Category Archives: Local Life

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

Local Life

Focus: Freedom Festival Rockin’ in Sea Bright

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A sunny Sunday made for a festival first in Sea Bright.

In a niche by the boardwalk, music played for a few hours as people gathered to soak up some seaside sun, listen to speakers, take part in activities, peruse booths and tents, mingle and gather resource information for addiction recovery as the First Annual Fall Freedom Festival got underway.

The aim of the festivals is to “offer free resources for freedom from addiction, fear and co-dependency,” a banner said. “Uniting Resources for the Courage to Change,” the subhead of the banner said.

Take at the photo gallery below for a glimpse into the event … (Click to enlarge!)

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Local Life

Retro RFH Fall R & R

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Lounging on the VW at RFH in the 1970s
Photo/RFH Yearbook

 

A reprise as an ode to an old normal and return of those sunny fall days we’ve been having … 

Everyone’s falling for the summery fall in the Rumson-Fair Haven area  lately. It makes an RFH student want to escape the classroom with a spring fever-like fervor.

Continue reading Retro RFH Fall R & R →

Local Life

Retro RFH Aides’ Time Out

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RFH library aides do chair battle in the 1970s Photo/RFH Yearbook

You’ve seen it before, but it warrants a reprise. With the recent death of aide Joan Blake RFHers all over are reminiscing about their time, or doing time, with those RFH aides. And every good RFH grad knows that they sometimes had to resort to techniques to tame us beasts that likely would get them in a heap of trouble, just like misbehaving students, if they were implemented nowadays. So, we revisit doing hard time in the library with those aides at RFH on a rainy day laden with those doldrums that they always seemed to chase away, even if it was with a chair …

Once upon a time, when the rain started, so did the antics in the library at RFH. And there to keep everyone in line and keep up one step, or a char, ahead of the antsy foul weather pranksters were those library aides.

Continue reading Retro RFH Aides’ Time Out →
Local Life, Obituaries

Focus: Rich Chandler’s Fair Haven Goodbye

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The picture of his childhood friend caught his eye. Among the cozy chatter of old friends and family, he left the conversation at the table staring, transfixed for a brief moment. The sudden silence in his own head overcame him, welled up a bit in his eyes as he moved toward the picture of his old friend that seemed to call to him.

Continue reading Focus: Rich Chandler’s Fair Haven Goodbye →
Local Life

Retro Hippie Hill Hunt Scene

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It’s that time the year again when thoughts of old-time Hunt times come flooding back for many Rumson-Fair Haven area folks. There may still be a Hunt, but not this one. So, we are offering a glimpse back to the days of the Haskell Hunt from a non-tailgating vantage point with a reprise of the following Retro Pic(s) of the Day piece originally posted on Oct. 20, 2017 … 

The hunt for more Hunt photos ensued and the find was a treasure trove of glimpses at the happening scene up on hip, hip Hippie Hill. RFH grad and Hippie Hill frequenter Bird Jensen reminded us last year that the last weekend in October “would’ve been the weekend we’d all gather at Hippie Hill.” 

Fair Havenite Tom Bull’s description of The Hunt to “outsiders” has quickly become a classic: “I used to explain to people how it was a cross between a Grateful Dead concert and a Grey Poupon commercial.”

The elegant tailgating part shown in previous years would be the Grey Poupon commercial aspect. We will reprise that next. Hippie Hill is the Grateful Dead concert side — or so it would naturally seem.

So, here’s the Dead concert — or, perhaps, a little Lennon soirée …

It was probably the late 1970s. These peacefully assembled cool long hairs and renegades likely snuck into the Haskell Hunt through the fence and onto that infamous hill on ol Amory Haskell’s elegant estate. Call them musicians, concertgoers and peace pipe tokers, if you will.

Continue reading Retro Hippie Hill Hunt Scene →
Arts & Entertainment, Local Life

Living the Dream: A Native Fair Havenite’s Navesink Love Story

“My peace-and-quiet maker. My trusted secret keeper. My adventure sharer.
My Navesink.”

Judy Goddard
My Navesink (left) and Judy & Tom Goddard (right) at the RFH Class of ’78 reunion in 2018 with classmate Alex Christie … Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Judy Russell Goddard is in love. And the native Fair Havenite has a story to show and tell all about her lifetime love affair.

Continue reading Living the Dream: A Native Fair Havenite’s Navesink Love Story →
Local Life

Retro RFH Soccer Kicks: From Snapshots to Livestream

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  • RFH soccer in the late 1970s Photo/George Day
  • A swift soccer kick during the 1970s at RFH Photo/George Day

You could say that some RFH friends and fans really get a kick out of soccer. And, it’s a special kind of kick this season — the kind that boots a little cheer into pandemic times.

The whistle was blown and they let the games begin last week. And on Thursday there are both boys’ and girls’ team games to be played in addition to a full season.

Continue reading Retro RFH Soccer Kicks: From Snapshots to Livestream →
Local Life

Retro RFH Band Plays the Field Time

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RFH Marching Band circa 1970s
Photo/RFH Yearbook

Cheers! A reprise from 2016 in honor of a different kind of season during which, according to RFH posts, the band plays on …

It’s that time of the year. It’s football season — a pandemic season, at that. And that means it’s also time for the RFH Marching Band to play the field, too. They’ve been talking about practice on Twitter and they’re taking their marching orders well.

Continue reading Retro RFH Band Plays the Field Time →
Local Life

Scene Around: Fisk Chapel’s Community Spirited Dress-Up

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The call came for neighbors, friends, paint brushes, scrapers, masks and soaring helping spirits. That call was heeded over the weekend at the Fisk Chapel AME Church in Fair Haven as many showed to get the church with historic roots dressed up in its Sunday best.

Continue reading Scene Around: Fisk Chapel’s Community Spirited Dress-Up →
Local Life

Clipped Perspective: A 60s R-FH Area Back-to-School Era

It’s a different kind of back-to-school week this pandemic-affected school year. That’s for sure. Students were back to school, part virtually and part in the classroom or outdoor class, in the Rumson-Fair Haven area this week. Those classic first day of school shots were plastered all over Facebook.

Continue reading Clipped Perspective: A 60s R-FH Area Back-to-School Era →
Local Life, Opinion

Retro First Day of School, First Friend & The Rope

Our annual reprise about that first day of school and walking the rope in Fair Haven is dedicated to the memory of Pam Young, my first friend and Fair Haven neighbor. Pam passed away on July 7 at 60. The memories of her are forever etched in my heart. No one ever forgets their first friend, first neighbor. All the firsts with that special first are indelible. Thank you for knocking on my door that first day and asking if I could come out and play. I will never understand why that lady wouldn’t let us walk together on the rope … I also never forgot. Not a thing …

“But I don’t wanna walk on the rope next to her!” I cried from under my fresh-cut kindergarten bangs. “I wanna walk on the rope next to Pam!”

Pam was my neighbor. She was my best buddy. It was 1965.

Continue reading Retro First Day of School, First Friend & The Rope →