A Private Party in Trenton

Trenton is the capitol of NJ and is also possibly the worst city in the US, a friend of mine recently moved there, he has a job rehousing refugees which he feels bad that he has to re-house them in Trenton because it's just not very nice. Previously I have only been thru the city, on the train or driving, the first time I was amazed by their giant city slogan that doesn't really enhance the what could otherwise constitute a nice view. There is just something about "TRENTON MAKE THE WORLD TAKE" that puts people off, I'm not sure why, surely this slogan was decided upon by a panel of intelligent minds at some point. It's not nearly as good as the currently NJ state slogan: Come See for Yourself, if that can't bring in the tourist I don't know what will.

Driving in downtown Trenton is relatively easy; no one actually wants to go there. There is no traffic and I was able to find my friends place without any problems. We walked down the road to to get some pizza and I managed to run into a man I used to work with about 10 years ago at another pizza place. He asked me if I remembered the drug addict we used to work with named "Heroin Bill", and of course I didn't although I prefer to use the name "Methadone Bill". After that run in we decided to get a drink at a place my friend described as the only nice bar in Trenton. Unfortunately when we tried to go in they wouldn't let us. A very happy insane man who was outside dancing alone informed us there was a private party going on inside and they wouldn't let him in so he was going to have his own private party outside. A bouncer opened the door to also tell us we were not allowed in just like the crazy guy. After a few more moments watching the crazy guys hip shaking moves we decided to leave.

We went on a nice walking tour of some abandon building scenery and then hit the arena where there was going to be some kind of Rodeo. The rodeo basically subjected me to one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever witnessed when a man was trampled, stomped and head butted by a pissed off bull for about 60 seconds. What was somewhat more disturbing were the people around us who insisted that the bull should be killed on the spot, geez it wasn't his idea to be ridden. Would I go again? Yes.

After several hours of rodeo excitement we left and were instantly approached by a man: "Excuse me! I just need to tell you something! My mom just died like 30 minutes ago!"

Moving on we went driving in search of an open shop, which took us around some finer parts of the city. I was informed as we passed several abandon factories that Trenton doesn't really make anything that the world takes anymore, which was just kind of sad considering just few years ago the city spent millions fixing that slogan sign.