let’s build a castle

When I was just a kid, my dad took time to hang out with my brothers and me despite his busy schedule – he was/is s pediatrician. We’d play games together and watch tv and so on. He used to draw up home made board games, the kind where you would roll a die and try to advance a few spaces to the finish line. Every few spaces or so, he drew a picture with an instruction like go back 5 spaces or roll again. My dad was/is an amazing artist – it seemed like he could draw anything – whether it was a car, a cowboy, Godzilla, a stormtooper or Darth Vader. He seemed to have magic with those colored markers. We always had fun playing his made up board games.

After a trip to Europe, he surprised us one day by bringing back a bunch of plastic toy knights and men-at-arms, kinda like those green plastic toy army soldiers, except with a medieval theme. The next thing I knew, he started building a model castle. I had no idea what was going on, except that as each day progressed, the pieces of wood started to take shape and new things appeared one by one. My older brother AA helped him a little with it. I think I got to paint some of the walls and glue down some bushes. The final result looked amazing for any kid.

It was a modest square castle with turrets and a main gate. The castle stood up on a short hill which was decorated with lots of model bushes, moss, and dirt. There was even a drawbridge and a set of portcullis. My dad even made a working catapult and ballista. We would divide the set of knights and soldiers among us (he painted some of the soldiers’ helmets so we could tell them apart) and have fun storming the castle. The catapult was the best – we could fling tinkertoy wheels and things about five or so feet. The basement was ideal for these battles – it was carpeted, cool, and very spacious. I’m sure mom wondered what was going on a few times whenever we played, cuz it got loud after a while. When we were done playing, the soldiers and knights were stored in a wooden box that used to hold spice bottles.

The castle has long been gone since then. The knights, soldiers, and spice box went to my nephew T. The memories, though, haven’t gone away.

Thanks dad.