RUDIMENTS, pt. 380
(avenel at the drive-in)
Life lets so much get away.
It could otherwise be kind
of peaceful, except those
who go around wrecking
everything spend their capital,
in the hopes of making more,
money, based on the idea that
most slugs (people) WON'T
remember anything in a short
amount of time. So, no matter.
Hey; got news for you, doughheads.
Good luck with your thievery.
-
Right there, at the tracks, next
to what was Dooley's, was a
restaurant kind of banquet and
dance hall called The Log Cabin.
As far as as Dooley's was 'from'
the street, this was right there
almost hugging the street; at the
tracks, as I said, same side now
as where the library is. It burned
one day, about maybe 1958 or 9,
right to the ground. No one ever
said a word about it again, and
I've never heard it mentioned.
I think, later, it was ABD Electric,
for years, in a new building. I
always figured whoever that
was was a good example of
the Woodbridge School District
- didn't even know his alphabet
straightly.
-
Cooler than that, across the street
there (what we call St. George Ave.,
or Amboy Ave; it's all kind of
mixed up) was Woodbridge Ford,
and over from that, where Shop-Rite
and all that crud around it is now,
was the Woodbridge Drive-In. I
admit, I never much cared about
the drive-in; that stuff was always
too much imported-California type
crap for me. I saw a few movies
there - my parents would stuff
us in the car, my sister and myself,
and take us there. With a small
playground and snack bar area
way up front, right almost
underneath the screen, it was
fun, while it was still light out
and before the movie got going.
I guess they did that as it got dark,
I don't remember the incidentals.
For the films and all, I never cared,
and I think I mostly just fell asleep
after a while. I never liked the whole
scene - each car getting connected
by a wire/cord to the speaker hanging
in at the window. The voices got
all too close-in for my taste, and
all I remember on the screens are the
big heads, big, talky heads, of all
these stupid movie people from what
is, essentially now, the stone ages.
(But no dinosaurs. Ha. [see previous
chapter]. Endlessly talking, having
drama, or - even worse - movie
kissing. There's nothing worse than
movie kissing. All those lunkhead
guys and ladies pretending at nothing.
I never understood actors and acting
anyway - it was so vacant, and if
those people ever really thought for
a minute that nobody saw through
all their fakery, well, I wonder...
How can anyone live an honest
live and be an actor. Almost as bad
as politics. (I love it when they then
deny being politicians. I had one of
them recently).
-
Next to the movies, as I said, at
the tracks, was Woodbridge Ford.
They had all the new ones, year
after year 1956, 1957, etc. It was
always great fun to browse cars.
My friend's father too had a
Studebaker dealership, down a
little ways, across from Stewart's.
It went out of business about
1959, when Studebaker bit it, but
it too was cool - and they had
far stranger-looking cars than
ever did Ford. The thing about
Woodbridge Ford, and I 'fess up,
was that they had, firstly, a
fine-gravel drive, nothing paved,
and their overhead illumination
consister of strings of wires with
nothing hanging on them except
like 1000 clear little rounded
lightbulbs. Bigger than, say,
Christmas-light size but still
smaller than the kind you used
indoors. Bad idea, Mr. Ford guy.
The combination was killer for
me and my friends. I swear,
(secondly) on a day of outrage,
(evening or after hours or
off-days), we'd probably take
20 or 30 bulbs out easily, with
the little pebbles. Fortunate for
that, because probably any
larger stones than these
pebbles would have also
dented the cars as they (the
pebbles) fell. We never got
nabbed, and eventually it just
got boring; but in case we got
caught we were gong to blame
the movies. 'Oh, this; we learned
it over there, from one of the
movies we saw.' Inflatable
Avenel bullshit is still bullshit,
I suppose, but it floats.
-
There was almost a bicycle
highway from my house, across
Avenel Street, down Park Ave.,
and across into the rear of Avenel
Park, which back then wss mostly
just snake woods, fens and
swamp-water areas. I can't recall
if there were rows of high-tension
lines there, as there are now, but
I guess there were. But there
were NOT the 5,000 apartments
and stuff there now - people in
robes and saris taking chances
on the New World, and rubbing
elbows with the flawless Mexican
tree-cutters and landscapers who
also seem to live everywhere. Much
is so different, and certainly 'Nature'
has taken a dive. It seems now that
the more noise is made about it,
the less sincere to reality and the
awareness of how deeply it's all
mucked up; and the same people
proclaiming Goodness are the
ones paving and cutting, slicing
and dicing, and building. It seems
like there's a new lunkhead born
every minute. I wish they'd all
been born at once, then we could
have done a Herod on them and
taken them all out at once.
-
The drive-in, the two dealerships,
the Log Cabin, and Dooley's too,
they're all gone now. All. The only
thing that replaces this good stuff
is the new, thin membrane of
commerce and sales and dollars
that's been stretched over everything
like a lamb-skin condom. Heck, when
we were kids we never spent but
maybe a quarter. We drank out of
people's hoses when we were
thirsty; never much cared about
the indoors or electricity and
things, or TV and watching
addictions to phones and stories
and shows. From what I can see,
guess I'm sure what was better,
but I'm not so sure today's
parents would agree with me.
Leastways we didn't have
e-phones as kids, where
we could huddle over lined
up snippets of porno-girls,
stupid messages, and distant
ideas about nothing. Hell no,
we just broke lightbulbs.
-
Have you ever thought about all
those differences. Picture the guy
at the Ford dealership, gettng
to work one morning, seeing
35 broken lightbulbs splashed
all over his new cars, and finding
a stupid-ass kid's phone there,
on the gravel. I ask you, your
honor, is this boy guilty or is
this, perhaps, just circumstantial
evidence of today's world?
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