Oops. Just sent you e mail. You’re faster than I am.
Really and truly! And I only remember Randy. I think my first show must have been in 1984 or so. Ramones. I used to sneak out of the house and head down to Trenton for shows. Last show was probably in 1994 and was the Bosstones.
So 10 years. In that time I saw well The Ramones, and The Ramones, and The Ramones again and again (my sister became really good friends with Johnny for awhile, so we went to most shows, hung out upstairs, and that’s how I came to know Randy. One of the shows I went to I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with my youngest son and only hung out upstairs. My (now 15 y/o) son loves to hear the story of how he was ‘touched’ by the Ramones. (They rubbed my belly for luck before the show.) 
And let’s see…
Psychadelic Furs
The Cramps
Social Distortion
Rev. Horton Heat
Bad Religion
All
Dead Milkmen
Black Flag and Rollins Band
Sick of it All
Biohazard
7 Seconds
Bouncing Souls
Gwar
Bosstones (another one I saw most shows in the Tri-State area and hung backstage with at CG, my other sister became a pretty good pen pal of Dicky Barret.)
They Might Be Giants
808 State and Meat Beat Manifesto.
Uhhh. And I am sure I am forgetting some. And I went to a couple of misc. no show nights and Halloween parties. (I might have told this story here before - I went dressed as the comic book character Death one year. It was probably the only time in my life a guy walked up to me in a bar, said “You look like Death”, and I was positively thrilled.
Cool! I only saw them once, but it was in fact at City Gardens. I did though, work for a couple of years for the guy who invented punk rock…well ok claims he invented the term. Which you can consider as :dubious:…but not enteirly impausable. As he also claimed, with much factual backup to having been the roomates of said Ramones.
But I have to admit I’ve never have accutal connect with a Ramone. You lucky bitch, psycat90!!!
Buy all evidence we must have been in the same room at the same time. A shame your location says you can’t make What Exist’s party.
I know it! I actually posted a ‘maybe’ in his original thread but it just didn’t work out. Trying to save up to get the whole family out for X-mas. I wish I could go though. Especially after this thread. Soooo homesick!
Last time I was back was last Oct/Nov for my little sister’s wedding. (Where I got to hang out with the ‘new’ Misfits and Jerry Only! My sister wanted to have her bachelorette party at a Misfits concert at Starland a couple of days before Halloween. They saw us walking in the place from their trailer and invited us over. So fun!)
It is very possible we’ve been in the same room at the same time. That’s pretty cool.
I wasn’t allowed to go for a couple of years (“it’ll be too scary for you”), and when I did it was a big event for me. Closed up soon after, and burnt down when I was in HS.
My older brothers, who would be more objective, assure me as haunted houses go it was nothing special.
What Exit: Elmer.
Although I’m suprised an Exit 105 guy knows it; for people down south, Elmer’s the place halfway between AC and the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
I got some that I know nobody else will , since most of you clowns are North Jersey types:
– You have at least one freind who worked at Fralinger’s, about whom you made endless “fudge packing” jokes.
– While playing Monopoly, you insist that Pacific Avenue is a dump.
– If someone says they’re going to White House, you don’t think of Washington.
– You know why Little Egg Harbor is larger than Great Egg Harbor
– You know where to find the 1 1/4 Landing Strip
Give a heads up, before you fly out and maybe we can do something quick and impromptu if you want. It will be worth a try, though the season will make it tough.
My Nephew has played the Starland a few times now. Unfortunately his bands are heavy Thrash metal and I cannot really enjoy them much. One is called the “Never Deader Society”
Jim
I know, really tough. But if we do make it out I reckon I might be doing some last minute shopping out there so we might end up in the same mall or something. I will definitely shoot you an email. And thanks for the initial invite, sorry I am missing out! Have fun!
Elmer has a “Elmer Hospital Day” which is a county fair gone horribly, horribly wrong and hokey. It is also the site for a folk music festival that is not only pretty good, but also famous, apparently, as it pulls acts from all over and their fans. Side note - first time I found out real lesbians making out wasn’t NEARLY as cool as it was in movies.
“Big” Joe Henry is a radio DJ, currently on 101.5, but used to be on 107.1, along with “Jersey” Judy Franco.
Other fun ones:
You can pay tolls from the passenger seat by using the Dr. J Skyhook to get up to 50 cents in the bin.
You know how to waste at least a gallon of gas to get out of paying a higher toll.
The idea of free beaches seems like an exotic (and possibly communist) concept, and wonder how towns can make any money.
One for my fellow Monmouth locals - you’ve only been to Monmouth park a few times, but know to avoid 36 at certain times because of “Park Traffic”, but not to be confused with 35, which has “Fort Traffic”
Yes, but sadly the Fort traffic is a thing of the past, I do know 5 ways around Monmouth Park. 
Here’s a tough one, the oldest amusement park in continuous operation in NJ is not in AC, Wildwood, Seaside or Ocean City but in… … …
Keansburg? Yep, Keansburg Amusement Park is 102 years old now. (I think a few of the rides are originals. 
)
BTW: I just found out it is the 40th oldest in the World.
