On Friday, on a short road trip, I drove through Freehold, NJ which is a nice small suburban town. There were at least 200 illegal immigrants lined up on the street looking for work. The housing boom is over and so they come to the streets of this small suburban town looking for whatever they can get...
On the way I drove up the turnpike and there were very few trucks. In years past, there were seemingly convoys of trucks on the turnpike at any given time. Wow! No traffic as I zoomed up at 70 mph which was the fastest I dare go knowing about the State Troopers pension for giving tickets.
Past the airport where usually you could see airplanes stacked up waiting to land, but this was not the case today. Not too many planes landing.
Then passing the ports and the refineries. The ports had no ships and large empty containers were stacked everywhere. The refineries did not seem to be working. No huge flame or smell coming from it.
Over the bridge I went and I looked down to see acres and acres of cars at a storage lot the size of at least 10 football fields. It looked like every spot was taken and it could not squeeze not one more car into it. I thought to myself of a story I read from the Great Depression of a famous singer who found work as a security guard guarding cars in a warehouse that were never delivered. I guess this time around there is no warehouse that can fit all these cars.
Finally, I approach the tolls to the Holland Tunnel. I look around me and I see yesteryears cars. I dont see anything new, just second-hand cars. There is a tap on my window as the street vendors try to sell me something.
Wait a second, I thought, Im lined up at the booths to get into the Holland Tunnel not at the Mexican border waiting to get to America. A man with a cane seems to go from car to car seemingly not caring about the danger this obviously presents.
A Port Authority cop sits parked in the distance oblivious to the street vendors and old guy with a cane. His job is to defend the tunnel just in case there is a Red Dawn style terrorist attack with his pistol versus protecting the old guy with a cane who is wallowing around in the lanes. Hopefully, this overweight man with a Glock will fare well against a small team of terrorists equipped with explosives and automatic weapons.
I go through the tunnels with just a 20 minute wait (in the past that was sometimes a 1-2 hour wait).
Then I head into the city, park my car and get out. In the distance there seems to be a new set of homeless. This new set wears better clothes and seems to speak more intelligently. In the past, the homeless seemed to be characters with obvious issues. This new set could probably work at Lehman or Bear Stearns I surmised. A better dressed set.
I had a few drinks at Ulysses. Where is the after-work crowd I thought? Where is everyone???
On the way I drove up the turnpike and there were very few trucks. In years past, there were seemingly convoys of trucks on the turnpike at any given time. Wow! No traffic as I zoomed up at 70 mph which was the fastest I dare go knowing about the State Troopers pension for giving tickets.
Past the airport where usually you could see airplanes stacked up waiting to land, but this was not the case today. Not too many planes landing.
Then passing the ports and the refineries. The ports had no ships and large empty containers were stacked everywhere. The refineries did not seem to be working. No huge flame or smell coming from it.
Over the bridge I went and I looked down to see acres and acres of cars at a storage lot the size of at least 10 football fields. It looked like every spot was taken and it could not squeeze not one more car into it. I thought to myself of a story I read from the Great Depression of a famous singer who found work as a security guard guarding cars in a warehouse that were never delivered. I guess this time around there is no warehouse that can fit all these cars.
Finally, I approach the tolls to the Holland Tunnel. I look around me and I see yesteryears cars. I dont see anything new, just second-hand cars. There is a tap on my window as the street vendors try to sell me something.
Wait a second, I thought, Im lined up at the booths to get into the Holland Tunnel not at the Mexican border waiting to get to America. A man with a cane seems to go from car to car seemingly not caring about the danger this obviously presents.
A Port Authority cop sits parked in the distance oblivious to the street vendors and old guy with a cane. His job is to defend the tunnel just in case there is a Red Dawn style terrorist attack with his pistol versus protecting the old guy with a cane who is wallowing around in the lanes. Hopefully, this overweight man with a Glock will fare well against a small team of terrorists equipped with explosives and automatic weapons.
I go through the tunnels with just a 20 minute wait (in the past that was sometimes a 1-2 hour wait).
Then I head into the city, park my car and get out. In the distance there seems to be a new set of homeless. This new set wears better clothes and seems to speak more intelligently. In the past, the homeless seemed to be characters with obvious issues. This new set could probably work at Lehman or Bear Stearns I surmised. A better dressed set.
I had a few drinks at Ulysses. Where is the after-work crowd I thought? Where is everyone???
