Campaign 2000

Alice Cooper took my parking space

By Sam Smith

As Alice Cooper was sitting backstage at the State Theater last Friday night, and as alienated teenage boys were lining up outside for a dose of some old-school Satan rock, Jen Goldman was looking for a place to park.

Goldman, with the Yes on 6 Campaign, was going to the Eastland Park Hotel to see Armistead Maupin, author of the Tales of the City series, give a reading, which was also serving as a fundraiser for the campaign. She was driving the Equality Express, the “mobile campaign office” that’s been crisscrossing the state preaching the “yes” vote for the civil-rights referendum. It’s a big vehicle that needs some breathing room.

“The parking space I was supposed to take was occupied by Alice Cooper’s bus,” she says. “Alice Cooper took my parking space.” With no other spots close by, Goldman pulled the Equality Express into the Eastland’s garage. The garage with the 8-foot clearance.

“There was just this loud crashing noise when I pulled in” as the air conditioning unit on top of the van was ripped from its cradle, she says. “At that point I couldn’t go forward and I couldn’t go backward. I was stuck. And all these Alice Cooper fans were lined up behind me trying to get into the garage.”

After some prying, the van was loosened from its clamp and taken to a mechanic in Augusta. “It’s got this big duct tape and plastic bandage on the top now,” says Goldman.

“But I guess the positive was that all those people coming to the concert saw the van. Two people came up while I was picking up the remnants of the air conditioner and asked me for a bumper sticker.”