The Fort

Actually we had a number of forts,some people called them club houses but that sounded too Mickey Mouse and we were more military in nature. One that stands out was really just a 20 foot long ditch in a weed covered field that we covered with (borrowed) plywood from a construction site. We then covered the plywood with dirt and weeds except for a 2 foot opening at the end which was hidden in the tall weeds. We had straw for a flooring so we wouldn't get too muddy and transistor radio, stack of Playboy mags, kerosene lamp and other goodies that we dug out of the trash. If kids wandered too close to our fort we would swarm out of that tunnel like hornets and attack them with dirt clods. The weeds were so tall that they never really seen who was attacking them. The fort was at the bottom of this tall hill that had a park and baseball field on the other side. One day we heard activity on the other side and crept up the hill to investigate. There were some older fat guys playing softball and we decided to use our guerrilla tactics and attack them. We hid behind the tall weeds at the top of the hill and launched our dirt clods,hitting one of them in the belly. We then raced back down the hill and scurried into our tunnel. We could hear them walking right over the top of us, one saying " They couldn't have just disappeared. " After a short time one of us peeked thru the weeds at the opening and saw that the coast was clear. We had that fort for most of the summer until a tractor caved it in when they started to build in that field.