the greatest castle ever built

Like many young boys, I loved Legos when I was a kid. Arguably the greatest childhood Christmas present I ever got was a couple of Lego pirate ships, which of course I promptly consolidated into one Ultra-Pirate Ship. I had sets from all the classic genres: pirates, space, knights, town, even the Aquanauts. One of my great joys was flipping through my Lego catalogue and finding sets and pieces to order that couldn't be found in stores.



Over time, of course, the individual sets merged together into several tubs and boxes full of bricks, minifigures, and so on. This created a magnificent Lego singularity bounded only by my young imagination. Eventually, this reached its creative zenith when I created a mega-castle using a variety of pieces.

The castle was mammoth by Lego standards, taking up the whole surface of a side-table that I claimed as my own and pulled into my room. This was to be the secret hideout for my cast of heroes, so the front of the castle consisted of large pieces resembling gray mountain sides. I then rooted through my brick collection and found every black or gray pieces I could to make the camouflaged walls of my castle. The grand throne room, however, had walls made of solid white pieces, to look more "royal."

I'm telling you, this creation of mine HAD IT ALL: an armory, barracks for the soliders, a bedroom for the king and queen, even a stable where the horses and dragon were kept. Of course, the bad guys had their hideout as well, but it was nowhere near as large and grandiose as the secret cavern castle. This didn't stop the frequent invasions from and battles with the villains, however. (In retrospect, for being a secret hideout, it was a pretty poorly kept secret if the bad guys were constantly finding it.)

I don't remember exactly how old I was when I built that grand castle, nor do I remember how long it stood. I do remember, however, at some point I literally looked at it, thought, "I'm getting too old for Legos now," and proceeded to dismantle the structure and put all of the boxes of bricks way in my closet, where they probably remain to this day.

I guess that's how growing up happens - you grow older piece by piece, mostly gradually and almost unnoticeably  but there are those occasional milestones where you have to say, "I've outgrown this now." I still remember the day, a few months after moving to Los Angeles, that I was getting dressed and thought, "I'm getting a bit old to just wear t-shirts all the time." That day I put on a button-up shirt instead, and that's basically what I wear to this day. Sometimes, you just make a decision to grow up and move on in a little way.

However, for that time in my life, that Lego castle was the pinnacle of my creative endeavors, and I may always remember fondly the adventures it provided.