Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	Why do people build sand castles?

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T O P I C R E V I E W
lori I have decided to write my MA project on this subject - deadline Jan 02. Any comments, references, suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I am completely open as to where this essay will lead me! Ta very much x
AJR I used to build sand-castles for various reasons.
1. Something to pass the time whilst on the beach.
2. A barrier to keep the incoming tide at bay for as long as possible.
3. Something to jump on at the end of the day.
4. As a challenge.
Gordon For fun! What else can you do with all that sand when your parents won't let you throw it about on a crowded beach?
Merlin Was the same with me. A fifth reason may have been to impress my younger brother and the girls on the beach (who usually were not much interested in castles ...).
Erik Schmidt Yeah, building sand castles on the beach was a fun, creative thing to do when swimming got to be a bore
Personally I remember also building sand sculptures of fish, crocodiles, turtles etc.
One might also observe that many of the structures built don't at all resemble castles, but are none the less labled so. What else would one call a mound of sand, which just happens to be surrounded by a depression from which the sand in the mound came?
This brings me to a bit of psychology. Why sand castles, and not sand houses, fish, birds and so on?
I think the answer lies in popular culture. The beach has become synonymous with sand castles. Pick up any childrens book with a beach theme and you will find the characters building sand castles, rarely anything else. The sand castle has been wired into our brain from an early age, it is part of popular culture, and we obey.
Akin to the very concept which makes children opt for Coka Cola and McDonalds, saturation advertising!
Alternatively, it could just be that an upturned bucketful of sand looks like nothing but a castle's tower.
Erik
AJR Quite often the "sandcastle" is simply a motte, a rounded pile of sand. Occasionally tunnels are bored through the mound. Personally, I found the most fun in digging holes, inserting ferns (or similar) into the side of the hole near the surface, and sprinkling sand on top to camouflage the hole. The fun was seeing how many "traps" had been "found" the next day.