Category Archives: Local Life

A look, in photos, of latest area events, local everyday people and places.

Local Life

A Retro Happy Thanksgiving from the Kids’ Table

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Thanksgiving at the kids' table in the 1960s with Kate and Ben Hamilton Photo/Hamilton family
Thanksgiving at the kids’ table in the 1960s with Kate and Ben Hamilton
Photo/Hamilton family

Our annual Thanksgiving tribute to the kids’ table … Remember that? Happy Thanksgiving, all! Stay safe. Stay healthy. Enjoy!

It’s Thanksgiving, and, yes, it’s all about giving thanks.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day is an ode to just that.

It’s a snapshot back in time to the 1960s with a sibling duo from Fair Haven — Ben and Kate Hamilton. Ben passed away and Kate had posted this picture on Facebook giving thanks for him. RIP, Ben.

The photo brings back memories of the era the kids’ holiday table. Remember that one?

Continue reading A Retro Happy Thanksgiving from the Kids’ Table →
Local Life

Retro RFH Homecoming Gaming

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RFH Thanksgiving Day football game
Photo/George Day

If some old RFHers had a winning turkey wishbone to yank on, they may be hoping to pull the bigger end to make a wish to revisit their own RFH Thanksgiving Day Homecoming game. Any other may just do, too.

Back in the day, the RFH football season used to peak with what then was the classic rivalry homecoming/Thanksgiving Day game between Red Bank Catholic and RFH.

Continue reading Retro RFH Homecoming Gaming →
Local Life

Focus: A Fall for River Time Sunscape

Gallery

When the sun sops up the fall clouds so it can peer through for a little glimpse back to summer, it’s time for river time.

Rowing, strolling, sitting … any way is the best way to move forward and go back to that warm niche that always has a place for someone in its heart. The place where, no matter what, that sun always manages to peek through and shed light on all those little big things that matter most — one ray at a time.

Any way to move back to that light on those river times is the way to go. And they went. They always do. And they hold onto it for a rainy day.

The rainy days and chill are coming back. But there’s never a damper on Fair Haven river time.

— Elaine Van Develde

Take a look (CLICK on one photo above and scroll. Enjoy!). Here’s what’s coming in those rainy, colder days ahead, according to the National Weather Service …

Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Show Time: Oz Wizadry

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Show time is tomorrow for the RFH Tower Players’ fall production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow back on the stage at the high school. In honor of opening night curtain and returning to the stage, we offer a look back at a trip down the RFH Yellow Brick Road to Oz and some staged wizardry of the early 1970s at RFH.

I have a feeling we’re not in Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) anymore …

Continue reading Retro RFH Show Time: Oz Wizadry →
Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Hip & Hooray Boys

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The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977 Photo/George Day
The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977
Photo/George Day
The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977
Photo/George Day

There’s nothing like a good ol’ RFH cheer. It’s just hip, hip … happening! Cheering has changed over the decades at RFH. Still there’s nothing quite as unique as this cheer crew. So, for cheer’s sake, we give these guys an annual fall encore of this Oct. 8, 2015 Retro Pic of the (George) Day from two views! Cheers!

The 1977 RFH Powder Puff Football game was a good one that made for some great photo ops.

Continue reading Retro RFH Hip & Hooray Boys →
Local Life

Retro Fall For Three RFH Guys & a Skateboard

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Triple threat RFH guys’ skate in the 1970s
Photo/George Day

A must of a seasonal reprise, just because … The season says it all. Every fall has a rise and these RFH guys always seemed to find a way to rise to the occasion of a good skateboarding adventure and antics. So, this seasonal reprise from October of 2019 seemed a repeat of the finest RFH kind.  Ride on, RFH guys … 

You’ve seen them before … this crew of daring, not so diabolical RFH guys who had a little skateboarding club. Call these views the triple threats.

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Local Life

An R-FH Area Veterans’ Homage

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Our annual Veterans Day tribute … (Click on the right corner icon to enlarge and the arrow of the above slideshow. WAIT for it to upload and play. Click one of the photos in the above gallery to enlarge and scroll.)

Their faces are the faces at the core of a close-knit community. Some have passed. Some are still with us. They are cherished. They are veterans.

They were and are neighbors, dads, and just plain friendly faces around the Rumson-Fair Haven area towns.

They served. They fought for freedom.

They lived and still do live their lives with hometown pride, honor and respect. They were, they are founding fathers, friends. They were, they are cornerstones of the sense of community that is the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

The gift of their legacies bears no upscale real estate market value. They passed along a love of country and community that is priceless.

Thank you, on Veterans Day, to the veterans of the area who have passed and those who are still with us. You are cherished, honored.

Take a look at some of their faces and remember the legacy they carry.

— Elaine Van Develde

— Photos, courtesy of families of the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

Local Life, Opinion

Old News: Politics, ‘Hootch,’ Hallowe’en, Hoopla & Pranksters

Woolworth’s Halloween costume ad of 1975/Red Bank Register

Living in the past. Sometimes you just have to live a little … in the past. It’s an eye-opening, or -stabbing, thing. Nothing wrong with a clearer view or jab.

Yet, when someone is told they’re living in the past, it’s usually considered somewhat of an insult. It implies that the person is paralyzed, incapable of moving forward. Not always true, especially when it comes to old news.

Continue reading Old News: Politics, ‘Hootch,’ Hallowe’en, Hoopla & Pranksters →
Local Life, Opinion

Focus: Benched at the River

Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Benched. It implies punishment of sorts. Not when you’re parked on a time capsuled bench at the river on the Fair Haven Dock.

And when the daytime sun drenches the seat you pick, all that’s wrong with anyone’s world seems to melt through the cracks, lifting the light in the spirit to meet the one in the sky.

Call it high hopes. The soaring, soothing warmth of it all just doesn’t reach higher heights, as long as benched time is river time … soaking it up. Diving back into time, sopping up the comfort of those feelings linked to the memories down by the river. Not a bad one there. Benched.

(Click on one of the photos above to enlarge and scroll. Remember and enjoy!)

There will be lots of sun to sop up on a riverfront seat this week. Here’s the weather forecast for the Rumson-Fair Haven area from the National Weather Service.

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