The aroma of various carnival foods wafted past our vehicle as we idled at near standstill. Inching ever so slowly forward, crowds of people narrowly snaked through the traffic, some pulling in-tow wagons loaded with various arts and crafts, while others were just shoving fried goodies down their bloated gullets. Judging from banners hanging across Main Street, it became clear we had driven directly into Shad Fest; a type of cross gathering between a festival and street fair, supposedly honoring the migration of the Shad fish, as such a species tracks up the Delaware River, indicating arrival of the Spring season. However, all activity pointed toward such festival existing as an excuse to devour corn dogs, while ingesting copious amounts of carbonated high fructose corn syrup, all in the presence of rowdy people, acoustic music, arts and crafts, and... Shad fish.

No rationale existed in attempting to fight the evening foot traffic in car, so a group consensus was arranged to find a parking space and to then make way up to the ruins of the long defunct Lambertville High School; a New Jersey abandonment seemingly more recognizable than the honorable Shad fish itself. The current condition of the school remains in a state of utter chaos. A burnt out shell of brick and iron stands within an overgrown plot of woods, shrouded deeper in beer bottles and trash than in the supposed history glorifying the rotting walls which date back to 1854. Graffiti was plastered everywhere, giants dicks spray painted ceiling high were adorned with poorly scribbled marijuana leaf nuts sacks, neighbored by swastikas etched inside of peace signs; teenage angst at its best. Above the main entrance into the school, tacked to a rotten wooden beam crossing head high, a condom precariously sags, full with a questionable liquid, serving perhaps as a warm welcome to all those bored enough to enter, or more likely, a warning sign to anyone with a sense of decency.

Judging the ruinous school merely for its exploring aesthetic, Lambertville High remains a complete shit hole, a true rotting hell of carnage, existing mostly as a refuge for which local teens can gather to enjoy a few tokes of bud, while gulping down a case pack of a choice beverage, within companionship of a spooky atmosphere. Hadn't the structure been lit on fire numerous times over the past, I would have graciously granted it such a fiery death myself. But even the multitude of fires years ago had failed to bring the school to a pile of ash. And so it sits, a rotting playground, or maybe just an eye-sore, as some might say. The fortified brick walls stand tall, an ominous sight against the foliage of the forest backdrop. Jagged window panes void of glass gaze out from the skeletal structure like giant black eyes, watching as one walks up the crumbling asphalt drive. A lawless place Lambertville High remains, a place where the acts and thoughts of those who enter envelope the empty space into a sanctuary for the curious, a place free from the constrains of society, free to be used and abused by anyone, for any reason.