Sherwood Forest

Fireworks

Sherwood Forest is the part of Springfield where they put the fireworks tents in the summer. I worked for one once, for a day. My friend's parents owned it, and they needed someone to dress like Superman and wave a flag, to bring in customers. How could I turn down something like that?

There were no phone booths in our part of town, so I used a gas station bathroom to change. I stepped out as superman and said "Ta-da!" to the small group of old men hanging out there.

They were not as impressed as I felt they should be.

I would meet Shamen at one of these tents the summer before going into high school. Dee was dating a girl that worked there, and Shamen was her best friend.

Shamen was a pretty girl, blond and curvy, about my height. Country girl. She was 16, and drove a Mustang.

Somehow we hit it off, and I wrangled her into my first date. We decided to spend the day at the library, to show how cool I was.

When she dropped me off at my trailer she gave me my first kiss. She was sitting inside the car, I was standing outside the rolled down window. We were saying goodbye when she smiled and whispered "Come here," and pulled me to her. She had to kiss me, because I never would have had any courage to kiss her. I did somehow get the courage to touch her boobs while we were kissing.

As she drove away I saw everyone in my neighborhood had been watching us.

That was a good moment to be alive.

When I look back on my life I really don't understand about half the stuff that I did, and half the choices that I made. For some reason I never called Shamen for a second date. Probably out of fear, but I should have got over it and manned up and called her.

Shamen was sweet.

I found her phone number in a book a couple of years later, and finally called her like I should have. She said she was married, and had a kid.

I told her it was good talking to her, and wished her well.