The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Whltby Free Press, Wecinesday, October 9, 1 996 , Page 7 là _pw a% m-, J a t: t] d s' T fi b il I first find the righit site.,Prom the flrst, this was easy. fIe fort must be sheltered from prYing eyes (I hesitate to ask why), and Rabbit Fou-Fou's Forest is the only Wooded area not off limnits. There are deeper woods 300 mnetres away on the far side of the street in a cedar woods where teenagers and mysticai fainies fr*oue in the night- and build campflres and chop down trees and throw beer botties into the bushes. This area is off limits. Second, gather the, building material. Sure, proper engineering would be te drawup detailed plans, and then flnd the materials you need. Anyone who tells you this has neyer built a fort. The way you build a fort is you- find the materials, which is9 anything flot nailed down and a few things that are, along With tree branches and boughs flot tough enough te defend themselves. Tird, when you have your stuif together, you engineer a fort with it. This is the -part where girls learn what stands up by itself, what needs te be propped up, and what needs te be bound or nailed inte place. The learning experience here likely involves more creativity than any sehool would demand. The lessons are brutal: if you did it wrong, it fails over. Fourth, you finish the interior te your liking. My son Fon, when he was 13, got this far with several friends .nd wallpapered their three-room, split-level fort with he centrespreacjs from Playboy magazines. Mothers vere kept out by the detailed description of the spiders jiat lurked inside. Girls undoubtedly will do this ifferently than guys would. We have yet te flnd out,' noe no fort has survived yet te completion of this stage. 'he reason for that is,' Forts Fifthi, defend your territory. Actually, this is imPortant rom -stage one. Sites can (and have been) desecrated, uilding materials co-opted for oenPeting forts, and îvading armies (usually Of lO-year-old boys) -wýiIl escend upon an unoccupied fort and level it in minutes. 'or this reason, after several difficult experiences, the Iris are building their latest in an area so secluded that Done will ever find it. I think that-includes parents. Lgn co thg i 1ast The benefits of fort-building extend beyond the mere nstruction. Participants also Iearn practical lessons in mmuittee works, delegation of duties, leadership and e political problems involved with rival groups- and Lernal friction. Itfs a hoot te watch. Almost as mueh fun- turning 40. .1 I I AERIL VIEW 0F ONTARIO LADIES' COLLIEGE,,12 cr.Tefr uln of -th-- Euz,&L I u, r in =photo was sold as a post car. ~h armbuidig o th e College were built in 1908 and demolished in 1958. Ontario Ladies' College was renazned Trafalgar Castle School in 1979. It was built as ,a residenoe by Sheriff Nelson G. Reynolds in 1859-62. hh "bvpot 10 YEARS -AGO 'fromn the Wednesday, October 8, 1986 edition of the WITBY FREE PRESS * A study recomxnends expanding Whitby Transit from four to, six buses. * The Hollywood movie RIolling Vengenoe" la filming a truckIng scene on Lake Ridge Road between Whitby and Ajax. * Mayor Bob Attersley prediets building in Whitby will top $100 million in 1986. * Councillor Gerry Emm wants to control the number of group homes being opened in downtown Whitby. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, October 5, 1961 edition of the WITBY WEEIKLyr NEWS * Whitby Police Departynent tried out a radar speed trap for the firet time. * The Mayor of Whitby is paid $3,000 a year. (Jouncil wants te increase it te *$4,000. * Night school classes in Sewing, Commercial Work and OU1 Painting are offered at Henry Street High School. * Blair Park Plaza on Lupin Drive will have its official opening on Oct. 12 and 13. 100 YEARS AGO from the Frday, October 9, 1896 edition of the WHITY CHRONICLE * The Brooklin Public School has organized a literary society. * S.W. Lowell ia operating bis custor ider mill on a daily. basis during the harvest M 1r. Harknesa hipped a carload of good horsesfrm Myrtle Station te England. < f ~. ~ __ t ' h. ~, ~-'$ a. In the autumn, a young girl's; fancy turns to forts. Not just any old chesterfieldusionnthe-basement type oflbort That's good enough for young kids, or rainy days, or entertaining Younger cousins and stuff like that. Real forts have to be built out of real luniber in real woods. Without parental help. For the past few weeks my daughter, Erin, now 11, has spent ail spare time after school and weekendsi down the street building forts in Rabbit Pou-Fou's Forest, fIat gils spend such Urne building forts may be, as far as I know, a new phenomenon. Mtaybe we could rush out. and ask our friendly 'neighbourhood anthropologist, whatever that is. My memory tells me that boys aged 10 to early teens build forts and then spend trne trying to get girls to enter them. But that may be the theme for a column two years hence. Girls' involvement in fort-building could simply be a manifestation of liberation. Maybe itfs a local thing. Maybe itfs the resuit of a vigorous, math-and-technooy oriented school system. (Go tell John Snobelen). The upshot is that Erin and a couple of her friends have built one, two, let's see three, maybe four forts ini the past few weeks. To see why it is so, please refer toô stage five below. From this experience, 1 have distilled the five steps -to fort construction. 1