Ahoy! Ship Ahoy, to locals beaching it back in the summer of ’63, that is.
Yes, it’s locals’ summertime. Always has been. And the locals’ summer spots have always been a place of respite from the out-of-towner beach crowd in the Rumson-Fair Haven area. They call them beach clubs.
Reprise, because the countdown to Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time has begun! Yes, there are games of chance at the fair, but most would agree that everyone’s a winner with the fair and its cache of memories for any area-raised kid. Spin …
“Round and round she goes; and, where she stops, nobody knows.”
That usual was the sing-song mantra echoed through the grounds of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair back in the day. It was emanating from the guys manning the game of chance booths that still line the grounds — the loud ticking of the wheel with the spin, numbers going round and round, fingers crossed, breath held … until they stopped on that winning number. “Aaaaaand we have a WINNER!” Woohoo!
A reprise … because on hot summer days everyone needs to take a trip back to the coolest of Rumson Dock days of the late 1950s in honor of summertime in the Rumson-Fair Haven area …
Leave Lola and the Devil out of it. Whatever RFHers want, RFHers get …
And, back in the summer of ’75, they wanted summer stock theater. And they got it — a brutally fun load of it crammed into five dramatic dancing, singing, acting weeks among RFHers.
They got hosed. It was a modern suburban scene that looked like a vintage city kids’ summer spree. But it wasn’t. It was just yesterday. And it was in a small town — Rumson.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale … about an eight-hour tour, or hundreds, on the river in Rumson.
The part about this typical eight-hour tour in Rumson that doesn’t jibe with the three-hour tour Gilligan’s Island folks is that the kids on these “tours” sailed right into a marooning of their own making on what’s known as Starvation Island, just minutes from home. Who knew or cared, though? No one except the jolly river adventurers.
The FHFD girls on the boat to be raffled at the fair circa 1960s Photo/.FHFD
The heat is on and the countdown has already begun to the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.
And, back in the day, the 1960s day, the fire department, rather than raffling off a car, SUV or a big chunk of cash (as in Super 50/50), decided to make a boat the prized prize of the fair. And they advertised that with the help of some fire department-affiliated bathing beauties.
There’s nothing like chillin’ among best RFH friends on a hot summer night. And there’s nothing like those friends doing the same thing nearly 50 years later.
Summer days down by the Fair Haven Dock Photo/Elaine Van Develde
A reprise in honor of the heat of summer, the warmest of times and freedom and fun times at the Fair Haven Dock among kid friends …
Summer fun in Fair Haven doesn’t get any simpler or more treasured than ending the day down by the Fair Haven Dock, sand between the toes, a few antics up the sleeve, a little seaweed in the shorts, and a crab or 20. Dock time has been a time-honored tradition for kids since, well, the dawn of time.
A summer day at Great Adventure with RFHers of the late 1970s/early ’80s. Photo/Marc Edelman
Reprise, because it’s a scorcher of a summer …
The scorching summer heat lately has made taking a flying leap into a fountain, or any body of water, a goal to which many aspire — and attain as the need to cool down beckons.
In fact, summer days, for RFHers, weren’t always all about beach clubbing it and keeping cool, fun times local.
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