Russells Pic II

              

                Russells sits on a slight hill on the Black Horse Pike in Hammonton NJ. The bar looks like an old farm house; complete with a porch and red shutters. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot, the headlights were cast upon a sign that read "If god is with us we can not fail." After a quick photo with the unusual sign, we opened the screen door, prepared for the worst, and hoped that what the sign read was true.
                It was a tiny little bar that smelled like stale beer and popcorn. There were two men that sat across the bar (one of the men looked like Harry from the movie "Harry and the Hendersons"), a bartender that probably weighed 95 pounds soaking wet, and a shady guy in his mid- twenties that was reading a book by the popcorn machine. The bartender approached us with a smile, which was a nice change from the scowls we were getting from the men across the bar. We ordered $2.75 miller lite bottles, and just as I suspected they were ice cold. I sat and smiled as I looked around the bar and admired the history it discretely displayed. Old Budweiser signs with pictures of Clydesdale horses hung on the wall, autographed sports jerseys were on display, and old personal photos in frames adorned the walls. It was an interesting combination of things to be hanging on the wall, but that's what made me smile. It let me know that the owner of that bar took pride in a place that people rarely payed any mind to.
              The smell of butter that lingered in the air quickly convinced us that we wanted popcorn, and that's when we found out why the shady man with the book was sitting by the popcorn machine; he was the popcorn scooper. I wondered how someone could get a job as a popcorn scooper, but I decided that it wasn't a good idea to ask. As my friends and I sat and enjoyed the popcorn, the screen door creaked and a man in his 70's took his seat at the bar. Without saying a word the bartender reached in the cooler, pulled out a Pabst blue ribbon, cracked it open, and placed it on the bar for the man. This of course prompted me to ask the bartender "how did you know what he wanted?" I knew the answer was that the old dude was a raging alcoholic, and that he probably spent half of his life sleeping on the bar. However, I kept my mouth closed and smiled when she said that "you just get to know the locals".
         I took advantage of the mention of locals and  I asked the bartender if she knew of any other local bars that we could visit. Appartently this is the key to making friends in small local bars. Suddenly the Harry and the Henderson's guy, his friend and the popcorn scooper were telling my friends and I where to go and where to avoid. With our new found knowledge we thanked them, and decided it was time to visit the next bar. As we were getting in the car Harry and his friend were smoking a ciggarette on the porch. "Harry" suggested a few more bars we could visit, and also told us to be safe and watch our speed on the pike because the cops are "fucking vultures".

             I waved to Harry and his friend as we pulled out of the parking lot. I thought back to an hour before when I was standing outside of the bar looking for all of the exits. I thought back to when I walked in to the bar and immediatly judged "Harry" because he looked like someone that didnt want us there. It made me sad to know that I judged a person and a place based on looks. It made me realize that this bar probably doesnt generate a lot of buisness due to the judgements people make. It's sad that people are missing out on the simple pleasures of popcorn and pointless conversation, because of a judgement they've made based on an unpaved parking lot, and a crooked sign. I plan on returning to Russells Pic II, maybe the bartender will remember my drink, maybe she wont. One thing that I will always remember is that the cops on the pike are fucking vultures, and you should never judge a book by its cover.