7/10/99 – ECenter

             It was 12:00 AM on Saturday night in the heart of Camden, New Jersey, when my three friends and I were getting ready to go home after the show.  Shortly after my friend Adam Petermann’s car wouldn’t start, we found a few kind individuals with cables who were willing to hook us up.  With a burst of temporary excitement, the car started.

            “Woohoo!  We’re on our way!”

            We had not driven ten feet before Adam’s vehicle puttered to a halt.  The car was jump-started a second and third time, only to be followed by more stalling.  Within minutes, our slight panic began.  On the way to the show, Adam had kept his nervousness in check by covering his flashing engine light with a postcard, thereby hiding the circumstances, but now we could not escape reality. 

            “What are we going to do?  We’re stranded in a ghetto, two hours away from home, with no ride.  It’s all over.” 

            “Calm down.  There has to be some way to get home,” said my friend Shaun.

            We proceeded to ask an overweight cop about our options, thinking that he could provide some assistance.  Naturally, he was no help whatsoever; he blew us off with a puzzled look followed by an arrogant laugh.  We now had no clue what to do, and it was starting to get late.  At this point, the only thing on my mind was my own warm, comfortable bed. 

            We sat around for an hour or so trying to figure out what to do.  None of us wanted to spend the night in Camden. . .  It’s definitely not the safest area around.  In addition, none of us had enough money to cover a cab and hotel fees, so we were stranded.  As two o’clock rolled around and the parking lot had completely cleared out, we truly began to worry.  There were no longer any cops around, and the area seemed to grow darker, more threatening.  Increased amounts of people began to roam the streets, and we soon felt like an open target for any of Camden’s night prowlers.

When we saw another cop stopped around the corner, we asked him if he could drive us to a safer place while we figured things out.  He complied with our request, and, for the first time in my life, I was glad to have seen a cop.  They took us in two cars and dropped us off at a police administration building, where we could sit on the benches outside.  

While the temperature dropped to what seemed like thirty degrees, we were visited by several Camden locals.  We talked to a stumbling, incoherent drunk who pissed his pants and found everything we said to be completely hilarious.  After another hour or so, we finally found a way to get out of Camden.  Adam’s dad eventually came to pick us up and bring us back to our homes in northern Jersey. 

 - J-man