Dirt Hole and Castle
The start of June bring back
memories of summer vacations when our kids were small... We read somewhere that
kids needed a place where they could dig...so we set aside a back corner of the
yard and give the kids coffee cans to use in digging ... soon this was the
favorite activity for all the neighborhood kids. It was not unusual to see four or five kids
all out moving dirt. Over time, this hole continued to grow wider and
deeper. For several years the “dirt
hole” was a favorite place to play with toys – to live out fantasies.
 |
| Our boys and two friends in their dirt hole years |
When the hole got to be about 4
foot deep and several feet long and wide... a friend of our was working as a
construction engineer on the new Dumbarton Bridge project...He said that they
had large amounts of remnant wooden timbers that would be great to cover the
dirt hole and turn it into something resembling a mine shaft... great... just the
thing! We acquired a big pile of wooden
boards and timbers of all sizes. With all this wood
we got the idea of building a castle (the kids were at this time very much into
a medieval theme – so they told me what they had in mind and we set to work...
 |
| The Castle - dungeon is below and runs to the left |
The project began simply and over
time expanded... As the structure grew, I was afraid that I might run afoul of
the city building code – so I went down to the city office and told them what
we had in mind – They got all official with me and started talking about
earthquake factors and wind sheer ratios...adequate cement for footings and providing
railings... I asked “what would happen if I just went home and built it the way
we had it originally planned” ... there
answer was “ Nothing”... so that’s what I did...
The final structure had a ground level
floor with a trap door that went down into the “dungeon” (i.e. the dirt hole)...
a short ladder went up through another trap door to the upper deck about 5 feet
off the ground... then there was a “tower” with a ladder that went up another
ladder, through a trap door to the upper platform about 8 feet off the
ground... As a responsible parent I made sure that there were safety
railings. On a project like this the work is ongoing and continual modifications were added to the
structure.
 |
| Sword fight with cardboard helmets |
 |
| Firing mechanism for rubber band "gun" |
Our eldest son escalated the conflict by
constructing a wooden catapults powered by multiple rubber bands that were
capable of projecting an overripe tomato flying across the entire yard. I fear that at times our youngest son and his
friends took on the roll of “target” – but the catapult was notoriously
inaccurate so I don’t recall that they ever hit anyone.
 |
| Surviving 'Medieval' shield |
On one occasion the youngest son
and his friend decided to make a small twig fire down inside on the bottom of
the dirt hole...their goal was to roast hot dogs... The neighbors smelled the
smoke and fearing the worst looked over the fence, and saw smoke billowing out of the underground... In alarm they called for the boys... who emerged from the hole and sheepishly had to face the neighbors and tell
what they were doing ...Good to have observant neighbors.
As the boys moved into their teen
years the old wooden castle began to show signs of decay- termites and dry rot...
it was a sad day when the tower had to came down and the dirt hole filled in.
 |
| 2 shot rubber band gun made of 1/2 inch plywood- the rubber bands fit over the front end and then are pulled back and fixed over the firing mechanism - A small downward movement of the lever releases the rubber band |
Even today when I dig in the area I
feel like an archeologist because I often find wheels from old Fisher Price
toys, pieces of construction sets, or plastic
action figures. It is pretty funny how cut
inner tube loops do not deteriorate when buried in the ground.
