Literally within minutes of leaving he knew it was a stupid idea. When he leaves, try to say it loud enough so the girls hear it. After he leaves he looks around and the girls have already left the store. He goes out to look for them: “I'm looking around for my girls, but obviously they're no longer there. There was no one there except a few young married women yelling at their kids about some candy they didn't get at the door of a powder blue Falcon station wagon. "(Updike) After this moment, even Sammy knew that the decision he had made was absurd. He thought he would become the girls' hero, but they didn't recognize what he had done in the slightest. His escapade was very short-lived. The lyrics he also states how he knew the 'world' would be harder from then on: "Looking back in the large windows, over the bags of peat and the aluminum garden furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep. His face was dark gray and his back was stiff, as if he had just been given an injection of iron, and my stomach felt tight as I heard how hard the world would be for me from now on. "(Updike) He knew he had made a mistake and there was really nothing he could do to make it right