My First Building Boom and our classmates, most of whom we hadn’t seen for three months. In the fall, we played football after school and did homework after supper. In October, our thoughts turned to Halloween; in November to Thanksgiving; in December to Christmas. In January, we pulled our sleds down to the playground and spent hours play ing in t he snow. Before we knew it, we were preparing for Easter. We didn’t think much about our fort until June, when the school year ended. On a warm day in June of 1960, we decided to go play at the fort. Expecting to pick up where we had left off nine months earlier, we excitedly climbed up the ladder and lifted ourselves into the fort, only to discover we were not alone. Our trusty fort, which had been impreg nable to a l l at t ack s la st August, proved to be vulnerable to airborne assault. A colony of wasps
had built a nest in the ceiling of the fort and they were not pleased to s e e u s. T he y b e ga n c i r c l i ng overhead and buzzing menacingly, which sent us scra mbling back dow n the ladder and retreating in a panic. A f ter regrouping about thir t y feet from the tree, we considered our options and concluded that we had no options. The wasps outnumbered us. They were aggressive and fierce. They were quick and nimble and could hit us from any angle. And, unlike any of our previous foes, they were real and could inf lict real pain. I suggested that we get a stick and knock dow n the wasp nest. Unfortunately, no one was willing to accept this hazardous mission; as much as we loved the thought of being heroes, we all preferred to rema i n u n s t u ng her o e s. We lingered a bit, keeping a wary eye on the wasps, then grimly walked away, surrendering our proud fort without a fight. After this inglorious defeat, we lost interest in for ts. We didn’t realize it at the time, but our first bui ld ing boom wa s over. A side from helping our father on projects around t he house, my brot hers and I put our building careers on hold and got involved in ot her, more “grown-up” enterprises. We delivered newspapers, cut lawns and played little league baseball. In 1962, Denny, who had turned
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