I remember that there was this one spot in the fields where there was a good sized hole. It was not quite long enough to lay down in but it was waist deep. There was a rusted out spring mattress next to it and we would sometimes bounce off the mattress and into the hole. We called the hole "Old Bessie". It was a landmark of my childhood and of the fields.

I remember that I had a childhood bully named Dane Fife. I remember that him and his sidekick Trevor came by my house one afternoon and started saying "Is this where you live?"

Because he was my bully and I thought he was making fun of my house I lied and said "No it's just my summer house". How lame.

But it get's even lamer. Dane clarified and said that he was talking about our mailbox. It was a very big mailbox and he was inferring that I lived in it. Very lame.

A rival fort emerged near the top of the hill by the power lines in the fields.  It was probably more soundly constructed and it was completely enclosed on all four sides.  However, it did not have the height that ours had.

I remember that me and some of my high school buddies challenged the owners of the rival fort to a game of capture the flag.  The flag was a person from the other team that you had to rescue and return to your fort. 

What resulted was a fierce and no-holds-barred competition.  Not content to simply chase or out run us, the other team absconded Rick Davies and began to give him an ample beating.

That pretty much ended the game.  We treated our captives nicely though.  Despite the fact that they were forced to sit atop the fourth story where there was no guard rail, we provided them with efervescent beverages from my dad's green cooler and "gentlemen's" magazines.

Back in the day, Chris Shea, Adam Lamb, Austin Moening and I built a 4-story tree fort in the fields by my backyard. It started as a 1-story fort but we could not resist the urge to continue to build higher on the perfectly-suited tree. It was a majestic thing with a superfluance of nails.

The first level was enclosed in plywood and the second and third levels were just floors made of 2 x 4s. The fourth floor was more like a ceiling or roof. There were no guard rails on the fourth floor and it was very high up and kind of scary. It was one of the triumphant accomplishments of my youth. Me and Shea hung out there a lot--and yet--I don't have a single picture to prove it.

Update: I found a picture of us on the fort but it is at night and all you can see is a 2x4.  I was talking with Chris the other day and he said that my aunt took a picture of us all on the fort.  I will have to search my parents' albums for that photo.  Dave, when can I borrow that document feed scanner?

I remember going to the Vault every Thursday and blowing my allowance on comic books.  The Vault was a comic book store that was located in the Waterfall Plaza in Waterford.  It closed down after a few years.  Probably because me and my brother stopped shopping there.

I used to buy all the variations of the X-men and Spiderman comics and Kevin used to buy the Fantastic Four and Punisher comics.  I remember I bought all of the first issues of the Image comic books when they first came out.  Shortly after that, Kevin and I stopped collecting.

They had an extensive back issue selection that I would browse, picking up issues of the "Uncanny X-men" that I did not have.

It's a shame that a lot of small businesses like that can't stay in business.  I still have most of those comic books - some four or five boxes.  I think everyone was collecting at that time so my comics are barely worth more than I paid for them, 15 years later.