Sherwood Forest

Candy.

When you grow up in trailer parks you move around a lot.
That's the idea behind a house on wheels. We lived in about a dozen towns before we made it to the Forest. We went as far away as Wichita, Kansas before coming back.

We moved to Sherwood Forest in the summer of 1980, just as I was going into the seventh grade. This was the year that Ronald Reagan was elected and John Lennon was shot, to put this into perspective.

The first friend I would make would be a girl named Candy. I have been in love three times in my life, and Candy was the first. She would prove to be a loyal and steady friend. I never would have made it through my teen years without her.

Candy was the one who would lead me to Christ, and lead me back again and again when I stayed away.

My sister met Candy first, and brought her to our trailer. I was sitting on our porch swing reading, and looked up and there she was. I was in love from the very start.

Candy had long blond hair parted down the middle, which has always been my type. She was a thin, fit farm girl. The kind of girl I think of as the girl next door, even though she lived on the other side of our park, next to the cliffs.

I have only one picture of Candy in my possession, taken for school around this time. In it she is kind of awkward and skinny and has braces. But that's not how I remember her.

In my memory she was as beautiful as an angel.

I have always been attracted to a woman's eyes when they smile. I believe when a woman smiles you can see their soul.

Candy had the most wonderful smile you could imagine.

Braces and all.