Breaking things up is fun to do

One of the ways you can tell if someone is new to Baltimore is to have them see the name of the Hampden neighborhood in print and see how they pronounce it. If they say it like "Hampton," you can tell they are new.  There is a "Hampton," but it's well north of Hampden (pronounced HAMden). And it does not have a Wreck Room.

You know what a rec room is; there's where the laundry piles up on the ping pong table that no one has used since tube socks were the thing. No, this is the Wreck Room, and it's just the thing for those in need of purgation of the spirit.

It's been one of those days, right?  Traffic was annoying, couldn't find a place to park at work, the boss was being a Richard all day, they got your lunch order wrong and you had to eat falafel or starve, traffic was worse on the way home, and the mail brought a pile of bills so large that the letter carrier had to make two trips.

Emotional catharsis is why The Wreck Room is there for you in Hampden. They call it DESTRUCTOtherapy, right there at 3317 Keswick Road, sharing space with Maggie’s Medical Cannabis Dispensary.

Generally, when you go into a place of business and break something, they ask you to pay for it. Here, you are expected to break stuff (and still pay.)


It's not clear from what I read that they are even open yet, but the one article said they stocked up on  helmets, goggles, visors and similar protective gear, along with a ton of glassware, alarm clocks (of course! who doesn't want to send the alarm clock to Smithereens?) and bustables.

The website I saw was comebreakstuff.com, and it mentioned choices like BYOB (bring your own box) ($25 for 20 minutes of smashing your junk). a Date Night special (30 minutes for a couple to go to town for $70) and the El Supremo package:  a blindfolded “Extreme Piñata” session for $40.

How I would love it if they offered Pizza Shooters, Shrimp Poppers, or Extreme Fajitas with the Extreme Piñata!

This seems to be a worldwide thing, giving people the opportunity to expel the demon of rage and frustration within by smashing the hell out of a Mr Coffee. Whatever works for you, I suppose, although Kevin Bennett, PhD, writing in Psychology Today says, "We should be working towards minimizing aggression and violence in society, not encouraging it even if it is dressed up as a fun afternoon demolishing things normally off limits."

What a buzzkill. Does that make you mad?