Category Archives: Local Life

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

Local Life, Opinion

Retro Getting In Step with an RFH Icon

Image
George Giffin moving feet to the beat with RFH Drill team girls
Photo/RFH Yearbook

A reprise originally posted on, no fooling, April 1, 2021, because on a dreary day, sometimes an RFHer just has to get up and dance. Cheers to the leader, the iconic George Giffin …

“OK, pick your dance partners,” RFH’s iconic George Giffin said at a 70s ballroom dance class.

The cool guys scurried to get the most popular girls as the tune countdown ticked away. I was the last girl left. Left footed, Lainey. Yep. Giff chuckled a little, looked at the two boys left as they backed into the wall like frightened wallflower turtles.

Continue reading Retro Getting In Step with an RFH Icon →
Local Life

Retro RFH Spring Fever Drive

Image
A little RFH spring fever springing in the 1970s? Photo/George Day
A little RFH spring fever springing in the 1970s
Photo/George Day

A reprise to warm hearts as the sun comes out and spring is on the horizon …

Spring is coming, folks. The weather is warming up. Sort of. People are shedding coats for sweaters and getting out and about a little more each day.

The sun has been peering brightly, albeit with a sting in the air. Call it classic spring fever. Thoughts of sunny, warm, spring-is-almost-in-the-air antics are racing through minds, especially those of high schoolers. 

Continue reading Retro RFH Spring Fever Drive →
Local Life

Retro RFH Dank Day Riders in the Commons

Image
Riding with the wind — or something — at RFH in the 1970s Photo/George Day
Riding with the wind — or something — at RFH in the 1970s
Photo/George Day

The sun has made an appearance or three lately, but not today. And people, like cooped-up RFH students are likely stir crazy and ready to make a break for it and ride out of bleak winter blues and into warm sunsets. Incognito or not.

Continue reading Retro RFH Dank Day Riders in the Commons →
Local Life, Opinion

A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with Mom

Image
  • Sally Van Develde at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair in 1969.
  • Sally Van Develde and Mary Farley

Our annual reprise honoring the inspiration for R-FH Retro — my mom, Sally Van Develde — on what would have been her 102nd birthday. A birthday wish … Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom. You remain in the hearts of so many … Besides, I won’t let them forget.

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?” ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

For the love of home and a Fair Haven mom … that’s right.

Sometimes a birthday without her is about lighting the candles, making the wish, sustaining the simple legacy of going home, staying home with my mom, Sally Van Develde.

Today would have been her 102nd birthday. If she had lived to blow out all those candles on her cake, I wondered what she would have done. What her wish would have been.

Keep Local News homegrown in Sally’s HONOR. Donate coffee.
Continue reading A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with Mom →
Local Life

Retro RFH Basketball Slam Dunkin’

Image
RFH Boys Basketball of the 1970s Photo/George Day
RFH Boys Basketball of the 1970s
Photo/George Day

A slam dunk of a reprise to honor the RFH Boys Basketball season … Go Bulldogs!

Yes, it’s basketball season. And there’s some championship kind of playing going on with the RFH Boys Basketball team, as usual.

And while some things never change, including family names still involved in the sport at RFH, there are also many changes — like uniforms and, of course, the audience.

Continue reading Retro RFH Basketball Slam Dunkin’ →
Local Life

Retro RFH Class Prez Stuff

Image

It’s the stuff … ing presidents are made of — or something like that.

In honor of Presidents Day, we’re honed in on presidents of the class kind — not country. And there have been many class presidents at RFH, some of whom have stuck out like beacons of, well, zaniness. Call them fearless fun leaders.

Continue reading Retro RFH Class Prez Stuff →
Local Life, Opinion

Old News: Valentine’s Day Sweet, Sour and Doughy

A Valentine’s Day reprise from last year …

Call it Valentine’s sustenance. Since Cupid’s arrow was first slung back in the dark ages, there have been hard hits, softer ones and total misses since. But there’s always been a little bit of sweet, sour and downright doughy satiation for the Valentine’s Day palate, with a little kooky sprinkled on top.

Continue reading Old News: Valentine’s Day Sweet, Sour and Doughy →
Local Life

Retro RFH Twirly Halftime Show Directors

The usual chatter about the Super Bowl halftime is always incessant. It’s still going on all over social media. And much like the seemingly nonstop beat, beat, beat of the music, those memories of the steady ol’ high school marching band rhythm drone on in the minds of retro thinkers.

So, we march to the beat and remember those RFH halftime shows of yesteryear. The memories are all about the high school band and a timeless show that hasn’t seen its football field stage or basketball court in decades.

Continue reading Retro RFH Twirly Halftime Show Directors →