date box barges

Over the summer I saw some huge barges cruising down the wide canals of the Ruhr in Germany. 

I was stood on a bridge and it suddenly dawned on me that I used to make canal barges as a kid!

We made them from discarded date boxes!

The dates always seemed to hail from Morocco too!

Yes, it all came flooding back.We would get a small block of balsa and paint it like the bridge of a ship, glue it down on the base of the date box and away we went!

One date box gave you two barges!

Off we went to the nearest body of water - usually the bath - and cast our vessels into the deep blue sea.

I seem to recall doing this at school now I come to think of it. Did we put anything inside the box bases to make them water-tight? Dunno.

I can't recall if I put any toy cars in there too or maybe a few Airfix soldiers heading for shore leave!

Did you make date box barges readers?

Commercial Barge on the canal, Zum Yacht Hafen, 

Recklinghausen, Germany