Delving deep into the darkest places of the vault....AKA the dusty piles of stories I wrote as a child. They're terrifying. Terrifyingly bad, that is. Enter, if thou darest....or if thou needs a good laugh or two.
At some point in my childhood, after the 40-something books of the Apple Brook series had fizzled out, I wrote a 497 page origin story of how the Leidas got so rich and famous.
Early on in the story, I included this:
(Keep in mind the names are super weird because they all started as a three-year-old boy's beloved stuffed animals) ———————————————-
It was 9:30, but Mom and Dad like late nights. We passed skyscrapers with vibrant lights, huge apartment buildings with lamps glowing in the windows, and hundreds of stores and museums. "Where are we going now?" Sabrina asked.
Note: Sabrina was never a stuffed animal. She was a non-canon character I invented for this story, for whatever reason.
"Can we go to Venture Point?" Plopper begged.
"Is it open this late?" Mom sounded doubtful.
"It's open till midnight on weekends," I told her.
"I don't see why we couldn't go there," Dad said.
"YES!!!!!" We cheered. We all love Venture Point. It's this huge place that has a pirate ship restaurant, and you can build your own fort that will forever be a part of the park. We've built several forts in the past, and they're still there. At night they always have bonfires going, even in the summer.
Before we even got to Venture Point, I could see the huge pirate ship looming in the distance. Plopper unbuckled and stood up excitedly. "Drive faster!" he told our chauffeur.
Well, look who learned to spell chauffeur. It only took thirteen years.
Anyway, my point this time is not to offer modern-day commentary. Carrying on....
"Don't!" Mom said.
When we got to Venture Point, Plopper and Sam were the first ones out of the limo. Dad bought our admission wristbands. "Meet us at the front at closing," he told us.
We all scattered in opposite directions with our bodyguards following us. Hippity and I ran towards the grove of treehouses. I climbed up into the Jungle Book treehouse. (All the treehouses are based on a book.) From up there I could see all of Venture Point. There was a huge area for building forts, trampolines, a playhouse for little kids, and all kinds of forts and swings scattered everywhere. —————————————-
Okay, this sufficiently illustrates my point. To 13-year-old me, such a place would have been absolute heaven. I was just creating a place I would have loved in real life.
Or so I thought.
Fast-forward to now and I find out about Kolle 37 Adventure Park in Berlin, Germany.
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Kids and teenagers use lumber and tools to build forts, which become a permanent part of the playground.
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Every night there is a small bonfire.
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Recently they added a restaurant and community garden, though it's not shaped like a pirate ship
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I should be offended that Germany had a probe into my mind nine years ago, but alas, I am not. I mostly just wish I could go there.
