That the City Gardens — the 1980s Trenton punk-music venue — has become part of a regional generation’s personal memory is evident with the popularity of former City Gardens music promoter Randy Now’s Man Cave in Hightstown, the appearance of the book and film named after an infamous City Garden sign — “No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes” — and frequent newspaper stories exploring the building’s past glory days and sad demise.
Now add to that history a new book, “In Between Shows, The A Sides,” by area-raised author Cameran Marie Sassman.
It follows the story of Mimi Mondoni, a 16-year-old girl newly obsessed with the punk rock scene of the late ’80s.
Sassman will be celebrating the book’s release at the Man Cave on Saturday, June 24, at 2 p.m.
As a preview to the event, the author shared following about herself and her book:
“I am a Jersey native, but I currently live in Massachusetts. I grew up in Hamilton Square and graduated from Steinert High School in 1990, then came up here to Massachusetts to go to college and never left. (Despite missing NJ terribly.)
“I recently published a book about my life as a teenager growing up during the ’80s in suburban New Jersey and framed my story around the punk rock/alternative music shows that I went to when I was in high school.
“My book also pays loving homage to my hometown and beloved Garden State. I include so many references to past and present day New Jersey icons from Little King Deli, Rock Dreams Records, Golden Dawn Diner, Mastoris Diner, Vito’s Pizza, Thomas Sweet Ice Cream, the Princeton Record Exchange, Princeton Marketfair, Italian Peoples Bakery to the Seaside Boardwalk and Island Beach State Park and most importantly City Gardens in Trenton. I cover a lot of ground in my story.
“(It is also) semi-autobiographical (let’s say it’s 90 percent true) and captures my love of the music scene back in the day as well my many adventures and misadventures in love and friendship. It is truly a universal coming of age story with all the highs and lows of the teenage experience.”
Sassman also shared the following opening of her book:
This story is loosely based on my life as a teenager growing up in my beloved hometown of Hamilton Square, New Jersey. For most of my life, I never felt like I fit in and always felt on the fringes. Sometime to- wards the end of my 8th grade year I was introduced to The Dead Milkmen by a friend. It changed everything for me. The music was a gateway to a community of people, some would call us freaks, that we were unafraid to be their authentic selves. For a fringe kid this was a needed haven of acceptance. Soon after, I discovered the all ages punk rock shows at City Gardens in Trenton, some call it the CBGB’s of New Jersey. To me, it was a unique world in its own right. It was an intense world, to say the least, but it certainly left an indelible impression upon me.
Music has been my safe haven for all of my life and to this day, I find myself marking time by the live music events I have attended. I did my best to find the actual dates of music events referenced in this story, however, for story telling purposes I have changed some dates to better serve my story telling or in some cases I couldn’t track down the actual date, please forgive me for these transgressions.
I should also mention, I am aware that City Gardens did attract a faction of skinheads in the mid to late eighties. I was not a part of that fucked up subsection of the punk rock scene, nor did I associate with kids that espoused that kind of messaging. We had an angry white boy problem back then, it is sad that we still have an angry white boy problem some 30 years later. I digress. Surely, the bands I did listen to probably had some (many) problematic lyrics, especially in the misogynistic vein, but that was the fucking 80s for you. I am not here to romanticize or glorify that part of the punk rock scene, I’m just telling a little story loosely based on my imperfect lived experience that I hope you will enjoy.
Cameran Marie Sassman at Randy Now’s Man Cave, 119 West Ward Street, Hightstown. Saturday, June 24, 2 p.m. Free. More information at www.mancavenj.com.
“In Between Shows, The A Side,” Cameran Sassman, 245 pages, $14.99, Amazon.
