Castles

Now, the source of the large pile of white bricks in our yard is well known, it was a gift (purchased?) from Steve and Janet down the street.  I'm not sure anyone remembers why we had the bricks.  Most likely, they were acquired for some yard project that never happened.  Not saying we didn't use the odd brick to weigh down the black plastic over the garden or line a flower bed, but most of them just sat in a pile.

For a group of boys raised on leggos, the pile of bricks, whatever its source, was quite the windfall.  We immediately set out to build a castle.  Time and how short I was at the time make the dimensions a little foggy, but I'd say the walls were around four feet high and max 40 sq. feet of floor space (and by floor I mean dirt or a chunk of plywood, which is pretty close to what out actual floors were).  We went all out with the first one, it had a few separate rooms and even a circular turret (I believe Brian was our architect).  We camped out a few nights in these roofless huts and in general had a blast.  We'd always try to lure the cats to sleep with us to keep us warm,  although Brian just threw the cats (which have the tendency of landing claws out, knocking a brick or two down after them) from his room to ours which was a trifle annoying.  Naturally, the clean white brick walls were quickly covered in mud from our constant internecine warfare.

We completely dismantled our castle at least twice to rebuild a new one, usually not as elaborate, just trying to maximize floor space and then using plywood for the internal structure.  I think we even had roofs on some of them.  Half the fun was just moving piles of bricks all day!  Anyway, anyone else have any castle memories?