It was over twenty-one years ago that I worked at the amusement park, a park located about a mile from my house. Growing up I spend more time at Lagoon Amusement Park in the summers than I did at home. Okay, maybe not more hours, but many.
When I turned sixteen I first worked there and during high school and while earning my first college degree, my summers were spent working at Lagoon. This summer I returned and tonight I did my final performance of the season as The Rainmaker. I'll miss the people and I'll miss that car.
The show was a blast, at least, it was for me. It's a strange feeling having every set of eyes look at you as you travel through a sea of people. It got to the point where, when I was walking around while not in my costume, I felt like everyone should be looking at me. I also learned that when you wave at people--no matter how far away they are--if they're looking at you and you wave, they'll wave back.
We had some technical issues on my final day. I wondered if we'd do any shows, but as I pulled the car into its parking spot for the last time, we ended up doing most of our scheduled shows. I really had a good time having fun with the patrons and telling corny jokes. I got some people to hopefully come out of their shell a little bit and I saw a lot of smiles.
And for a summer job, that's hard to beat.
