We were able to keep ourselves entertained with these activities but there was one summer when my friends Jeff, Kevin, Josh, and my cousin and I had something special planned. No longer would we be playing our simple minded games of war, tag and baseball in the Quider's backyard nor having meaningless sleep-overs out in tents. This particular summer we had a plan. Stephen and I would get up at the crack of dawn and help my father and grandfather do chores around the farm, and then before we even had time to finish our breakfast we were out the door and headed back to the duck pond. .
The time we all spent together, at the time seamed meaningless, but today all the jokes that we told, and how everyone seemed to have this same dream in their heads made the pond my favorite place. We soon began construction on our plan of this soon to be "fortress". To me it seemed like the greatest idea in the world, not only did I get to hang out with all my friends everyday; we now had a goal to accomplish together. We spent countless mornings trying to gather up enough wood, nails, rope and other materials to use at no cost to us. Gathering things and then carrying them out to the pond was not the easiest task. Trying to lug the heavy wooden planks on my back day to day and having a new set of splinters to dig out of my hands is one of the difficulties I had. I also can recall the smell of the barn, how everything we took had had a kind of mystery to it. With me being the youngest and unable to drive the John Deere Gator, I was stuck carrying most of the smaller stuff. Since I was the youngest, it always seemed that I was always given the job of finding the long lists of things that we needed for the day's building. I never minded it one bit; I loved the way everyone treated me if I came back with some treasure that would be very useful to the older boys. It was my job and I was good at it.