Snowy days — or, rather, snow avalanche of late — bring back memories of winters past and how RFHers of yesteryear found some simple fun pretty fast when the school bell didn’t ring … or it did, but there was an escape to a thrill of a hill.
Continue reading Retro RFH Snow Day Hill ThrillCategory Archives: Local Life
A look, in photos, of latest area events, local everyday people and places.
A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with Mom
Our annual reprise honoring the inspiration for R-FH Retro — my mom, Sally Van Develde — on what would have been her 103rd birthday. A birthday wish … Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom. You remain in the hearts of so many … Besides, I won’t let them forget.
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?” ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz
For the love of home and a Fair Haven mom … that’s right.
Sometimes a birthday without her is about lighting the candles, making the wish, sustaining the simple legacy of going home, staying home with my mom, Sally Van Develde.
Today would have been her 102nd birthday. If she had lived to blow out all those candles on her cake, I wondered what she would have done. What her wish would have been.
Continue reading A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with MomFocus: Filling Up On Community, Spaghetti and Meatballs
Plates weren’t just full, they were overflowing — with spaghetti, meatballs and community love.
Continue reading Focus: Filling Up On Community, Spaghetti and MeatballsOld News: Stirring the Pot at the Spaghetti Dinner

The following is a reprise of our Old News column, originally posted on Jan. 30, 2024, about the Fair Haven Fire Department’s Spaghetti Dinner, because tonight’s the night for the longtime annual tradition. Mangia!
People have been filling their gullets with a heaping helping of spaghetti and meatballs at the Fair Haven Fire Department’s annual spaghettini dinner for several decades. And tonight will be no exception.
Continue reading Old News: Stirring the Pot at the Spaghetti DinnerThe R-FH Area Weekend: Spaghetti Dinner Date

Tomorrow is not just another Saturday night. And you do have someone — a whole Fair Haven Fire Department community. It’s a traditional date.
Continue reading The R-FH Area Weekend: Spaghetti Dinner DateRetro RFH Class Prez Stuff

It’s the stuff … ing presidents are made of — or something like that.
In honor of Presidents’ Day (week), we’re honed in on presidents of the high school class kind — not country. And there have been many class presidents at RFH, some of whom have stuck out like beacons of, well, zaniness. Call them fearless fun leaders.
Continue reading Retro RFH Class Prez StuffRetro RFH Presidential Spirit of ’76


Photos/RFH Yearbook
It’s Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday. So, it seemed only appropriate to continue in that theme with retro RFH photos — class presidents, their teams and even the top administrator.
Why not? If the day fits … And, lest we forget that back in the 1970s, there was a bicentennial for the U.S.A. going on. And there was much making of the year in the theme of RFH festivities and the yearbook.
The RFH Class of ’76, in fact, reprised its own ode to our first president, George Washington, with a mock crossing of, shall we say, McCarter Pond?
Continue reading Retro RFH Presidential Spirit of ’76Old News: Valentine’s Day Sweet, Sour and Doughy Deeds
A Valentine’s Day reprise from last year …
Call it Valentine’s sustenance. Since Cupid’s arrow was first slung back in the dark ages, there have been hard hits, softer ones and total misses since. But there’s always been a little bit of sweet, sour and downright doughy satiation for the Valentine’s Day palate, with a little kooky sprinkled on top.
Continue reading Old News: Valentine’s Day Sweet, Sour and Doughy DeedsRetro RFH Library Chillin’

Photo/RFH Yearbook
Once upon a time, when the cold snap started, so did the antics in the library at RFH. And there to keep everyone in line and keep up one step, or a chair, ahead of the antsy foul-weather pranksters were those library aides.
Continue reading Retro RFH Library Chillin’Rumsonite Jeff Walling Joins Sandy Hook Foundation Board
The Sandy Hook Foundation, the nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of Sandy Hook’s natural, cultural and historic resources and visitor experience enhancement, has named two new members to its Board of Trustees, one a Rumsonite.
Continue reading Rumsonite Jeff Walling Joins Sandy Hook Foundation BoardRetro RFH Senior Lounge Groovin’

Photo/RFH Yearbook
The year was 1974 and the top hits were The Way We Were and Seasons in the Sun. Ironic …
And back in that year, the seniors at RFH had plenty of joy and fun and some seasons out of the sun. That was OK, though, because they had they had the Senior Commons for those chilly, wintry dank days. It was just the way they were — literally sinking into the groove, known as the groovy floor, in the lounge.
Continue reading Retro RFH Senior Lounge Groovin’Retro RFH Foul Weather Junior ‘Lounging’
A little cheer in a reprise all about simple fun to be had in foul weather lounging and an antic or a few at RFH …
Some moments are meant for just lounging … like this persistent foul, frigid weather. Yes, lounging, even if those snippets of indoor time at RFH are inside a far less cozy, yet exclusive, special high school nook like the junior, as opposed to upper crust senior, lounge.
Continue reading Retro RFH Foul Weather Junior ‘Lounging’





















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