Simple Summer: Fair Haven Dock Sunset Solace

Summertime can be hectic. Not quite as much these post-quarantine pandemic days of summer, though. Most are pretty tired of alone time. Still, there’s nothing better than some an end-of-day solo time to unwind, distanced, in the fresh air … embraced by a familiar, comforting scene.

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Retro Rumson Barn Summer Theatrics

The following piece was originally posted on July 8, 2015. It’s just the right time for a reprise. As we dive into summer season and word comes that the lights have gone out on Broadway for the rest of 2020, we thought it only fitting to remember good summer times in a premier summer theater in the Rumson-Fair Haven area. Once upon a time, there was a special little creative niche in Rumson … Take a trip back with us to  simple summers and magical, theatrical times … 

Remember The Barn Theater in Rumson?

Well, if you don’t, you missed out and are probably significantly younger than those who do and didn’t — miss out, that is.

It’s a plus if you’re that young. But, it’s definitely a factor in the minus category if you didn’t work, play or get entertained there.

It was a community theater that cast hundreds, maybe thousands, from the area, including many Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) students.

The building is still there, only a few blocks away from the high school on Avenue of Two Rivers near the intersection at Ridge Road. The reason why it was called The Barn was, well, because it was an old barn, gutted (if there is such a thing with a barn) and converted into a small arena-type stage theater, with the stage at floor level and risers around it as seats, though not all the way around.

You get the picture. Now, here’s what’s behind the place’s show folk and shows …

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Retro Neighborhood Kids: Bathing in the Beauty of Firsts

Bathing beauties of a Fair Haven neighborhood in 1965
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

This Retro Pic of the Day is being run again as an ode to priceless firsts with your first friend, your first real neighbor and the warmth of those times under the summer sun. It is a thank you to that neighborhood kid, the tallest of us kids, with the fancy, flouncy, skirted bathing suit, the flowery bathing cap and the chutzpah to give this Fair Haven kid many firsts with questionable veracity, but always loyalty and love.

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Retro RFH BFFS’ Summer Ride

RFH girls’ ride into the summer of ’78 … Stephanie DeSesa, Elaine Van Develde, Debbie Humbert and Daryl Cooper Ley
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

There’s nothing quite like a summer drive in a classic car with the top down. So, we’re re-running this piece just because the sun needs to shine on friendships and good times like these. There’s nothing quite as warm. Put the top down and take a drive back with us again … 

The drive is all the better if it’s made with best friends. So, as a continuing ode to summer fun of the past at the hands of RFH teens, the Retro Pic of the Day encapsulates the whole idea — best friends, a cool ride and warm memories.

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Fair Haven Police: Car Thieves & Burglars are Back; Lock Up!

June 26 update:

The message couldn’t get much clearer. Rumson police have been stressing it for years and more recently have repeated it and taken it to the streets. Now Fair Haven police have joined in: Lock your cars!

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A Happy 98th Birthday Tribute to a Fair Haven Icon: Ray Taylor

Images of Ray Taylor
Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Fair Haven’s iconic Ray Taylor is two years shy of a centenarian today. That means he’s just about as old as his hometown. It also means that he has a cache swelling with love, memories and future plans for the place he has called home for longer than most.

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Retro Rumson Dock Summer Daze

Sunning with the Oceanic Bridge as a backdrop
Photo/courtesy of Jo Ann Slocum Mazzucca

Summer has officially arrived.

The living may not be quite so easy this summer, but there has been some freedom from pandemic quarantine to ease those isolation blues. And when there’s a chance to enjoy a sunny summer day by the river, all Rumson-Fair Haven area folks tend to flock right to it.

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Prosecutor: Human Remains Found; Identified as Those of Woman Who Went Missing in 2019

A medical examiner has confirmed that human remains found last week on an Ocean Township property are those of Jacqueline Terrulli, 65, who went missing in September of 2019, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced on Friday.

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