Do kids still build forts outdoors to sleep in?  Back in the day, we used to take blankets and cover picnic tables with them as the “base” of our forts and then added things such as appliance boxes and other things to extend the structure all for the final plan to sleep in the fort.  Yes, tents were around way back then… I am not THAT old, but there was just something cool about making the fort unique.  Picnic tables worked well as the benches served as great shelf space for all the essential items such as flashlights, bug spray, and snacks.  Blankets were great covers as a tarp, while excellent for waterproofing the fort, might be detrimental when it came to providing enough ventilation.  Refrigerator boxes were the best if you could get your hands on them as they made a great space for that one kid that snored loudly or had a harder time breathing at night.  If you had a friend that snored loudly AND had a harder time breathing at night, the refrigerator box was the perfect space for them.  Trust me, I know how perfect it was as that was commonly my spot.

            Our neighborhood was filled with adventurous kids and when I say filled, I mean like exploding with kids.  By an estimation that is probably a little light, I would say when I was 12 years old, there were at least 25 kids within two years older or younger than me in a six-block radius.  If you would add a year both ways, that number certainly would eclipse 35.  Of course, if a couple of the boys in the neighborhood were building a fort, there always seemed to be a couple of girls that would as well.  There was always competition in the old neighborhood, but it was friendly, at least for the most part.  Except for one time that I remember like it was yesterday.  That was an outdoor adventure that maybe got just a little out of hand.

            You see, a few of us boys decided that we were going to build the Taj Mahal of picnic table forts.  This would be the fort that would go down as legend, and for the few of us that were part of it, the legend continues to be talked about.  One picnic table would simply not do, so we scoured the neighborhood asking those living around us if we could borrow their table for the night.  We were able to build our main base with three tables.  The end all, be all of forts was going to happen AND when a couple guys came up the street with three refrigerator boxes acquired from the local appliance store, it was total elation.  You just might say it was as close to winning the lottery as any of us ever had experienced and, considering most of us were 11-13 years old, that is not really saying much as we were not old enough to play the lottery.  Come to think of it, there was not even a lottery in Minnesota at the time, but we knew we had made a major score, and THIS started the war.

            A few of the girls saw the construction process begin and knew that there was no way we would ever let them live it down that we, in fact, built the biggest fort ever.  This fort could sleep up to twelve and thanks to one of the guy’s dads lent us some 2x4 studs, had multiple levels, although you had to go out of the fort to gain entrance to the upper living quarters.  They knew that there was no way that they could top us in size, so they decided to take the competition to a new level.  The girls went for modernization, looks, and a few features that we did not have.  They incorporated the use of an actual tent that slept eight and had a screen room for hanging out.  They ran an electrical cord to their “fort” so there would be no issues with their radio running out of power, meaning that they had music all night.  They then added a few boxes out front and cut in a skylight.  Really, who wants a skylight in a fort that you will be sleeping in at night?  Oh yeah, a bunch of girls who were trying to outdo the boys and do some star gazing.  As I think about it now, it was kind of a cool idea.  If you are wondering how this ended, let me tell you, it was not pretty.

            As the day went into night, we stopped really giving a whoop what the girls were doing, and they pretty much did the same thing.  One thing though is for certain when it came to little battles like this one.  The older girls were much better at having the younger girls backs than the older boys were at having ours.  Two of the older girls, who were 16 at best, decided to pay our fort a little visit around midnight with a garden hose, and I think you can see what happened from there.  The blankets, our cardboard walls, and subsequently all the residents of the biggest and best fort ever were soaked.  The girls took off and while we were pretty sure we knew who they were, confirmation was not actually made until about three or four years later.  It was a great outdoor adventure, and the memory has lasted several decades so, if you do have some younger kids, encourage them to make a fort at least for daytime fun.  If there are older girls in the area, just make sure they have plenty of squirt guns for potential retaliation.  Now, Get Those Kids Out to ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS.