Photo/courtesy of Mark Wellner
It’s summertime. And there’s nothing like taking a long walk off a short … dock — especially if you’re a Rumson kid in the ’70s trying to stay cool.
Retro Rumson Cool Boys’ Dock & Chill
Photo/courtesy of Mark Wellner
Category Archives: Local Life
A look, in photos, of latest area events, local everyday people and places.
Photo/courtesy of Mark Wellner
Honoring Littoral Society’s Tim Dillingham via the Rumson Garden Club
Photo/Littoral Society via social media
It’s all about the smallest seed of the biggest environmental conservation plan getting that bloom that spreads down the coastline.
Retro Rumson Barn Summer Showtime
Reprise from 2016, just because we think more people need to remember summer theater fun at the old classic — The Barn Theatre …
Summer is in full swing. School’s out and kids are embarking on summer activities. The weekend is here. So is summer theater.
In fact, The Premier Theater Company is opening its production of The Prom tonight. And back in the 1970s, some RFH teens were acting out … in summer theater at The Barn Theatre in Rumson.
Retro RFH Girls’ Summer Ride
Photo/Suzan Cooper
Sun up! When you’re scorched from a heatwave like this week’s, it’s time to let the sun bring on warm memories instead. There’s nothing quite like a summer drive in a classic car with the top down, especially when it’s the summer of senior year. 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.
Retro River Rats’ Smooth Summer Sail
Photo/Marc Edelman
A River Rats reprise to mark the official start of summer …
It’s smooth sailing into summer — maybe a bit too smooth … right into that heat. But back in 1975, the river road could be a bit rocky. At least one little river rat had to patch up a Blue Jay with bubble gum. Rats! That would be little Claire Hurd. Sailing rats all learned how to improvise, for sure. They also learned how to tie a square not like a real sailor.
Continue reading Retro River Rats’ Smooth Summer Sail
Focus: Fair Haven Day Fun
The sun shone brightly on a festive Fair Haven Day Saturday.
All gathered in Fair Haven Fields for the annual birthday bash for the borough in the spirit of community, organized and sponsored by the non-profit Foundation of Fair Haven. The fields were flush with friends, family, volunteers, music, games, food, drink and even a stilted juggler — all celebrating Fair Haven and some togetherness.
Fair Haven Day: A Community Summer Birthday Bash Set for Saturday
It’s Fair Haven’s 113th birthday. And, while the birthday is not a milestone, the borough is being celebrated on, or around, every birthday since its 100th. The birthday bash, also marking the start of summer, billed as a community togetherness day, is called Fair Haven Day. And it’s tomorrow — Saturday.
Retro RFH Graduation: The Daisy Chain Girl
Photo/Daryl Cooper Ley
The following was originally posted in May of 2017. It is being re-run in honor of graduation, time honored traditions of the past, and this RFH Daisy Chain girl of ’78, who passed away in February of 2018 — Daryl Cooper Ley.
In high school social circles, it was considered a popularity status symbol to be chosen for the chain. Daryl wasn’t all too thrilled about it at the time. It had confirmed what only her closest friends knew — that she was cool. It was often repeated to her. “I didn’t think so,” was always her answer. Sorry, Dar. We win. Got the last word. You were. RIP, Dar. You are remembered … in our hearts, souls and print, like it or not! Love you forever more. Oh, she would kill me …
It was considered a privilege and honor. They were chosen from the junior class at RFH to serve as the debutante-like ushers for the graduating class. All dressed in white and supposedly gracefully toting a chain of daisies, the Daisy Chain girls were a fixture of high school finery at graduations in the 1970s.
The origins of the somewhat upper-crust tradition date back to the 1900s, but this Retro Pic of the Day was snapped in 1978.
Continue reading Retro RFH Graduation: The Daisy Chain Girl
Retro RFH Graduation Traditions
Our annual RFH graduation reprise in honor of the RFH Class of 2025 … Congrats!
RFHers did the graduation walk on Wednesday. And it’s a walk that has veered off onto different paths over the years — but always to Pomp & Circumstance.
Wow. So much has changed, yet stayed the same. The venue has gone from the RFH Borden Stadium to the front lawn to the Borden Stadium (when the stadium was being renovated) and the football field again to the RFH auditorium and mixed up and around over the years. Now it’s at the Monmouth University. And in pandemic times, the venue was outside, masked and virtual. And, again, back to Monmouth.
Camping in a Historic Spot Comes to Sandy Hook
Camping steeped in Cold War history has come to the National Park Service Gateway National Recreation Area’s Sandy Hook Unit.
Retro RFH ’60s Daisy Chain Gang
Photo/courtesy of Kim Christman
In honor of RFH graduation … Reprise of a classic originally posted in June of 2022 …
That’s the sight of the girls working on the Daisy Chain gang! When it comes to RFH graduation traditions gone, the Daisy Chain is a classic, well-remembered one. So are the links in the chain — the girls, not so much the flowers.
Retro Stylin’ 2002 Knollwood Grads
Photo/Elaine Van Develde
A reprise in honor of that eighth grade Knollwood graduation on Wednesday … Congrats in advance, grads!
The Fair Haven Knollwood School grads are styling every year. And, the truth is that the eighth grade graduation attire has improved to the point of even parents turning wannabes of that mini-fashion world.
You’d have to admit, though, that fad dress-up attire has been kinder to the male gender over the years — except for the leisure suit. That was an unforgiving polyester fashion fail.
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