madame and want to go there to poke around.  I'd like to keep the itinery loose and keep a spirit of adventure.

I have a rugged, reliable vehicle, a cell phone, car charger, roadside assistance etc. which I would never have had when I was younger, so it's hardly folly.

Pinga -- I must of been channelling a Mum.  Of course you would have to have been alone.  Being Mum is my knee-jerk, default position.

LOL Pinga. You know, I would love to go off on a camping trip alone, maybe with the dog........I wouldn't go as far as you did, though that is a FABULOUS part of the country. I am looking forward to camping with the husband this year. We are hoping to go up to Fort Liard, NWT over to Yellowknife down through Alberta and back home. Apparently that will be about a one week trip.

Ninja, enjoy your drive east. That is one of the nicest drives in Canada. I hope you have Louisburg on your to do list.

Everyone who knew me then thought I had lost it, perhaps I had.

Anyone since thinks I must have.

I once headed across the US coast to coast, north to south - on Greyhound buses. I left with the first ticket and less than $50 in cash. I worked myself from one town to another... from barback/bartender to playing drums in every dive and in every musical genre to slinging Christmas trees onto a truck... I was young and likely read Kerouac or something. Actually, I was running from things and looking for things to run towards and working through it all.... After all these years, I still would not change it.

For those people who like a good mystery, check out Laurie R. King's "Folly"

Years ago, I had been on a special project....and it was time to return to my original department.

I knew I couldn't do it.  I knew the department that I would be returning to wasn't healthy and needed fundamental change. I started looking for a job.  I told a manager in a technical area of that project team at our US facility that he needed to find someone to fulfill the role that I had been helping to perform.

He told me to wait and promise to not accept a job right away. Within a week, a US  job was posted with me as the preferred candidate. 

When I told the Canadian org, they tried to talk me out of it. Told me I was crazy.  The president of the canadian division asked me to come speak to him along with my current Canadian manager.  The president  asked me why, and I basically told him that within a few short years he would be a figurehead, and in a few years later, he would not have any role.  In a same way, our departments roles would disappear.

He was convinced I was wrong....that it was "folly".

Well, a few years later, the manager that went with me, took a job in the US.

The department that I was supposed to return to had one of the key people attempt suicide, who ended up on permanent disability. (sadly, the problems were apparent but ignored)

A few years later...the president wsa given a package.

A few years later, the entire department that I was supposed to return to was let go.

I'm still working.

The driving stories above and Pinga’s story about being at Agawa Bay reminded me of my many drives (a number of times alone) along Lake Superior (love that drive!) when I was going to university in S Ontario and making the trek back home to Thunder Bay for holidays and summers. It’s about 1500 kilometres from Toronto to Thunder Bay and with the winding hilly roads and two lane highway much of the way it isn’t a fast run, but I usually did it in one day. The particular trip I am recalling (which I suppose could fit into the ‘folly’ category) was the time I was driving home alone in the spring. I was still living in Kingston, but was visiting a friend in Toronto for a few days before heading home for the summer. I didn’t leave Toronto until noon and had planned to drive as far as Sault Ste Marie and stop at a motel. I got to the Soo around supper and thought, what am going to do in a motel all evening I might as well keep driving. I stopped for gas and grabbed a sandwich for the road and continued on. I thought I’d stop in Wawa for the night. I got to Wawa about 9 pm and thought ‘why stop now, I might as well continue on’ … and you get it. I drove all the way home, got there about 2 am. Quietly let myself into the house and left a note on the kitchen table telling my parents I was home so they’d know when they got up in the morning (although I believe they heard me try to sneak in). There was some concern on their part when they found out what I had done …. we’re talking remote highways where there was nothing for miles and miles. Even if there were cellphones back then, there isn’t much coverage in places even now. My response to my parents was that if something had happened - like a flat tire or hitting a moose or something - a trucker would have helped me out. I’m not sure they felt assured with that thought.

Good grief myst......that IS folly!  I did not know you could go from Toronto to Thunder Bay in one day.......

I did a similar thing driving from Fredricton, NB to London, Ontario. The closer we got the less we wanted to stop. I was probably close to hallucinating from fatigue by the time I got home......

On my second time skiing, ever, I dropped my new (white) ski mitt while going up the chair lift. I decided to retrieve it as I was there for a weekend with my school and couldn't think of how I might ski without my mitten. Besides, what would my mom say if I lost one of my new $40 mittens? So I skied to the top of the very black diamond hill and got far enough down that I couldn't go back up. So I removed my skis and sent them and the poles down the hill. (steep Jasper mogul filled mountain - hill is an understatement). Then I sat on my butt and slid down, rapidly, over the moguls. I got snow up to my knees and elbows. I passed both my rented skis and a pole early on. And somehow came to a stop at the bottom (of the first part, anyway) right next to my other poke and my mitt. 'course, I had to get my skis, now. Have you ever tried going up a mountain in ski boots? After eons had passed, and I'd only retrieved one ski and a pole, I laid down in the snow for a rest.
I can only imagine how it must have looked to those riding the lift overhead... Teenage girl sprawled in snow on one of hardest runs, with skis sprawled around and one ski still 40 feet up the mountain. Next thing I know, I heard, "lady, lady are you okay". I opened my eyes to see a rescue squad member with a stretcher. He was very unhappy when I told him my story and even less thrilled when I asked him to help me get my other ski. He was smart. He radioed (and we waited) for another ski patroller. Then, they left me, 1/3 of the way down the mountain, to pick my way down alone.
It was pure folly. And I learnt a lot from it. And I still laugh at myself for that one, and wonder that I didn't break anything. And am glad I had the wisdom to not ski it. And became a better skier because of it.
And I hope my kids never do anything like it. nd when they do, hope they learn from their folly and end up without too many bruises, to body or soul.

wow,bookgirl, great story.

yup, sometimes we do things ...coz we think..we can.and we don't want our parents to know..(or, i should say we did....i'm now the parent)

my son just told me about something that happened a few months ago, that he handled...but..had he chosen to engage us, would have saved him a fair bit of money...but he wanted to fix the situation on his own, then tell us about it....

