Retro RFH Aides’ Time Out

RFH library aides do chair battle in the 1970s Photo/RFH Yearbook

You’ve seen it before, but it warrants a reprise. With the recent death of aide Joan Blake RFHers all over are reminiscing about their time, or doing time, with those RFH aides. And every good RFH grad knows that they sometimes had to resort to techniques to tame us beasts that likely would get them in a heap of trouble, just like misbehaving students, if they were implemented nowadays. So, we revisit doing hard time in the library with those aides at RFH on a rainy day laden with those doldrums that they always seemed to chase away, even if it was with a chair …

Once upon a time, when the rain started, so did the antics in the library at RFH. And there to keep everyone in line and keep up one step, or a char, ahead of the antsy foul weather pranksters were those library aides.

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Remembering Joan Blake: Ode to the Fair Haven Mom, Schools’ Aide

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School teacher aides of the 1970s, Joan Blake (far right).
Photo/screenshot of RFH yearbook

When you’ve grown up in a small town, your memories often revolve around the comforting kind of feeling that anyone else’s mother, no matter their child-rearing differences or life circumstances, is a surrogate of your very own. That’s just how it is. The neighborhood concept.

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Focus: Rich Chandler’s Fair Haven Goodbye

The picture of his childhood friend caught his eye. Among the cozy chatter of old friends and family, he left the conversation at the table staring, transfixed for a brief moment. The sudden silence in his own head overcame him, welled up a bit in his eyes as he moved toward the picture of his old friend that seemed to call to him.

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Prosecutor: Law Firm Office Manager Charged with $100K Theft

The former offie manager at a law firm facing theft charges in connection with an investigation that revealed she allegedly pilfered more than $100,000 from the firm where she worked, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.

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His Beat Goes On: Saying Goodbye to Rich Chandler

“It’s the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It’s only honesty that makes it beautiful.” 

Elvin Jones

That stark, shining, honest beauty straight from the heart is what emanated a bright light to countless people from the soul of Richard Chandler. The 60-year-old professional drummer, husband, dad, uncle and friend, who was known to never skip a beat when generously giving his love and talent, lost his years-long battle with cancer on Sunday, Oct. 4.

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Prosecutor: Man Arrested in $385K Accounting Swindle

A Middlesex County man with an Englishtown-based accounting firm has been charged with stealing roughly $385,000 in tax payments from a former New Jersey wholesale distributor now based in South Carolina, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.

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Prosecutor: Alleged Fugitive Trespasser Prompts County Emergency Response; Arrested on Burglary & Related Charges

A Rockland County, NY man was arrested on burglary, criminal trespass and related charges on Wednesday after he became uncooperative with police responding to a trespassing call and he refused to leave the premises, prompting a response from the county emergency response team (MOCERT), Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said on Thursday.

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Retro Hippie Hill Hunt Scene

It’s that time the year again when thoughts of old-time Hunt times come flooding back for many Rumson-Fair Haven area folks. There may still be a Hunt, but not this one. So, we are offering a glimpse back to the days of the Haskell Hunt from a non-tailgating vantage point with a reprise of the following Retro Pic(s) of the Day piece originally posted on Oct. 20, 2017 … 

The hunt for more Hunt photos ensued and the find was a treasure trove of glimpses at the happening scene up on hip, hip Hippie Hill. RFH grad and Hippie Hill frequenter Bird Jensen reminded us last year that the last weekend in October “would’ve been the weekend we’d all gather at Hippie Hill.” 

Fair Havenite Tom Bull’s description of The Hunt to “outsiders” has quickly become a classic: “I used to explain to people how it was a cross between a Grateful Dead concert and a Grey Poupon commercial.”

The elegant tailgating part shown in previous years would be the Grey Poupon commercial aspect. We will reprise that next. Hippie Hill is the Grateful Dead concert side — or so it would naturally seem.

So, here’s the Dead concert — or, perhaps, a little Lennon soirée …

It was probably the late 1970s. These peacefully assembled cool long hairs and renegades likely snuck into the Haskell Hunt through the fence and onto that infamous hill on ol Amory Haskell’s elegant estate. Call them musicians, concertgoers and peace pipe tokers, if you will.

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Living the Dream: A Native Fair Havenite’s Navesink Love Story

“My peace-and-quiet maker. My trusted secret keeper. My adventure sharer.
My Navesink.”

Judy Goddard
My Navesink (left) and Judy & Tom Goddard (right) at the RFH Class of ’78 reunion in 2018 with classmate Alex Christie … Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Judy Russell Goddard is in love. And the native Fair Havenite has a story to show and tell all about her lifetime love affair.

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