When acquaintances bought a brand new refrigerator, they gave us their old one -- which had a faulty light bulb. My father could fix anything, and a few days later we had a second perfectly-functioning refrigerator, set up in the utility room. Along with the discarded appliance, my father also brought home the refrigerator box from the acquaintances' brand-new one.

This was ages ago, late one October. A youth group Halloween party was coming up. Before any of my younger siblings laid eyes on the super-sized cardboard, I claimed it and designed a viking ship using three sides of the box: the bottom, folding up to two long flanks. On each side I sketched out ahigh prow at one end and a high stern at the other, in the shape of a dragon's head and curled tail, and set to work with a box cutter.

I kept only the middle third of the bottom section. That let me pull together both prows to tape together, pointing straight ahead. Then I pulled both sterns together, to tape into a point at the rear of the ship.

I soon realized my idea would turn rather unwieldy if I manned it alone, so I conscripted my 13-year-old sister as first mate. Of course, I -- at age 17 -- merited the rank of captain. Or sea-queen. Or whatever.

Weopened hatches in the bottom of the craft so we could stand amidships, one in front of the other. We hoisted our vessel to the proper height, then fastened shoulder harnesses to the thwarts so we could walk along with hands free to wield cardboard swords.

More cardboard went to make shields to sling over those thwarts, and a steering oar. I would have designed a mast and sail but time ran out. We dressed in make-shift viking costumes, loaded our huge prop into our big old International Travelall, and headed to the party.

The gym hosted a different game in each corner. Sis and I navigated to a contest where we tried, without using hands, to take bites out of apples hanging on strings. We stuck together on the Red Rover game, but had to abandon ship when it came to musical chairs and the pie-eating contest.

We embarked aboard ship again near the party's end. The last event was the awarding of prizes. My sister and I won first place in one of the costume categories!

In the days that followed, my three younger brothers commandeered the viking ship and sailed all around the yard. Then the autumn storms began. My stalwart sea-faring vessel met the same fate in the end as all refrigerator boxes do.

.

Prompt: cardboard

(Sorry if the description of construction is confusing. If I had more time, I'd make a sketch to go along with the account!)