Madison Street Construction Company

We loved boxes…cardboard boxes. Cranes Furniture store was just across the street from the Harlan Hotel. The back door faced the alley and then the lumberyard. They had a place outside the back door where they put the large boxes that the refrigerators and other large appliances came in. We made it a habit to check on that spot regularly. We were soon on to the appliance delivery schedule from the factory and we knew when a new supply of boxes would be available.

We could go up to Cranes and select our boxes and drag them home right down the middle of the street. The cardboard rubbing the concrete made a loud roar as we drug it along. We would sometimes drag two or three boxes home in one day. My Dad didn’t like it because they cluttered up the yard and were hard to get rid of. Besides that, if you left them in one spot too long it killed the grass.

We constructed all sorts of things using those boxes. We made houses and battleships, forts and towers, and much more. We would play with them for days before we grew tired and went on to something else.

We built a tower in the far southeast corner of the yard using wood stored in the shed and cardboard from boxes. We went as far as putting the posts in the ground to make it sturdy. When Dad saw he was both angry that we had used his wood and tools, and amazed that we could build such a structure. He asked a lot of questions about how we had done it. I think he was kind of proud of me this time.

He let us keep it for a couple weeks and then with his supervision we burned it to the ground. It was a spectacular fire. The flames leaped at the electrical and phone wires that were high up above it. For a brief moment we thought we might have to put it out but the flames settled down some and we let it burn.

We used boxes to construct elaborate castles, complete with a drawbridge and other amenities. They would last two or three days and then we would grow tired of it, or it would rain and the boxes would get soft and collapse. When they were of no use to us anymore we would pull them to the trash barrel and they would become history.

We used a series of boxes to create a maze once. I guess we were way ahead of our time since they are so popular now. At Halloween we made a spook house and charged kids a dime to go through. That didn’t work to well because we scared ourselves so much that we didn’t want to do it.

Even today, I find myself admiring a good piece of cardboard or a nice box. I keep a few pieces around just in case I might need one. You never know when one might be useful. I kept one large box from our siding and window project all summer long. I finally put it in the dog kennel in November to protect Abby from the wind.