Misstropolis

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

10 Questions for Simon English, Fort Builder

by Lenore Shannon

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This is a really beautiful fort. Did anyone help you?

I built this with my brother Oliver. He likes forts, too.

So, is this your first fort?

No.  My first fort was up in a tree, and it was called “Burnt Burger.” It was a restaurant fort. We made hamburgers and hot dogs in there. It was a pretty cool spot.

Wait a minute--your parents let you cook in your fort?

Well, they helped us. Since then we’ve made all kinds of other forts. We’ve built snow forts and wood forts and we built a fort once at my grandmother’s house in Maine with a whole bunch of beach stuff: buoys, driftwood, rocks, and seaweed. It had a window made of sea glass. That one had a fireplace and we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs there, too.

How long did this fort take to build?

It took one whole day. It’s been up for about a week and everyone knows it’s here. The Brookline police came last week because there had been a robbery near our house, and they thought the robbers were hiding in our fort. Then my mom got nervous that they would give us a ticket because the fort is in some wetlands, but I think they were more interested in finding the robbers. 

What is the fort made of?

It’s all natural because the materials were already in the woods behind our house. We used pieces of an old wooden fence, tree bark, twigs, rocks and leaves.  It’s really cozy inside. We found a plastic chair in the woods and put that inside too, even though it isn’t natural. The only tool we used was a shovel, but that was just to dig holes where we put the supports. We didn’t use a hammer or nails or anything.

It has been really windy out.  How come it hasn’t blown over?

We built it around this big tree, and that helps hold it up. Then we dug the support holes really deep and we put the supports at an angle with rocks against them. It’s really sturdy. We’re just going to keep improving it, too.

Do you have plans for any holiday entertaining out here?

We already had a party here on Thanksgiving Day. Everyone who was at our house came outside before dinner. They even brought wine.

Have your friends come to see it?

I’ve had friends come to see it and hang out, but most of the fun for me was in building it.

Why do you think kids don’t build forts too much anymore?

Most of my friends would rather be inside playing video games.

What advice would you give to kids who might want to build their own fort?

It’s not really for everyone, to stay outside all day. But I would say if you give it a try, you might find that it’s really fun.