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Men's room of Bayers Tavern. Really a friendly place. I hadn't been there 15 minutes when a regular bought me a beer. I talked to the owner, who agreed with me that there is no economic recovery. Her business is down, "Many of my customers are now on some kind of public assistance." And her daughter, just out of college, is only making $9 an hour.

I met a woman had come to this country from Ireland in 1979. Nearly every year, she goes back and stays for a couple of weeks. Her husband doesn't always accompany her, and when he goes, usually stays for only a week.

I met a Steven, 60 years old, who was getting quite giddy over the prospect of hooking up and getting busy with some 24-year-old. While shopping for some comestics for his daughter, he had met this saleswoman, "She had on like a netting top, and she had these boobs, man, so I said, 'I would love to nestle my dick in between those.'"

"No, you did not say that!"

"You don't know me!" And he was quite vehement about it. He showed me a finger nail that had been polished by the saleswoman, to prove that this young lady was into him.

Steven also got a little too excited when he found out I was Vietnamese. He asked, "Are you Japanese?"

"No, Vietnamese."

It took him a moment to digest this, but then he said, "What part of Vietnam are you from? My brother was over there and got hit by shrapnels, and he's hurting to this day!"

I also talked briefly to the bartender. A young woman from Medford Township, she had only been in Gloucester a year. Both places are 97% white. By comparison, Camden, right next to Gloucester, is 48% black and 47% Hispanic. The bartender had never been to Camden, "I don't have any reason to go there."



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