My first canoe trip was when I was just finished grade 8(13). I joined my sister (in grade 10-not quite 16)  and 2 of her friends. Mom dropped us off and picked us up 4 days later. We cooked over fire-no stoves.

We were fine but young to be out so remote but it turned out well.

wow...that is amazing tabitha

Yes I asked my mom in hindsight if she knew about the risk. (I don't think she had a clue-she grew up in Toronto)

The lakes and portages were there and it wasn't "true" wilderess-cottage country but early before the places were opened up for the summer!

Posting on the blast from the past thread I remembered another ‘folly’.

Our family 'camp' (cabin, cottage) was in NW Ontario an hour west of Thunder Bay (think middle of nowhere). The local store we use to regularly walk to was a mile down the highway. I recall one time when I was in grade 5 or so 2 of my friends were at our cabin with me and we were walking to the store. I decided we should hitch a ride and we stuck out our thumbs. A man in a pickup truck stopped, he picked up a shot gun off the seat and (we all gasped I’m sure) then he put it in the space behind the bench seat. He told us to get in. We did – my friends made me get in first to sit beside the man, then they piled in. 4 of us in the front seat, no seat belts I’m sure. I am also sure we all nearly wet our pants on his truck seat. He let us off up the road at the store. I never did tell my parents that story.

I hitch hiked a few times in highschool going home from the ski hill. I remember a couple picking me up and being quite concerned that I was hitching a ride. I think they knew my parents or knew of them and wanted to know if my parents knew I was hitch hiking etc .. no they probably didn’t, but I didn’t have a ride home from skiing, seemed safe enough.

Hitchhiking - I did it.  From the time I entered my teens until I was in my 20s.  Starting off, there was one road into/ out of our village, and it was eight miles through the forest to the nearest farm, and another six miles through farming country to the next village.  For want of something better to do, after supper we would start walking down the road, past the spring, down to the big brook, up over the first hill, down past the beaver pond, and the gravel pit - all the while sticking our thumbs out hoping for a ride.  We'd get down to the next village, hang around a bit at the store, then hit the road again hitchhiking back home.  It wasn't as much a folly as it may sound.  The mail man would be going up through around 9:00 pm and if we were still on the road he would pick us up.  Yes, everyone who stopped knew us, or our parents.  Sometimes they ask "Does your mother know?"   And we'd answer, "You've got to be kidding.  No way."

By the time I was in my 20s, there was a road through to the next village, 16 miles through the forest in the other direction.  My sister had met and married a boy from there.  Many a weekend I would be on the road, hitchhiking from Teachers' College in  Fredericton up past my old home and on to my sister's.  More strangers on the road now but I never worried.  And the man who is now Mr. Seeler was good friends with my sister's husband.

oh, I hitched as well.

I lived in Kitchener, worked in Cambridge...and if I missed the bus, it was a long cab ride to make it to work on time....or a long wait for the next bus to get home.

so, i would thumb

One time a man put the electric locks on and went past my cut-off...when he let me off, he said "I was just teaching you a lesson -- i hope I scared you -- i have a daughter your age"  -- I was some ticked at him.

I would often walk down the road to get closer to either picking up the bus..or...higher volume of traffic.  One time a man picked me up...a bit older, clearly an odd duck.  He drove me to Kitchener, offered to drive me home.  That week, I was hitching a lot..he picked me up each time..and then offered to drive me every day..which I accepted.. Turned out the first time he just happened to be going by, but after that he went in the opposite direction from work...to come past where I thumbed from...  When he asked if it was ok if we stopped at a bar on the way home one night..and the guys said "so, ___< this is the girl you have been talking about...", i realized that he thought of me a lot different than I did of him.  There was a convenient way to stop getting rides (vacation), and I quit thumbing for a bit.

Years, and years, and years ago, I was single on my own in an apartment in an old house...main floor.  I heard a knock on my window at about 1am....and someone calling my name...  It was this 6' something brute of a guy...absolutely impaired.  He was a friend of an ex-boyfriend..  He got drunk at a local pub.....they took away his keys..and he remembered that I lived close by.  I let him in... and at one point he started being amorous...and i had to use my "teacher's voice"...and he behaved like a school boy being chastised.   I tucked him onto the couch...and he fell asleep..and I went to bed,  I'm not sure if I was a good judge of character, are just darn lucky.

I too used to hitch hike and my parents didn't know. at 15 and 16 Iwas working at summer camps in Ont. in the summers.

We would hitch hike into town on our day off-Bolton Camp.

We also hitched from Sparrow Lake cap up to Geneva park another time to visit one of the girls friends.

We never went alone, always in a group and were fine

But I wouldn't let my daughter do it!

Sure feels different now - I wouldn't want my child to hitch a ride. Well, I'm sure there are places in Canada still where it would feel pretty safe, but still .... 

Pinga .... those stories, wow. I'm not sure I would have hitched a ride again after the man locked the doors and went past your destination to 'teach you a lesson' .... I think that would have put the scare into me quite well. Too many horror stories and movies that sound just like that.