A Little Girl's "Secret Garden" in Camden, NJ

[xrayzebra]

http://www.xrayzebra.com/images/camden1.jpg

http://www.xrayzebra.com/images/camden2.jpg

http://www.xrayzebra.com/images/camden3.jpg

[xrayzebra]

I didn't want to put this one together with the other three, but this is another Camden photo...

http://www.xrayzebra.com/images/camden4.jpg

[Umberto]

Those are great.
What a fun little place.

[beergoddess]

ughhh camden. the pride of our great state. so sad to see the way these kids have to live. but... like i say "cant feed 'em? dont breed 'em." lets just hope the lil owner of this garden makes it through her adolesence without being the victim of camdens legendarily high murder rate. too goddamn sad, the decay of modern civilization. :ssad:

[xrayzebra]

Yeah... that's kinda the point. I spend a lot of time walking through houses and yards in neighborhoods like this. It is always pulls at my heart a little to see stuff like this, where there is such a meeting of the love and tenderness of a mother and child, the trappings of the innocence and fantasy of childhod, and the brute ugliness of poverty and urban reality.

I'm there to look at the way the bricks and mortar are being managed, but I see the way people live. This was a perfect little girl's fantasy play house in the back yard. The lady of the house was very sweet, and the inside of the house was clean and bright, but this is what you see all around you when you're there, in every direction.

I was all over the crummier parts of Camden that day, and it just drained the life out of me to be there. The scope of the squalor in that city is immense. It believe it surpasses DC, and many of the other hell hole cities I've worked in.

[Rozz]

That is soo sweet. Very powerfull as well. That little girl has no idea how it is to have a huge front\back yard in the country-like areas around her. It's so sweet to see the innocence in poverty.

[Bogflogger]

What a special place!

I like it. :ssmile:

:jdsmokin:

[Tiffers]

The pictures play sounds in my mind, the gentle little humming of a young girl as she plays with her dolls. Pouring out imaginary cups of tea for them and chattering to them all.

I dont know the area these pictures are taken but they are very evocative of poor urban life. Its almost like the snapshots we can see at times as we pass slowly through a city in a train, glancing out of the window into private gardens.

Tiffers

[MarieLaveau]

Very poignant. Makes me want to find the little girl and hug her, whoever she is.

[Umberto]

Yes poignant.

Good word, poignant.

[MarieLaveau]

Yes poignant.

Good word, poignant.

Not bad for a hick bitch, huh? :madaddy:

[Umberto]

Somewhere a long time ago I read a Jackson Browne interview, he said something like, to paraphrase,
"When youre touring with the band and you've been on the bus a couple of weeks and its late at night on the highway and there's cocaine, things can get kinda.....poignant."

[xrayzebra]

The yard with the swing set was a weird one. Again, a pristine, new swingset, in a very decayed neighborhood. The parents apparently trying to carve out a safe, decent place for the kids to play among the trash and chaos.

The weird thing was the astroturf yard. They laid out a huge piece of astroturf from the back porch as far as it would go, and then put the swingset at the far end to give 'em some room to romp.

I didn't include the other view of this yard.... it was right up against a concrete block building that had an old, totally warped fire escape hanging over the roof above the yard behind the swing set.

http://www.xrayzebra.com/images/fireescape.jpg

[Umberto]

Those buildings are amazing.
Great shots.

[Umberto]

Not bad for a hick bitch, huh? :madaddy:

A hick bitch?
YEEE HAAA

more a voodoo princess I think.

I saw this TV dating "reality" show, this guy is working on this girl for another date, she is giving him a hard time, she says "I can be a real bitch!"
He came right back with "I love a bitch!!!"

:umberto:

[Umberto]

I bet you wish I'd stay on topic.

[MJ]

Those pics say lots....................I like it.

[Umberto]

When youre little you don't notice if youre living lowrent.
I grew up in a funky old neighborhood, but it was rich with adventure.
I'd visit friends in nicer neighborhoods, but it never occurred to me "oh they live in a nice neighborhood, I live in a crummy one."

That little kitchen spot would have been paradise for me & Nelda Kay.
I was 5 and she was 4. She liked to play house, I liked to play Superman, so we played Mr & Mrs Superman. She would stay home and cook things while i was out fighting crime. Then I'd come home for dinner.

[Deadeye's Guest]

I was 5 and she was 4. She liked to play house, I liked to play Superman, so we played Mr & Mrs Superman. She would stay home and cook things while i was out fighting crime. Then I'd come home for dinner.

:yesman: :banhammer :xxrotflma

(posted by xrz while testing the system)

[laf&grin]

Thank you Zebra. These pictures give me reason to reflect upon the gifts we bring our children.
Someone is doing there best to invest in this child or children, but with decay lurking from every angle the possibilities seem hopeless. Best wishes to the Dora Explorer Garden Party.