“The Crawl space fort”

“The Crawl space fort”, the first fort that I recall building was located in my parent’s half basement. There was an area on the north wall of the concrete basement that was dug out in the dirt which was big enough for a former oil tank. That area to me was the perfect area to hide out.
In this dirt crawl space I used discarded metal refrigerator grates to give the illusion of a caged in room to which I would sit on the inside. I would stay in my fort for what seemed to be hours and I would light several candles and watch them all glow. On occasion my brothers and sister would come down and sit with me and be entertained by the creation and imaginations of such a secluded area in our small house.

My brothers had a glass gallon jug of cider that they made which they kept tucked back in the corner. It had a wax paper on top secured with a rubber band to keep out the dirt. They would put sugar and yeast in it to make their own brew. It looked interesting but when it smelt like vinegar none of us had the guts to drink it.

As I would play down in that basement I can’t recall what all I did or what my thoughts were but it was my way of having a place to hide. It was also a place of solitude and a place to be alone.