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Fortress 8260Home \ Fortresses \ Aug 2000 \ 8260
Location: Bellows Beach |
Saturday, August 26, 2000
Lisa and I went to Bellows Beach. The tide was on its way out so
there would be no drainage system. We didn't get to the beach until around 3:00 pm,
much later than normal and only wanted to stay for a couple hours. It
would be a short day at the beach.
-Shut up and get to the pictures-
I could have forgone building a fortress altogether and just enjoyed going swimming or body boarding, but once again, I just couldn't resist. The sand calls to me. I had to convert some flat, empty beach into something cool.
Since there wasn't very much time, I quickly built a small, two-tower fortress with a respectable arch. A simple, yet elegant design, tailor-made for the structural sand I had piled up. Oh, who am I kidding. I carved it the way I did because it was quick.
People generally like sand structures, especially kids, and it is common for kids to approach me while I work and ask questions, tell me the fortress is cool, etc. Sometimes the younger kids want to do make one too, or "help" me with mine. Usually this is not a problem. Sometimes it is.
The list of enemies to a sand fortress is somewhat short. Of course water--and to a lesser degree, wind--are it's natural enemies. But the modern-day list includes: dogs, football/Frisbee players, assholes, and curious children. I have never had trouble with football/Frisbee players, although they've been present. As for assholes, here in Hawaii people are generally laid back and I've never, ever had anyone even mention knocking over a fortress on purpose. I've read stories from sand sculptors on the mainland who have had these types of problems. I guess I'm lucky. Dogs are fairly rare on the beaches here and I've been able to head them away before they get too curious and too close to shove their nose into a tower. Kids have come the closest to causing trouble.
The danger starts when they see me building the fortress and they just want to be involved too. Curiosity is a good thing, and I support it, but I won't let someone I don't know carve my fortresses, especially kids who just want to play. Building a fortress is not that easy to do and I take carving them as seriously as I can take something that involves me basically playing in wet sand. So I have learned how to handle kids who want to get involved in a way that makes us both happy. Or at least makes me happy. I tell them that I will handle my fortress and they can make one next to it (far enough away that they won't be backing into mine accidentally). I also caution them not to get too close to my fortress or it may fall on them. Of course the opposite is true, but this is a nice way to get them to keep some distance.
If they hang around long enough, or are bold enough, they will ask to borrow some of my tools. I tell them they can't carve the sand until they first pile it up. This deft maneuver alone will cause most of them to lose interest fairly quick and run down the beach to find something else to do. But if they go through the work of actually piling up a mound of sand, I'll lend them a knife. I used to wonder if it would be wise to give someone's child a knife, but it is just a butter knife, and I don't let them leave the area with it so they can't run around the beach with a knife. Besides, I get the feeling some parents either tell their kids, "Go ask him if you can play too." and expect me to baby-sit them, or aren't paying any attention to what they're doing at all. So if there are any complaints about lending them a butter knife, they can certainly come and retrieve their kid.
Today, I had a small group of kids (probably 8 years old) buzzing around the construction site and asking questions, mostly, could they help. So I directed them to build some mounds of their own, and they did so I let them use a couple of my knives. They didn't spend much time piling, so their mounds weren't very high and carving didn't take very long. They soon lost interest and some left. One took off with one of my knives, I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I yelled at him to come back. It was the first time I actually ordered a kid in a firm voice. He stopped and I waved for him return my knife. He paused, saw that I was standing up and wasn't going to take my attention away from him until he complied, which he quickly did, then ran off to where his parents were.
Another kid kept playing with one of my knives, but he wasn't really carving anything. I kept one eye on my fortress and one eye on him. I saw him digging in the sand about ten feet away and at one point, noticed he no longer had my knife in his hand. The little punk had buried it. So I walked over to him and asked him where it was. He wisely dug it up. I didn't have to say anything, he knew he was busted. I returned to my fortress, all tools once again in place, and he ran off with his friends or his parents, I didn't really pay attention, I was just glad I could get back to carving without the annoying distractions.
It's all a little chess game when dealing with kids. Fortunately, I'm smarter than the average 8-year-old and can easily outwit them. Plus, I was eight once and I know all their tricks.
When the fortress was finished, I took pictures. Lisa was being goofy and wanted to be in a bunch of them. I didn't mind, the whole day was short, weird, and this was basically a throw-away fortress. In fact, during the photo session, we had the idea to get a picture of one of us falling onto the fortress. I had never purposefully destroyed a fortress (except for SF6170, but there were compelling reasons for that), and we decided to jump on this one, to make an interesting photo. We decided Lisa would take the picture and I would run and take a dive into good old SF8260. So I did. She was a little nervous and got a little shaky for the shot, but we got it. Then she took another of the aftermath as I lay in the ruins of SF6170. I guess it was only because this was a quick fortress (although it still took about two hours) and I have made so many that it felt okay to destroy one finally. I'm not sure I'll do it again.
Photos pending - coming soon...
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