What makes you say “What was I thinking?” when you look back on your life?

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
Location
Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
One thing that stands out to me is, when I was stationed in Paso Robles, CA, my wife and I use to babysit a family with 3 children. The father owned several grocery stores and offered me an excellent job with his company. I often think back and wonder if I made the right choice to not stay and come back to NY state.
 

I started smoking when I was 13 or 14 following what my parents did,a pack of cigs cost 35 cents/pk
It took me 2-3 days to finish a pack unless I was watching a sports event
I finally quit'cold turkey' in 1990 when cigs cost $1/pk Sue
 
The skin head haircut I had when I was fifteen.I think I was rebelling......Now my hair is down past my shoulders before the barber sees me.
 
I turned down the chance to buy DELL at $7/share when Michael first offered it, and was talking it up around town. My wife, at the time, and I were shrewd investors and made decent money in the market. Had I bought a thousand shares, pre-splits, I would have made over a million bucks. Hindsight, right?
 
All those pesky teenage pregnancies

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I think that for me it was getting deeply into credit card debt and the consumer culture of thinking that buying all sorts of things would make me and my life better.

I'm much happier just being me.
travel-tourism-suitcase-airport-luggage_carousel-tramp-baglady-dmo0056_low.jpg
 
Enrolled our eldest child in an expensive private school, when she had two younger siblings. Would have been totally unaffordable for 3 kids. The next year, we moved to a suburb with a better
public school system.
 
Let's see, other than marrying my "ex" back in 1975, only other thing I can think of is........

Leaving So California to work a ranch in Wyoming or Montana. I had a saddle/bridle/ropes, but no horse, with me, but absolutely no ranch experience at all. Yes, I could saddle a horse, ride and rope a steer, but that is only part of a ranch hand's job. After reading a few "Ranch Hand Needed" ads in Billings, Montana and Sheridan, Wyoming newspapers, I really, really knew that I definitely wasn't suited for ranch hand work. IOW, "What was I thinking?" definitely comes to mind. Went back to So California and got another job in electronics manufacturing and done rodeo stuff on weekends.
 
ClassicRockr said:
Let's see, other than marrying my "ex" back in 1975, only other thing I can think of is........

Leaving So California to work a ranch in Wyoming or Montana. I had a saddle/bridle/ropes, but no horse, with me, but absolutely no ranch experience at all. Yes, I could saddle a horse, ride and rope a steer, but that is only part of a ranch hand's job. After reading a few "Ranch Hand Needed" ads in Billings, Montana and Sheridan, Wyoming newspapers, I really, really knew that I definitely wasn't suited for ranch hand work. IOW, "What was I thinking?" definitely comes to mind. Went back to So California and got another job in electronics manufacturing and done rodeo stuff on weekends.
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I thought for sure you’d say moving to Jacksonville was your biggest mistake. :)
 
Volunteering for nuclear tests in the Pacific in the fifties.

By the Grace of God I was not chosen.

We all do silly things when we are young, but some are sillier than others!
 
On a trip to Jamaica years ago with a couple of friends (I was single), I walked off by myself on a trail to see a waterfall. It was a lot farther than I thought and got creepier the deeper I walked into the overgrown forest. A young Jamaican man was following and began a conversation, offering to be my guide to the falls. I was overcome with a sense of panic and became very aware of how isolated I was, and that no one knew where I went. I turned around and practically ran back the way I'd come, finally getting back to where there were people around.

I never got to see the waterfall.
 
C'est Moi said:
On a trip to Jamaica years ago with a couple of friends (I was single), I walked off by myself on a trail to see a waterfall. It was a lot farther than I thought and got creepier the deeper I walked into the overgrown forest. A young Jamaican man was following and began a conversation, offering to be my guide to the falls. I was overcome with a sense of panic and became very aware of how isolated I was, and that no one knew where I went. I turned around and practically ran back the way I'd come, finally getting back to where there were people around.

I never got to see the waterfall.
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Too bad, it's great.
 
Pappy said:
Laurie....what a horrible thing to do to our own men. Never understood this.
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You could say the same about D-Day, or Vietnam. Can't make an omelette etc. and the guys that volunteer know this. My service has left me in a wheelchair, but I'd do it all again.

In this year of 2019 there are still uniformed volunteers undergoing nerve agent (and other) tests at the Chemical Warfare Establishment at Porton Down. Service to your country does not solely mean being shot at!
 
C'est Moi said:
On a trip to Jamaica years ago with a couple of friends (I was single), I walked off by myself on a trail to see a waterfall. It was a lot farther than I thought and got creepier the deeper I walked into the overgrown forest. A young Jamaican man was following and began a conversation, offering to be my guide to the falls. I was overcome with a sense of panic and became very aware of how isolated I was, and that no one knew where I went. I turned around and practically ran back the way I'd come, finally getting back to where there were people around.

I never got to see the waterfall.
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Jamaica can be a dangerous place, particularly downtown Kingston to a young 19 year old!


I know!
 
I have a list of crazy things I could post here, but I'll keep it simple.

One of my biggest regrets in life was buying a timeshare in Florida back in 1986. At the time I bought it I thought the lifetime deed was a great thing, not so much now. You can't give these things away nowadays and every January I cringe when I get the annual Maintenance fees and tax bill which is now approaching $1,000. we rarely use it and when we do we usually use a timeshare swap group to go other places, but that ends up costing a couple hundred dollars as well.
 
What Was I Thinking
Probably wasn't thinking at all; too many to name just one (or two, etc.!) & I'd just depress myself remembering!
 
CeeCee said:
I thought for sure you’d say moving to Jacksonville was your biggest mistake. :)
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Well, when we first moved here, we didn't think that at all. But, after seeing the different changes here of more and more young folks moving in and the pace getting faster and faster, along with the finally thinking about things from Colorado that we've missed, we THEN decided we'd made a mistake. The everyday (seems like) shooting/killings isn't a plus for staying here either.
 

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