Category Archives: Local Life

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

Retro RFH Girls Basketball Slam Dunk

RFH Girls Basketball Team circa late 1970s
Photo/RFH Yearbook, courtesy of Nerphrita Norris

The RFH Girls Basketball team culminated its season as top seed in NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group II. And while the team lost to second-seeded Manasquan recently, the girls team has always been considered champion material.

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Focus: Sunshine & Rumson St. Patrick’s Day Parading

Everyone said it. Sunday was a great day for a parade. And so the marchers marched under sunny skies in the Eighth Annual Rumson St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Take a look at some of the sights and folks of the day … (And don’t forget to click in the lower gallery to enlarge and scroll!)

Photos/Sue Hill-Spakowski and Jenny Costello for R-FH Retro

Scene Around: Rumson Dog Daze of Spring

As everyone preps to spring forward in time, Daylight Saving, that is, it was a dog day afternoon of sunshine on the beach for many, yesterday and today.

Rumson dog Nancy (right) took a romp on the beach at Sandy Hook with Winter (left), her dog friend. In the ironic little play date pairing, the two did a little digging and imprinting and found one another’s shadow.

Nancy, the four-legged child of Rumsonite Sue Hill-Spakowski, is quite the poser. She has been seen around the towns making some keen nature observations, having tea and cavorting.

According to Nancy, spring is definitely in the air and in her step. And she’s right.

Predictions for the rest of the week and weekend, according to the National Weather Service, are that, despite a little rainfall Friday after 2 p.m. and a possibility of some snow mixing with it overnight, the outlook for the weekend is a sunny one with temperatures reaching a high of about 53 degrees on Sunday.

Forget the groundhog. Nancy knows all. Where shall we see Rumson dog Nancy next?

See something fun or interesting? Take a snapshot. Send it to us at [email protected] and we’ll include it in our Scene Around feature for the area. Send photos with proper credit only. Focus and find the good little things that count in your community.

Scene Around: A Teacher, A Test & A 90th Birthday

Remember when you were a kid and you thought that your probably 40-year-old teacher was ancient? It’s a pretty common notion for young ones. Then they reach their 40s and wonder what the heck they were thinking.

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Retro RFH Tower Players’ Tech Week

Another RFH Tower Players show opening, another tech week. So it goes in the theater world, high school or not. This opening is for the musical Footloose and, yes, it goes like that. This week is tech week. And while tech week has always been run during the week of the show, there are lots of techie differences from decades ago to now.

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Retro RFH Rainy Day Lounging

Since rainy days and Tuesdays sometimes get you down, it’s the perfect time to look back again on some upbeat lazy days of lounging at RFH as a junior. So, we reprise this Retro Pic of the Day originally posted in 2018 on, you guessed it, a rainy day …

Out came the sun on Monday. Then came the dank, drizzly rain on Tuesday. Everyone feels it. Even high schoolers. And everyone knows that usually with that dreary weather comes a little bit of an antsy, lackadaisical mood — especially for students cooped up in a high school all day. Yes, when it rains, it tends to pour mischief in the high school halls. Call it a little shut-in sickness.

But, back in the day, there was a remedy for what ailed RFH students when lazy, hazy days drenched with dismal weather set in. That remedy was the artfully 70s-style painted brick-and-pillar Junior Lounge.

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Rumson Police Chief’s Winning Plunge

Call it a double hail to the chief. As is now tradition for him, Rumson Police Chief Scott Patterson dove into a cause in which he believes — Special Olympics NJ — and ended up being the top fundraiser for its 2020 Polar Bear Plunge at Seaside on Saturday. This was his second consecutive year of swimming success as top individual fundraiser.

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Retro RFH Class President’s Play

Speaking of presidents and their day, week, year or moment … There’s nothing quite as high school class presidential as a pack leader inspiring some hijinks. And here he is … RFH Class of ’78 President Greg Nowell.

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Retro RFH Presidents’ Day

Call it an RFH Presidents Day tribute. There have been many — high school class presidents. And each RFH class has had its way of voting for and honoring its presidents.

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Retro RFH Boys Basketball Courting

A twirly halftime show on the RFH Basketball court was the feature of one of last week’s Retro Pics of the Day. It was all about the twirl and the traditional celebration of the game with that show of support and skilled entertainment half way through. But then there were those guys they were championing.

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Retro RFH Twirly Halftime Show Directors

The usual chatter about the Super Bowl halftime is incessant. 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.

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