Deja Vu

Nostalgia can be dangerous. That's what I learned after swinging by the Erotic Cafe last week for a sentimental tour of an old and once-loved stomping ground. I've had some good times at the EC over the years; the mileage was never spectacular here, but some of the girls were able to get away with a little more than they were supposed to in the dinginess of those couch rooms, and besides the overall tacky-but-cheerful atmosphere of the place made up for any other deficiencies. That's why my visit was so depressing. It wasn't the overall look of the place, which hasn't changed in about 5,000 years - a trailer-sans-wheels underneath a flyover on 73-N, parked next to a motel so dubious looking even Norman Bates would think twice about letting his mother stay there. I don't mind the awfulness of the physical look of the building, which always had a sort of ugly charm to it. No, it was the sense of desperation of the dancers that I found sad. The EC always had a mixed at best collection of girls (using 'girls' generously here), some of them well over the age of retirement (and I'm talking ready for AARP membership here) and with the stretch marks to show for it. But it now seems as though this is a place you end up in rather than choose to work in. One dancer with rolls of flesh oozing from her bikini occupied the seat next to mine for some time, complaining about how she'd been told by the management she was now too fat to work there. I didn't have the heart to tell that perhaps they had a point - never be impolite to a dancer's face is my watchword for life - but at the same time I certainly wasn't going to stump up good money for the pity-dance she was obviously trying to eke out of me. Not a single girl there showed the slightest sign of enthusiasm or sexiness. I accept that perhaps I just hit a bad night. There's still a sentimental part of me open to being persuaded that the EC has life in it yet. But the more rational part of me wonders: why would anyone still go here when there are so many better options elsewhere in the Greater Philadelphia area?