Freddogg Off The Chain

I once idled at a traffic light in Camden New Jersey in a red 1965 Oldsmobile F85 Cutless 442-the tachometer at 300- it was about 1967 and I was on a date with my emerging wife heading home from Philly via scenic Jersey Route 130.
A large black man emerged for a corner bar and our eyes met. It was at that moment he decided to kill me-he reached for the door- I can only suppose by dragging me from the car and choking me like a chicken. I popped the clutch and was off like a dirty shirt.
Camden remains a bona-fide war zone beyond comprehension and I don’t care how many aquariums they build, in fact, inside a aquarium tank with sharks and sword fish may be the safest place, certainly safer than the streets.
Yesterday July 4 was celebrated at the Branch Village Public Housing complex by someone shooting a 12 year old boy multiple times in the chest as he sat in a parked car. Police said they are not sure if the boy was the intended target but I think the phrase “multiple times” cinches that he was the intended. That is so unbelievably gross, sad and disgusting.
In Philly five people wee murdered including a 77 year old man who I guess just had to go.
It’s nice to know that we live in a country where you can’t walk the streets at night or daytime without being armed and if you are armed better to shoot first than to be dead.
The good news is there are no tourists in these neighborhoods unless someone gets lost. I am going to wade into the North Philly fray sometime soon to catch digital scenes of the row houses of my early childhood. The good news is that my Nikon takes great photos from a moving Toyota. Jesus remember when the Japenese were the enemy?

Freddogg