Jim
How about there is a New Brunswick, a North Brunswick, a South Brunswick and an East Brunswick. What the hell did they do with West Brunswick?
You are correct HI Ribs is on RT 31. In Pennington. I past by it today. Twice.
This is an Awesome thread!
Shecky, you’re additions are awesome!
Hal & Jim: As I Post This, the authors of ‘Weird NJ’ are autographing copies of their books at the Barnes & Nobles at the Clifton Commons off of Rt 3 East.
(Signings are from 3pm Sunday until … wrist cramps? Not sure of ent time.)
Personally, I’m just so glad my “car turns over in the morning”. (Rt 1 joke)
(Just had some cheese and a slice of fresh home-grown tomato on a slice of toast. Its Good to live in the Garden State…!)
Pennington??? That’s where I live…lived. Will live as soon as the fire damage is repaired. I never associated it with ribs…seemed more a white bread and mayonnaise town. So now I’m intimatly associated with psycat90 and Loach…incestous little state, aren’t we?
I have been lurking on this thread for a while but this delightful factoid brought me out of the dark. The daycamp where I work, goes to Keansburg every single year for some reason. Actually, as mediocre as the amusement park is, the water park is actually quite nice. Small but fun. Now I will appreciate some of those delightful attractions a little more.
This thread is making me really hungry though. I could really go for a White _______ burger right about now. I do have a quick question for psycat90. Which diner is the diner of choice for River Rats?
LOL. River Rats is the best. I used to use it with a negative connotation growing up in Monroe, until I moved to South River as an adult and became one. Now it’s a term of endearment.
And the answer is the Colonial. Seville would be second choice. And I liked a small one on the causeway in SR called Polonia for breakfast but I’m not even sure if it’s still there. There used to be (still is, maybe?) an ice cream place on the Causeway that I’d take my kids to a lot as well. I thought their ice cream was almost as good as Magnifico’s but half the price.
Keansburg is perfect for young and little kids. It is easy for me to get to, relatively cheap and still has a great old Carousel in one of the arcades. It is one of the only parks left with a true midway. I actually like it better than the much newer Jenkinson’s and most of the ones on Seaside. The water park is pretty good, I was surprised by how good, we never got to it this year though.
Jim
Christ, people from California opining about the Seville Diner, this thread has officially gotten too weird for me now. The next time I visit my parents I must check in on the Polonia Diner (European Provisions in South River is still there and still good after all these years).
OK, I’ll open the floor for the person to have snuck into the Court Tavern or the Melody Bar the youngest; I’ll open with 16 years old (in 1982).
Well you’ve got me beat. I didn’t become a regular at the Melody until I was about 22 or so. So I was all legal. But I did try to sneak my sister in when she was 16 with a spare license I had, which ended up on their wall of shame above the door. And from then on I only snuck her into places in the city like the Limelight.
I nearly cried when the Melody closed, and again when I’d read an article in the paper about the building being torn down. For a pretty good spell I was going there 3 or 4 nights a week and made some pretty good pals there.
I used to go to the Court Tavern every now and then for shows or on random nights, but I never cared for it. Too many junkies. They may have been at the Melody too, but for some reason they seemed to stand out more to me at the Court Tavern.
Extra points for anyone who stepped over a passed out junkie to get a sub at Greasy Tony’s in the middle of the night.
How about The Boomerang at Bertrand Island? There’s a clattering death ride if there ever was one.
I’ve been onstage in Jersey - I played drums with my HS Choir when they sang at the Playboy Club at Great Gorge. :dubious: One! Singular sensation! Every little step she takes! Ba da da - da da! Picture a gangly blonde kid (virgin, natch) with pimples and glasses among playboy bunnies. The Horror!
Speaking of The Horror, I saw Apocalypse Now! when it first came out at Cinema 10 in Succasunna and my first porn at a theater in Denville. Or was it Parsippany?
I never made it onstage in Asbury Park, though. I did see Pat Metheny at a theater there. I saw him at the Community Theater in Morristown too, but I can’t remember if that was before or after seeing AC/DC open for Savoy Brown with Kim Simmonds there. Good times.
I spent a drunken summer in Manasquan. Woke up in our driveway, that sort of stuff. The Doors, The Osprey, Kamikazis (vodka, lime, and triple sec was it?) huge slices of pizza on the asphalt ‘boardwalk’.
Nobody in my family was into Springsteen much. I like him more now than I did back when I was a teen, though. There was a huge fan downstairs in the Manasquan house, though. I remember her driving us around in her VW and running the toll booths on the Parkway. All I wanted to do was go to sleep.
I learned to ski at Snow Bowl and Craigmeur. Later on Vernon Valley and Great Gorge.
Have I been to the Court? I’ll try to remember. The drinking age was 18 back then, and I started earlier as I had a friend who worked at the liquor store. Someone remind me. The Limelight sounds familiar. I think Yasgur’s Farm used to play up there.
If you’re in Morris County and you’re not sure what town (excuse me, township) you’re in, you’re probably in Parsippany.
You’re right about that. Good for them, I guess.
What’s a Bennie? I think I might have been one. I know I wasn’t a Piney.
New Jersey. It’s a great place to be from.