A look, in photos, of latest area events, local everyday people and places.
The following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again, on the year without a fair, in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated along with my dad, Bill …
Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: My Balloon MamaThey call it Family Night now. But, the Wednesday night of each Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is forever Firemen’s Night to any kid who grew up hearing sirens blaring through the streets where they lived on that eve that welcomed and honored firefighters from near and far to the fair grounds.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: A Firemen’s Night
On Monday morning, I’m going away with my friend …
It may have been a Saturday in the Sandpipers’ famed song Come Saturday Morning, but it sure looks like this Monday captured at Sea Bright’s sunrise today by longtime Fair Havenite and Knollwood School teacher, Andy Dougherty.
When morning has broken on a final summer’s day, nothing compares to the serene veracity of the moment, especially when shared with a childhood friend.
The softness of the vivid colors, the loud silence, the magic in the clouds’ formations, the whole world inside each droplet of a wave’s crash. The hush frozen in time in a minute’s worth of snapshots.
The simplest of moments atop a lifeguard stand with a best friend. Saturday or Monday, the awakening calm of the dawn, the moment remains, many of them …
“Just I and my friend. We’ll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles. And then we’ll move on. But we will remember … long after Saturday’s gone.”
The simplest of summers. Remember the moments. Savor them. Exhale with a smile.
On the historic year without the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we offer a look back at some classic moments of the past five years, since R-FH Retro has been roving the grounds freezing snippets of time.
To anyone who has grown up in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, the fair is a reuniter, an end-of-summer community anchor, a generous memory giver. So, on the year without the fair, here’s a look back at the more recent past and best of moments among friends who became family in a place called home. Take the ride with us …
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Rides & ReunionsThis Retro Pic(s) of the Day story was originally published on Aug. 25, 2015. It is being run again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, which would have been running this week. On a historic summer without the fair, we remember how some fair traditions got started, like lost fair art of candy apple making, waffle ice cream sandwiches. Then there’s the art of spinning cotton candy, something that was formerly mastered and commandeered by the late Millie Felsmann, also the champ of candy apple making. This is how they did it and continue to do it at the fair … Until we meet again at the Out Back in 2021 …
When it came to cotton candy — that fluffy spun light blue and pink sugar on a cone that melts in your mouth, on your mouth and many times on your hands, too — Millie Felsmann was the pro at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.
Don’t get us wrong, here. We know that Millie also commandeered the candy apple making. Yes, Candy Bennett was there, too — for many hours a day, making and selling those candy apples, apropos name and all. And, in another Retro Pic of the Day from 2015, we touted her as the candy apple lady.
Well, she was — she was Candy, the candy apple lady. Yes, Candy had a lot do do with those candy apples — but Millie was the boss. She, along with her troupe of kids and Candy, Betty Acker and Mrs. Frank, started work on those apples as early as 6:30 a.m.. And, even further back, to 1965 or 66, Mrs. Topfer made those apples, too.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: The Fair Art of Candy Apple Making, Cotton Candy Spinning & Ice Cream
It’s something to steep in … the thought of any sort of Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair food. Many do all fair week long. This year the steeping is limited to visions of fried seafood combo, steamers and clam chowder dancing in their heads. They’re the kind of dreams a seasoned fair goer needs to dive into.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Food To Go Now & Then
The bustle is hushed. The night remains still at the firehouse grounds. Trucks are in their place. There are no empty carnival rides, no tents, no fresh, sweet scents of cotton candy and fried fish wafting through the air. No one is cooking in the kitchen. All is quiet. Lights are out. A beacon in the mind’s eye casts shadows of decades before. The ghosts are all there, snuggled together on their grounds. They still came home. They are everywhere as we remember opening night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, which would have been this Friday BB, on a historic year without the fair ...
The night is still. A light is on. Trucks are out of the bays. Cartoony faces and ghosts in empty seats on unassembled carnival rides stare back in the dark. Someone’s cooking at the Fair Haven firehouse. It’s fair time.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Ode to Opening Night of The Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair
It’s a simple way to enjoy summer, especially in pandemic distancing times — tubing on a Thursday afternoon.
Continue reading Simple Summer: Tubing on the Navesink
As RFH reunions go, there are always milestone reunion years, just like with wedding anniversaries. And RFHers tend to make those banner years quite festive. A good party is something for which RFHers are famed, after all. After the 10th, the next biggie is usually the 25th, not that there aren’t many in between. Can’t keep RFHers apart for more than five years.
When the rain clears and the sun shines, shadows are cast. They offer a perspective of what’s behind, ahead and sometimes the view from beneath the surface. So, that in mind, we take a look back at last week, what’s to come this week and a little peek from beneath the surface in news, features and photos from under the Fair Haven Dock.
Continue reading R-FH Area Weekly Snapshot: Looking Back & Ahead, Weather, COVID & PicsSometimes, no matter how much organizers try, there just isn’t a season for every community event — especially in mid-2020 COVID-19 pandemic times.
Continue reading Fair Haven: September Oktoberfest-FH Day Done for 2020
A reprise, just because … the river is a time-honored hangout spot, great for what ails a kid or adult mid-pandemic, plenty of room to distance, and now with a possible threat of sharks. No murder hornets sighted yet … Remember the simpler times of close river encounters? The best of kids’ stuff …
It’s Friday, have you hung out with your River Rats this week?
It’s that longtime rat pack with which kids sail away the summer — River Rats.
Summers, since 1955, a group gathers at the end of Battin Road in Fair Haven to learn how to sail and bond. You’ve gotten a glimpse into those summer days down by the river with the good rats before.
This is yet another, more expansive shot.
It’s the Retro Pic of the Day circa 1970s; and it’s brought to us by RFH grad Marc Edelman.
Recognize anyone? Not in it? Rats!
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