Col’Cacchio Retro Tuesday: Forts

Today’s Retro Tuesday post brings back some beyond awesome memories. Forts. We all used to build them, and if you didn’t you didn’t have a childhood. Chairs, blankets, boxes, couches, tables, everything was used in an effort to make the coolest, biggest, most awesome fort ever. Forts are not to be confused with tree houses, those are in a legue of their own, we’re talking strictly ground structures here. Let’s get into a few of the best kinds after the jump.

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To get you’re imagination going and those memory juices flowing, here’s a a gallery of your basic fort setups.

Nice, some pretty good ones in there. I suspect some parents, stil hanging onto their childhood (nothing wrong) had a hand in some of those. I just imagine them, ‘no son, that’s not really how you should do it. Let me help you with this one corner and then you see if you can do the rest’…three hours later dad is still on all fours crawling through the most intricate fort he’s ever made adding all sorts of things, his son having wondered off ages ago due to not being allowed to help.

I can imagine myself doing that. I used to take my fort building very seriously. Still do. I preferred to use multi functional building material such, like those pool loungers with the bit for your feet that could fold down. Those worked perfectly, when turned on their side, as a solid wall and then a door (the foot bit) that could open and close. You could also use those as dividers in your fort, giving you a two room bad boy.

Inside forts were pretty epic, but some of my favourite were the ones I built outside. I once built one entirely out of sticks and plant material. It took me and my cuz a full day, and then I think we played in it for about a hour. Another one we built, we used to build a lot, was so well done it was basically a shack. One wall was made out of brick, the other was shared with the property wall, the third side was one half of those clam shell kids swimming pools and the front was a think plastic sheet. Our living area was raised off the floor by a huge braai grid, which proved extra awesome after it started pouring with rain and we could stay in the fort, chowing snacks as the rain rushed under us.

There was another I built shortly after moving houses. My folks had all the moving boxes in the lounge for almost a month as they sorted the house out. I tunneled through them all till I made a iglo sort of space in the far corner of the lounge, where I set up the TV and VCR, then watched Jaws on repeat.

Those are three that really stand out, but I have easily built about three million forts in my life. I once dug a trench with a mate, which isn’t technically a fort, though it was kitted out like a legit World Word trench. It took us over a week to dig and we played in it….never. That was one of my biggest problems as a kid. I’d put so much effort into making something perfect that by the time it was finished I was over it.

Any of your forts still stand out above the rest?

Nash…
Out.