My Thanks to Robert Nix and Billy Gilmore, who wrote this song and to Billy Joe Royal who recorded it and made it a hit in 1969.
Cherry Hill Park
(R. Nix/B. Gilmore)
Mary Hill used to hang out in Cherry Hill Park
The games she played lasted all day till way after dark
All the girls they criticized her
But all the guys just idolized her
'Cause Mary Hill was such a thrill after dark
In Cherry Hill Park
CHORUS:
Mary Hill sure was fun down in Cherry Hill Park
Playing games with everyone till way after dark
In Cherry Hill Park, Cherry Hill Park
All the girls in the town where I grew up criticized Mary Hill and called her a slut for the way she acted when she was hanging out at Cherry Hill Park and the games she played 'til way after dark. If they had to be honest, all the guys, or most of them, probably would have grudgingly agreed about her sluttiness. Even so, all of them I ever heard talk about her actually idolized her for it, because she was such a thrill to us, especially after dark.
She was probably more of a thrill to me than any of the other guys around our small town. I knew Mary Hill ever since she was a very young girl, because her family and mine were next-door neighbors, and we went to school together, all the way from Kindergarten through high school, graduating a few months after our eighteenth birthdays. It happened she was exactly one day older than I and, with our families living so close together and being such good friends, we always celebrated our birthdays together.
Mary Hill and I had so much fun together so many nights in Cherry Hill Park that the individual times tend to run together in my mind, but one afternoon and night do stand out. It was the last time we got together there, and it was certainly one of the best times, but still just one of many. Other guys can probably say the same thing, but I always thought of myself as something special to Mary Hill, and I will always remember this one time, in particular, the last time we played games 'til way after dark in Cherry Hill Park.
It was late afternoon of a hot day in late August, and I went to the park hoping to find Mary Hill. As usual, the first place I went was the merry-go-round that she really loved riding on. In the daytime, that is. At night was another matter entirely. She was there, just where I expected to find her, and she was wearing a white t-shirt and a blue mini-skirt and sneakers, and she had an old leather purse sitting between her feet.
Like I said, we were really old friends, so I greeted her. "Hi, Mary," I said. I was never much good at small talk, but Mary Hill didn't care about that, which was another thing I liked about her.
"Hi, George," she answered me, sticking out her chest to give me a good look at her breasts.
I got a really good look, because, like I said, it was a hot day, and Mary Hill was sweating, and the t-shirt was skin-tight. She wasn't wearing a bra – she never did - and the thin fabric was plastered against her, so tightly I could see her boobies right through it. They were big and succulent, and were topped by dark brown nipples. She had dark brown hair too, and blue eyes and really fair skin. I think she was mostly of Irish descent, but I never worried about that. To me and the other guys, she was a hotsy, but really sweet.
"Wanna ride with me?" she asked, but she didn't wait for an answer.
The merry-go-round was slowing down, and she jumped off, holding onto one of the vertical rails. This wasn't a carousel like you see in amusement parks, with music and horses and lions and stuff like that. It was made of a fifteen foot tall steel post that was imbedded in the ground and had a steel ring that turned in circles around the top of the post. Radiating out from that center ring, like spokes on a wagon wheel, were steel supports, and there was a big steel ring connected to the ends of all the supports. Hanging down from where the outside ring was fastened were rails, and Mary Hill was hanging onto one of them.
The bottom ends of those rails were bolted to the ends of wooden planks, with each rail fastened to two adjacent planks. There was no power source; the merry-go-round was started by people running alongside it and pushing on the rails and, when it was going fast enough, jumping onto a plank to ride until it slowed down, followed by jumping off and pushing and riding again. It was very low tech and cost nothing to operate, except occasional greasing and, once in a while, some other maintenance.
Anyhow, Mary Hill started running beside the merry-go-round, and I grabbed the next rail after the one she had, and ran and pushed right behind her. When it was going fast enough, we jumped on, and stood on the planks holding onto the rails. I was standing upright, but Mary Hill was bending way over, and her mini-skirt was riding high up over her hips. She was wearing skimpy white panties under the skirt, not much more than a thong, and they were wet with her sweat and were plastered against her body. I had a good view of her ass cheeks and I could even see her cute little brown rosebud, because the material of her panties was thin and they were pressed tightly against her. All us guys agreed, in the daytime, Mary Hill was a teaser, but neither I nor any of the others objected because, after it got to be dark, she was such a pleaser.
After a couple of short rides like that, two more guys, Pete and Andy showed up, and they got eager eyes watching Mary go round, just as I had. We all knew each other. I had even played games with Mary Hill and Pete before, but not with Andy, and we all said hello. They joined us on the merry-go-round, and got the same view of her ass through the wet panties as I had been getting. After a couple dozen more rides, we could all see night was getting closer; the sun had gone down, and the street lights had come on.
"Do you think it's dark enough yet?" she asked.
We knew what she meant, and all the guys were in agreement and said it was dark enough to start playing the games we all loved.
"I think you're right. Okay, follow me. George, you and Pete know the place." She picked up her purse and started walking to the spot where we all wanted to go.
Having been there before, neither Pete nor I would ever forget, but we let her lead the way. We followed Mary Hill to a thick growth of bushes, turned sideways to go between two of the biggest, turned left and right again, and ended up at a nice mossy area in the middle of the thicket. The circular clearing was about eight feet across, and there was still light enough overhead for us to see what we were doing, but the bushes were so thick we couldn't see out, and nobody could see us. This was the place where Mary Hill liked to play games 'til 'way after dark, and she stopped and smiled at all of us as we clustered around her.
"You know what I want first," she said. I want George to eat my pussy."