Boodle on Beaver Island

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, it’s Cynthia Johnson from Beaver Island, Michigan.

Beaver Island, Michigan. Hello, Cynthia.

Well, we have an expression here on Beaver Island. It’s been around for quite a while.

It’s called boodling. It’s more often an action verb, but it can also be a boodle.

I would say to you, hey there, you guys want to have A Way with Words boodle?

And we’ll drive around the island and we’ll do nothing but talk about words.

Just drive around.

We’re in.

We’re coming.

Shoot the breeze.

That’s a boodle.

What else did we do on a boodle?

Do it.

Do it.

You can do whatever you want on a boodle.

The word, I looked up this word meaning 15 years ago when I first came here.

Yeah.

And it had a little bit to do with the Irish, maybe even illegal money, you know, like boodle.

Yeah, there is a boodle that – a boodle is like illegal – it’s related to booty, like illegal money that you get through graft or corruption.

So it sounds a lot like being a teenager and cruising through downtown in the Walmart parking lot in the middle of nowhere, Missouri, which is what I know.

It sounds a lot like that, you know, going through the drive-thru to see who’s working that night.

Yeah, well, there’s nothing to do here except for, you know, enjoy the nature, the lake, the beautiful.

Oh, that’s not nothing.

So that’s part of it.

You know, our boodles consist of one gravel road that goes all the way around the island.

And you get quite a lot of Lake Michigan views and views of other islands in the archipelago.

You’re killing me.

There’s many kinds of boodles.

Well, Cynthia, would you believe that I am actually familiar with this word boodle?

Because my brother’s family has vacationed on Beaver Island for many, many years.

And in fact, one of my family members has a sweatshirt that says boodling on it.

Or maybe it says boodle.

I’m not sure.

But what’s distinctive about this sweatshirt is that it has a bottle opener built into the pocket.

Does that sound familiar?

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

You boodle on down to the hardware and grab one of those sweatshirts with a can opener built in.

That way, if you’re, you know, 20 miles down on a boodle, can’t get back, can’t find a can opener, there you have it.

I see.

Well, that’s how it was explained to me.

That boodle means to just wander about the island in a carefree manner, maybe in a beat-up old car or a truck that has a picnic table in the back.

I’ve heard of that.

As a matter of fact, to keep this exciting, there is a word in the Philippines, a boodle.

It’s more of a boodle fight.

There’s a song about it.

And people get together and they have a boodle fight.

They just spread the table with food and they all eat this magnificent food.

I did come across that meeting.

So that was pretty cool too.

It’s a boodle what?

How do you spell the last word?

F-I-G-H-T.

Yeah, Google that.

It’s crazy.

I thought maybe a boodle bite for a spread of food.

Yeah, and the etymology of it seems to be pretty non-existent, wouldn’t you say, Grant?

I suspect it’s just what’s known as a nonce coinage, which means somebody just found a funny word and decided to use it.

But it’s a point of pride on Beaver Island.

It sounds like you all have.

Somebody came up with the word there, and it’s been adopted.

Love it.

And embrace it.

Celebrate it.

Yeah.

I got to say, Cynthia, this sounds like a really good time and a wonderful place.

And I’m so happy that you’re sharing it with us and everyone else on the radio.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you so much.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

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