Becoming a kid again

A few years ago my father, brother, cousin Giulia and I built a fort in the woods outside my grandmother's house. The woods are owned by Colombia University and are pretty much open for anyone to do whatever they want in. They were also the woods that my father and his two older brothers grew up in, and he has endless stories about his own forts, games, and battles there.

So today was spent going back to our fort. It started with a little fort four years ago, which is extremely small but which has survived all these years (including a hurricane) and is insulated enough to keep out snow. Recently we started working on a second, much larger fort, which will connect to the old one and use it as an entrance tunnel. It's an ongoing project that my cousins, brother, dad and I enjoy every winter when we visit my grandmother. 

There's also the stories we tell. The vines hanging from the trees in the woods are the guts of an ancient slayed dragon. The mess of thorns is the house of the ogre. The giant ditch in front of our fort is the dragon's nest, the stones inside eggs. There are more stories than that, many more, but those are just a few examples. And, most importantly, the piles of deer droppings are really dwarf droppings, giving the woods their name, Bosque di Nani, which is Dwarves Woods in Italian. 

The Bosque di Nani and its adventures and stories are important to me for one reason: they keep me a kid. Building forts, or making up stuff about dragons and ogres and dwarves with my cousins, that allows me to still enjoy myself and be a little kid. It's really fun, and I get to hang out with my family. So, what makes you guys become kids again? 

Above: Our trip through the Bosque di Nani.

Above: Our fort. As you can see the larger part is unfinished and not connected to the smaller, older part, but the roof of the larger part works. 

This stone wall is part of the remains of Skunk Hollow, a town from the1800s that was the first all-black town in New York. My uncle did a lot of research on it when he was a kid and discovered that these ruins were what was left of Skunk Hollow. 

Above: The inside of the larger part of the fort, which is unfinished. 

My little cousin Ella sitting on a rock and pouting because we didn't want to play "family" with her.