Summer of Sharona
Live the Summer of 1979 through the eyes of Fifteen Year Old Ashley and her very messed up family
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Fifteen year old Ashley loves ladybugs and believes life should come with one rule: No one should ever capture a ladybug. Well, make that two rules, she also believes people who meet in the nut house should not be allowed to marry. If only her mother had followed that rule, Ashley’s life wouldn’t be such a mess. It’s the summer of 1979, the song My Sharona is skyrocketing to the top of the charts, disco is fading, and on a fateful evening on Chicago’s south side, thousands of disco records are physically destroyed.
Ashley’s life goes from bad to worse on another warm Chicago evening. Exactly one week after experiencing Disco Destruction Night at the ballpark, Ashley enters Grant Park and leaves it twenty minutes later, a changed girl forever. After this traumatic event, finding a love is the last thing on Ashley’s summer “to do” list. The funny thing about love is that it’s most successful when it comes out of nowhere and simply happens, even if that nowhere is right next door.
Whether you are young or old, you probably remember the song “My Sharona” by The Knack. What were you doing when you first heard My Sharona by the Knack? Where were you at? Was it recent or was it back in 1979? In the comments below, I definitely want to read about your memories of this great song. 
Sharona was a real person. She was and is Sharona Alperin. In 1978 while a senior at L.A.’s Fairfax High School, a mutual friend introduced her to lead singer Doug Fieger of The Knack and in what almost seemed like an instant, he was in love. She wasn’t. Not returning a love is a great way to inspire a songwriter and he was inspired instantly by this 17 year old beauty named Sharona. He went on a songwriting binge after their meeting and My Sharona was one of those songs. Sharona and Doug Fieger became a couple after he invited her out on tour, but eventually, they each married someone different. They remained friends over the years and in the last months of Doug Fieger’s life (he died in 2010), she visited him many times. Sharona Alperin went on from being immortalized in the most popular rock song of 1979 to a career in real estate. Instead of going on tour and hanging out with music stars, like she did with The Knack, Sharona now sells homes to the stars in Los Angeles for Sotheby’s International Realty. Check out her website which appropriately is 
For a long time I wanted to write a book. I never quite knew what the book would be about, except to say I wanted it to center around events which occurred during the summer of 1979. I set out to write a non-fiction book. But instead, what flowed from my fingertips was a story about a fifteen year old girl named Ashley who is at times during the summer, frightened about the future, devastated about the life events of her friends, traumatized by domestic abuse and wishing all along that there were some type of rule which would prevent patients in the nut house from marrying one another. Yep, that last one is a biggie and if only her mother had lived life by that rule, Ashley’s life may have been quite normal. Too bad parents have to mess things up sometimes, right?