I Don't Wanna Grow Up

This past Thursday's episode of Community involved two of the main characters, Troy and Abed, building a blanket fort in Abed's dorm room that eventually spread out into the hallway and became a dorm wide fort. For those that don't watch the show it should be noted that it often deals with absurd situations and Troy and Abed are both characterized by a case of arrested development. They even questioned the possibility of being too old for what they were doing before continuing on. But all I could think about the whole time was how much fun it looked. The building of and spending time in blanket forts were two of my favorite past times as a child and on rainy days or need to hide days the urge to build one still exists very high on my Ways To Deal With This list.

My childhood bedroom was very small and building the fort was very easy.  It usually only took two blankets stretched from the bed to the dresser to the hutch to the other bed for the structure to be complete and then I had hours to enjoy the illusion that I was somewhere else for awhile.  That somewhere had warm air, lighting that looked dark and mysterious from being filtered through the blankets and even snacks if my mother was in a baking mood. It was the perfect hideaway and every one I built was different but still became the best place to be in the universe. 

I guess it's a childhood activity because adults aren't supposed to be able to hide so easily or because we grow too big for them though at 5'0" that's not too much of a problem for me. The hiding part is harder to excuse away and one of the short stories in my abandoned until I can figure out how to fix it holder is about a woman who spends time hiding in the blanket fort she and her boyfriend had built for his niece and nephew after they've gone home. Below is a quick excerpt from it:

Stuck firmly in that phase where her wishes were more about still being a kid instead of having one of her own, building the fort had left her with a relaxed but accomplished feeling she wasn’t ready to let go of.  Taking it down would remind her too much of the dishes she knew he hadn’t done yet and the work they both had in the morning.  The complaints about their living room being too small already and too full of her stuff and abandoned projects started as soon as the kids left but he’d stopped pushing the point and disappeared into the back of the apartment.Left alone with this perfect kingdom made of pillows, blankets and the edges of their shabby furniture she crawled back inside. Each blanket had a different pattern and as the sun filtered through each it created a vast array of shadows that played across the floor and her skin.

It was partially inspired by this photo and the Karen O song "Hideaway" from the Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack. 



There are books published on treehouses made by and for adult. If treehouses can get the For Grownups stamp of approval I say it's time to claim blanket forts as something not just for the 10 and under crowd. It might be harder to make them architectural wonders but I think everyone needs to reminded that sometimes it just takes that mess of blankets and pillows on your bed to change the way the world looks for an afternoon.