The Waltzers Part 1

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I’d been looking forward to this day for weeks and finally my parents had relented under the sheer weight of nagging. They’d agreed to let me go to the funfair with my friend Tom without parental supervision. Not only that but they had extended my curfew to 10.45 and they weren’t even going to pick me up; they said I could walk home. I couldn’t remember being this excited, Christmas, birthdays and cup finals paled into insignificance.

I’d been to the fair during the daytime, of course I had, and even early evening but this was going to be the first time I’d sampled its delights under the cover of darkness. On quiet summer nights I could hear the sounds of the fair drift on the light breeze in through my bedroom window and I had lain awake at night dreaming of joining in the fun. The boys in school told stories of the fair that became folklore, there were the guys who span the Waltzers, trying to impress the girls and make the boys puke. Then there were gangs who were looking for trouble, looking for to make Friday night fight night. Of course there were the promiscuous holiday camp girls looking for local boys to have their holiday romances with. And we all knew of the legendary ‘lover’s lane’ the lane round the back of the discos where newly acquainted lovebirds consummated their passions in a variety of ways. There were even rumours of ladies of the night, willing to sell their bodies to the highest bidders.

The place lived up to expectations, it  tingled with danger, crackled with sexuality. The first thing I noticed was the noise, Radio Barry Island coming over the speakers playing last year’s tunes, while the penny arcades had machines screaming their melodies into the night sky. Screams and shouts came from the rides and there was laughter in the air.  The cacophony seemed a few decibels higher than the daytime and meant Tom and I had to shout to make ourselves heard. Each ride shone through the darkness, the bright neon lights bringing and exotic colour. We breathed in the smell of hot dogs, onion, burgers, donuts and candyfloss. Gangs of boys milled around looking for sex or scraps, looking like they wanted to be Danny and Kinickie from Grease. And then there were the girls, girls everywhere, all shapes, all sizes, big ones, small ones, ones as big as your head.  Tom and I were like well-behaved kids in a toyshop, we wanted to try everything but we knew we could look but not touch. We zig-zagged around the park, our attention grabbed by tight jeans here or a short skirt there.

We had a go on the Galaxy and the Log Flume and then headed for the Waltzers; this was THE ride that everyone wanted to go on. As we queued, we watched the operators spin the cars, they oozed cool; the way they effortlessly glided over the spinning ride, defying dizziness and gravity - they were everything two nerdy 14 year olds boys were not. Tom looked nervous, I guess I did too, the guys working on the ride really did seem to be doing a job on the cars with boys in, testing their endurance to the limit. Would we survive the spinning? Would they make us look like fools in front of all these lovely girls?

‘Go to that one.’ The man who took our tickets said. We looked at the car and looked at each other. There were two girls already occupying the seat. We were going to have to squeeze in next to them. Tom went left, I went right. The girls smiled at us and introduced themselves, Donna and Maria, Maria was poured into a pair of jeans that were full to over flowing. We shyly said hello back and mumbled our names, I could feel myself blushing as my leg brushed Maria’s hefty thigh.

‘Because we’re solid, solid as a rock,’ Ashford and Simpson played over the speakers as we sat nervously waiting for the ride to start. Then everything was a blur as we began to spin, faster and faster, I was feeling sick even before the guy came to give our car some extra welly. You could see from the look in his eyes he was going to try to show us up in front of out new friends. He grabbed the seat and gave it a spin, I remember seeing flashes of multi-coloured neon and hearing faraway screams and feeling a warm hand taking mine. Could it be? Could this wonderful girl really be interested in me?

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