Since the beginning of time humans have built forts for various reasons. Forts come in all shapes and sizes and can be in some of the craziest places for the most craziest purposes. In the 1st century BCE 960 jewish people built a fort on top of a huge plateau near Mesa looking down on the Red Sea called Masada, according to historians the reason for this huge fort was to keep the romans away from them, at this time the romans were persecuting the jews and this fort for the jewish people in Mesa was the last stand.
Now today Masada is one of Israel’s top tourist attractions. You can build forts wherever and for whatever purpose, you can have forts made from snow, forts made in trees, mud forts, you can make a fort just about out of anything. As a kid growing up in my old neighborhood there weren’t many other kids around me that I could call friends, since this neighborhood was home to many older families that had kids but were already grown up to have their own family.
Growing up as a small kid I had always wanted to make a real fort in the outdoors, I had made forts before in my basement by pushing the 2 big couches together in some sort of V shape so the back was small enough for when I needed a quick exit, but the main purpose for the couches was to act as a barrier, then I would get blankets that I could find throughout my house to lay over the top of the couches to act as a cover so no one could see me, then by taking to couch pillows off of the couches I would place them in front of my fort to act as a barrier so no one could get through the front entrance.
I have done this process multiple times but overtime, don’t get me wrong but to me it didn’t seem like a true fort. To me a true fort was an isolated area where I could have my space. As I made the forts in my basement, either my parents made me play with my younger sister and no boy at the age of 9 wants to play with forts with their younger sister, or my dog would run through the fort and destroy it in the matter of seconds.
One fall day in the afternoon I set out in my backyard in search for a good spot to start a fort, in the very back of my backyard there was a mini forest that went as far back as a half a mile, and was so wide that it started from my house and ended at the house at the end of the street which is like 10 houses in a row was part of, if you weren’t careful and didn’t know the land very well you could easily get lost.
As I set out I wasn’t having the best of luck trying to find the perfect spot to build my fort, as I was starting to lose day break, I found my Masada! t was this hill that was 15ft tall and 10ft wide I could not believe a hill was this big out in the woods and I never noticed it. As I climbed the huge slope of this monstrous hill covered in garbage, grass sod, leaves, and branches, it almost looked like someone was trying to hide it. as I reached the top I noticed that there was a little hole in the middle that looked like it fit 2-3 kids inside, also I noticed left over junk that someone forgot to pick up.
As I was about to my leave the hill someone called my name, I didn’t know where it came from and I didn’t recognize the voice very well, then I saw the figure it was my neighbor, I got really scared thinking that he was mad because I was trespassing and this could be his and didn’t want anyone to be on the hill. As he came up to me at the bottom of the hill he asked what I was doing, so I as a scared kid I told him everything, as I finished my story a smile broke out and told me when his son was younger they both made this hill for him so he could have fun with his friends.
My neighbor told me he was glad I found it and was planning on using it for a good and fun purpose, he told me he was glad to pass down what him and his son did to so later I could pass it down to the next lucky kid and the next like a legacy. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay any longer at talk with my neighbor since it was getting to dark out. as I scurried through the forest cutting through bushes and fallen trees, that had fallen due to severe weather.
As I finally approached home I could see my mom on a rocking chair waiting for me to return home, as I approached her she asked where I was and why I was out so late, I apologized for being home late but I told her it was a secret and she will eventually find out what I was doing. She did not like that answer at all and made me confess the truth, She was not happy with that I didn’t tell what I was doing all day, she told me I could have easily got grounded because of this, luckily she like that I was playing outside and doing something that was active and that I liked, she let this incident slide this time.
That night I could not fall asleep the excitement was still rushing through me, I could not wait to get up tomorrow and start on my new fort. As morning came I was up right away and was out the door heading straight for my new fort, but my mom caught me and said I had to eat first and do some homework before I could do anything. While walking to my new fort so many ideas were going through my head ideas like adding certain features to a specific spot, getting rid of stuff, what can I do to make it mine and to make it better, I didn’t even realize that I forgot the hidden path to the hill.
Finally I found the path that I took the day before and started to break small twigs so I could remember how to get there and back to my house. when I got to my fort before I did anything I looked around to make sure it felt right, I was able to partially see my house from the very top of the hill , I looked and made sure nothing could harm me in any way, as I was looking around I noticed that there were animal tracks by the fort, but nothing to bad the tracks just deer, rabbits and one set of tracks belonged to a fox but they were faded and it looked like they were there way before I ever found the hill.
Also, I noticed a lot of sharp objects that I had to throw away before I could start anything else. As I finished taking in my surroundings and came up with the conclusion that it was a safe fort, I quickly ran back to my house because I realized that I forgot gloves and garbage bags to pick up all the trash that was left by the last set of kids to find this hill. following the broken branch path I quickly made it home and back only to trip over a fallen branch once.
As I made it back to the hill I quickly took out the garbage bag and started to clean up the mess that the neighbor’s son made. hile cleaning up I found an empty pop bottle, broken toys, candy wrappers, old newspaper, old comic books that were to ruined to keep, old flashlights, and ripped up pieces of tarp. The cleaning process took the morning and I went through two full garbage bags, finally it was all cleaned and ready to start adding to this fort.
The first thing that I did was I went around the forest and found the biggest sticks mainly the sticks that were covering the path and others around the path I only took the ones that I could carry up to my fort to make a barrier and make my fort even more fortified. t took me at least 20 times to walk back and forth bringing my sticks up the mountainous hill to my fort. finally when I perfected my stick barrier, I went back and stole two huge green tarp from my dad and put it one on top over the stick barrier and one in the hole to cover up all the mud, leaves and smaller sticks so my cloths wouldn’t get dirty and mainly so my mom didn’t get mad.
I hurried down the hill to look at my masterpiece from a better angle, it was the proud I have been at the time, I finally had my Masada! hroughout the years of having this fort I brought my friends to it and they were amazed at my work, we played there every time they came over, we hung out in there, we played king of the hill, Nerf wars, and eventually when it snowed my dad got permission to cut down some trees so we could go sledding down my hill. Forts have been around since the beginning of civilization, they have been used for all purposes. Making forts as a kid was really fun, but finding this one really helped me get through my early childhood when there wasn’t many kids in my neighborhood.
