The Annals Of Andrew, Part 1

Now for an Andrew memory...

Because Eric and Amy are both so much older than I am (Eric is 15 years older and Amy is 13 years older), I don't have many childhood memories of them. Eric left home before I even started school, and Amy in the next couple of years.

Andrew is only 8 years older than I am, so I have more memories of him from my childhood. He was always very interested in playing with Stephen and I, so most of my young memories of Andrew revolve around games. The games with Andrew always involved invention and imagination, so you can see why I was always so attracted to playing with him.

One of the things he taught me to do was to build a proper mud hut outside for plastic army men. I will now share this process with you:

Step 1: Wait until just before it's going to rain.

Step 2: Dig a hole in the dirt large enough for the army men to lay down in.

Step 3: Cover the hole with twigs.

Step 4: Cover the twigs with grass.

Step 5: Cover the grass with mud of the perfect wetness.

Step 6: Repeat steps 3-5 until you feel that your hut is impenetrable.

Step 7: Wait out the rain, and then go outside to see who's mud hut best withstood the storm.


Of course Andrew's hut always won. I used to think he won everything because he was the greatest in all the world, but now I realize he always won because he was a 16 year old competing against a 7 and 8 year old.