Once upon a time about 1955 we were staying with Ma and Papa (Beulah and Shorty Stark) and got to climbing up into all the trees we could on their place (about 40 acres, but we stuck mostly with the yard and pens around the barn.  When I said "we" I should have included everyone around there about 1955.  My cousins, Allen Rightmeyer, Judy McCullough, my brothers Butch and Roger and Ken (a baby -2 at the time).  We were always outside playing one thing or another.
       
      One time we decided that Butch and Judy would get married.  Allen was the preacher (Later he did become a preacher), Butch the groom, Judy the Bride, I was the ring bearer and Roger the flower boy....not enough girls in the family yet.  Allen went to one end of the house in the driveway and we started the procession at the other end of the house in the drive.  (Prob 40-50ft.)  As we processed, Roger had picked some flowering weeds most likely with fairly long stems and was trailing them over his shoulder.  We probably forgot to close the gate good and one of the goats got out and was following Roger and eating the flowers in his bouquet.  The ring I bore for the ceremony was the metal ring off a one-pound coffee can.  A little big for the bride's finger (also too big for a bracelet).  It was the only thing that I could find that was round and metal.  I don't actually recall the actual ceremony but there was a kiss at the end, followed by Butch Spitting it back off.  Not too fond of girls yet.  I believe that there is a picture of the ceremony floating around in the family some where.  If you know of the location of the picture let me know, so I can contact whomever has it and try to get a digital scan of it for the family history.
     
     I was diverted from the original story of the tree houses.  Since we were climbing trees almost all the time, My dad and Judy's and Allen's Dads got together and purchased some 2x4's and other boards and found one of the big oak or black walnut trees in the front yard and started constructing a tree house for us to play in.  It was more like a platform than a house, but we thought it was a wondrous sight.  They made it about 8 feet square with a small railing around the outside perimeter.  They also nailed 2x4's' up the side of the tree as a ladder for access.  It caused as many fights as it did fun.  There were always pairs keeping others out.  Butch and Allen would keep Judy and Chuck out.  Butch and Judy would keep Chuck out.  Chuck couldn't keep anyone out and Roger couldn't get up the ladder, the 2x4's were too far apart for him to make it up.  
 
     
    Two years later, Ma and Papa sold the farm and moved into town.  About 1960, I was 11   and Butch was 12 1/2 and we found a Catalpa tree down by the barn and a bunch of lumber, 1x4, 2/4, 2x6, 2x12.  We also found Papa's nail can and proceeded to build our own platform tree house.  No, it wasn't level or square.  We hadn't had any geometry to make square or level any board in the whole thing.  We loved it, though.  We did make a door on it so we could keep Roger and Ken out.  We would close the door and sit on it so no one else could get in it.  No, I never sat on it to keep Butch out(more than once)because he would go back up to the house and do something else until I got tired of playing in it.  Then he would beat me up.  Roger couldn't keep him out because Butch was strong enough to lift Roger    up while he was sitting on the door.  (See Blowin off a little ?Steam? A ruby red gem if there ever was one)

     About 1963  we were getting too big for 3 people to get into the tree house so we looked for another site for our next construction project.  We found 4 small trees about 5" in diameter. The trees were more or less in a square layout about 6 feet apart.  We decided to tear down the old tree house and build a new one at the new site.  About half of the lumber we destroyed trying to take it loose from the original tree house.  We were not sure of how many nails it took to secure the wood pieces to each other so some of the boards were 25% steel.   We started about 8 feet above the ground.  We got the platform finished and got up in it and found it way too small for the three of us.  At that point we decided we would build another level about 5 feet above the first.  There was a big stack of lumber by the hog pen just laying there.  We gathered it up and built the second level.  There was still lumber left in the stack so we decided to make a level for each of us.  We probably built the only 3 story tree house in Weir, Kansas.  The next day, Papa came out to feed the hogs and saw the stack of lumber missing, he was not a happy camper.  "Where's the wood for my hog shed?"  "Did you kids take my lumber?"  We said yes we took it and showed him our project.  "It took me 6 months to gather up all that wood.  You three need to replace the wood. 

  He explained how we would replace it.  There was the city dump where people would pitch some wood from remodeling projects. there were also many "cave holes" along the country roads where people would put trash. (The cave holes were caused by sub-surface mining too close to the surface, where after time the ground would settle)  Where a fence line was involved, the gap below the fence where the hole developed was large enough for cattle to get out so trash, old fencing and fence posts, barrels, bed springs, appliances and other thing as well as wood was dropped off.  My brother Butch      knew how to drive (he was 15) a standard transmission and the enforcement of the driver's license laws were not looked on quite as closely as today, so we were tasked each morning to drive the roads and bring back lumber to replace the stack we had used up.  He knew we would have to replace the wood and not tear down the new tree house, as we would probably destroy most of the wood.  We spent most of that month running the roads each morning gathering up the would that was cast out by others.  We were also tasked to recover all the "shiny" barbwire that was cast out, also the hog wire we found.  We also brought back to sets of bedsprings and put those into two levels of the tree house.  It was terrific to take a quilt made from old blue jeans down to the tree house and cover the springs and grab a few zzzzz's in the gentle breeze that nearly always blowing through the tree house. 

     I went out to the site of the tree house the last time I went to see my Mom, she now owns my grandparent's house.  There was only about 2 boards still attached and dangling from one of the 4 trees.  One set of bed springs was about half there, the part above ground was rusty and rapidly deteriorating badly.  The other set was totally gone.  There is no evidence left that there was ever a tree house there if you didn't know it.

     To repeat again, I welcome any and all comments and if you would like to contribute a story for this blog, let me know and I can set you up as an author to post your own.  Thanks, Chuck.