2015 FHFD Spaghetti Dinner Photo/Elaine Van Develde
What better way to take the chill out of the winter air than by kicking off the weekend with a little music at the hands of area musicians and finishing it with a homemade spaghetti dinner among community friends?
The soothing starts tonight with music by longtime Rumsonite and RFH grad, Kyle Ward and the Elk-Ward Duo at a new venue, the Long Branch Distillery, at the foot of Broadway from 8 to 10:30 p.m. Ward has been playing in the area for some time now, so this is a great time to catch up with him.
And, if a riverfront night of kicking back in traditional style and listening to local talent tickle the ivories is more your mojo, pianist Conor Quigley will be playing from 6 to 10 p.m. at the bar in The Molly Pitcher Inn.
And on Saturday in Fair Haven …
A real classic, down-home night is back! The now Angelo DePonti Memorial Spaghetti Dinner at the Fair Haven Firehouse from 5 to 8 p.m. upstairs. Spaghetti, meatballs and dessert will be served for a nominal fee to benefit the volunteer fire department.
The dinner is making its comeback from a pandemic hiatus and features, as always, the sauce and meatball recipes of former longtime Fire Company social member Angelo DePonti, who, for years, was there to concoct and oversee the making of the meals, stirring the pot and serving up some homemade sustenance with true love of community, a smile and a thumbs up.
The dinner, since DePonti’s death, has been dedicated to him. So, take a trip over and mangia to see what “That’s amore!” really means.
And the weekend is looking pretty tame, with a glint of sun showing some promise. Here’s the forecast. Enjoy!
RFH Senior Lounge days in the 1970s Photo/George Day
Rain, rain go away. Chill with the RFH seniors and everything be OK. It could have been a 1970s mantra, albeit a very corny one.
Let’s face it, though, those lounges at RFH made foul weather times just fine. And, lately, it’s been downright dank. That’s one of those words that just sounds like what it is. Yuck!
Dr. John Movelle and wife Betty circa 2001 Photo/Kathy Robbins
With the new year’s reorganizations of governing bodies and fire company and first aid line officers, it’s about that time for what follows — the Fair Haven Fire Department’s longstanding traditional Installation Dinner.
It’s a time to thank the outgoing line officers and welcome the incoming, dance, eat and offer a few cheers for the coming year.
So, the Retro Pic of the Day, contributed by Kathy Robbins (and originally published in 2016), offers a look back at a popular Fair Haven doctor and his wife at the dinner.
They were officers and gentlemen serving their small town as volunteer emergency responders. Yes, it’s that time. Reorganization time.
Oh, there are classic New Year’s Day celebrations to usher in the new line officers in the fire departments — fire company, fire police and first aid. There are new chiefs and officers. We’ll get to who they all are for 2023 in Fair Haven.
Winter, spring, summer or fall … you’ve got a friend, as the Carole King song goes. Your tried and true friend? Places that anchor us all in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.
Sometimes it seems as if a river view is a window to heaven … on Earth.
And as the sunny late December view ushers in a new year, it offers clarity. The clarity of the beauty of home — where you can feel infinite peace emanating from a living Rumson landscape. A landscape that breathes a sigh of contentment. A landscape that beckons you at low tide into its rising tide of tranquility. The comfort of quiet solitude in its good company.
It’s always good company — the river, its inlets and marshland. It’s where all the gentlest elements meet for a nurturing hug and reflection. This time it’s the sun, the blue sky, traveled clouds mirroring in a small looking glass pool of water. The way it all looks back, casting the most golden of glows on wet sand that holds each mark of where many walks of life have been, gone and settled.
It’s a new year. Time to set out to leave more footprints, make your marks — marks of walking toward the satiety of that clear, peaceful view in your own back yard. Marks that stay. Marks emblazoned, emboldened by the sun. Marks in that sand that go out with the tide to wash up on another’s shore, leaving the grains of goodness that were once imprints.
Happy New Year.
River inlet view in Rumson Photo/Doug Borden
Warmer days are ahead for the first week of 2023, albeit with a bit of dampness …
**Thanks to RFH alum Doug Borden for these spectacular river views!**
In so many puns, that’s what’s going on with at least one family of Rumsonites and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School grads. They’ve been clamming down for some time now. But, the sun came out the other day and RFH Class of ’78 grad Doug Borden and daughter Devon, also an RFH grad … were at it again. This has become a family affair habit of the bivalve kind. This father-daughter duo hit the sand by the river and dug themselves up some more clams yesterday. There have been other Borden duo digs recently, too, involving the other kids.
No, they haven’t considered the profession, which can be quite lucrative, yet arduous, raking away in the sea with a high capsizing risk on a bad day. Still, their new pastime rakes in a lot of clams.
They’re sticking with the river banks. They family clam diggity diggers have done it before and, well, gotten quite clammy over the whole idea. Dig that. And they did. They just hit the sand and dig. Dinner. River bank to table.
No doubt, the scenery is great, but the bivalves are fresh and homegrown — perfect for the holiday palate. Nothing like dinner from the back yard, especially when it’s down by the river.
Celebrating life and times with old RFH friends circa late 1970s Photo/courtesy of Doug Borden
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? The words of the 18th century Scottish ballad gone New Year’s Eve classic really means, “Should we forget old friends?” Of course not.
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