Thursday, November 15, 2012

Latham Family Adventures: Back to the Keep!


     One autumn at the Latham place, we were visited by some enormous logging trucks.  The trucks went in and out of our woods, taking away some of the old trees. When the work was done, there were huge gaping tire tracks left in the soft ground. Eyesore, you ask? Not for the Little Lathams!

     It just so happened, that the children and I had been reading together a lot that fall.  Our favorite topic was the Middle Ages. We read every book on medieval knights, castles, and weapons that we could find. The Little Lathams took one look at the sloppy mess in our front yard and knew just what to do. They donned helmets and armor (as well as they could fashion from cardboard and old costumes) and headed outside.

     Once outside our door, the hands of time turned back to the year 1200 A.D.  The ground was lumpy and the trenches filled with water from a fall rain. A game began to take shape.  

     I saw the knights gather near the castle wall. Perhaps they were discussing battle strategies. The knights then ventured outside the castle walls to engage the approaching (and apparently invisible) enemy. The skirmish raged a short while, then things began to look bad for our noble warriors. The leader decided it was time for retreat. “Back to the Keep!” he would shout at the top of his lungs!

     At the sound of the cry, I turned to look out of the window and saw an amazing sight.  A mad scramble took place as the knights charged back toward the castle. They clambered up the mounds of earth and catapulted themselves over the moat. After much splashing and sloshing, our champions were all safe inside the keep. They would rest a bit, brag about their exploits and head out to fight again.

     The Little Latham knights were as brave as any we had read about in our books. And they never gave up defending the castle – for at least 50 battles they fought that day. Each one ended with the serious command “Back to the Keep!”…followed by cheers and laughter!

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