The lost art of den building...

I was watching a young mother put out a shop-bought teepee tent for her daughter and it struck me, does anyone remember when we built a den out of anything that was left lying around? It was almost obligatory. Workmen would turn up in the morning to find the materials they left the night before had been cleverly assembled into a little shed. A bedsheet left on a washing line made just as a good a tent as any you could buy. We even made a den out of a elderberry tree once (it had a hollow space inside).

Can't remember the last time I saw a den built by kids. As you say, it's a shame.