Category Archives: Local Life

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

Retro RFH Tower Players Show Time

This was a rehearsal for Neil Simon’s ‘Plaza Suite’ at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School circa 1976. Photo/screen shot of RFH yearbook.

Oh, it’s show time at RFH on Friday with the opening of the Tower Players’ fall production of Sherlock Holmes.

One thing that’s elementary, as Sherlock says, is that going on with the show is a time honored tradition at RFH. Remember?

So, these Retro Pics of the Day offer a glimpse back to rehearsals for the Tower Players’ production of Plaza Suite circa 1976.

Yours truly was in the cast . And it was a “memorable” experience considering that my co-star — a very nice guy who at an RFH reunion told me he was unwittingly duped into doing the show and had no desire massive stage fright — dropped five pages worth of lines and left me circling the stage with a dessert cart rambling like Edith Bunker on an especially menopausal day. Not a cue to be picked up. Ten minutes later, which is eternity for a floundering actor on stage, he picked up a line or two, just in time to end the scene.

Rehearsal for Plaza Suite circa 1976.
Photo/RFH yearbook

Thanks to Dan Olshansky for dropping those lines. It was the start of some hardcore actor improv training and a not-so-glamorous, but nonetheless professional and loads of fun, longtime career in the field. So, it’s not the lines that count, it’s the character — or something like that.

Now, two more nights left for “Line please!”

Cheers to the cast of Sherlock Holmes! And cast, please don’t really break any legs.

Retro Rumson High Class of 1935 Pic

Our reflections this week of the pain and pride that exudes — sometimes in the most peculiar pronouncements — from students at class picture time have so far taken us back to a couple of classic Rumson and Fair Haven elementary school group shots from the 1970s.

Now, in honor of the upcoming 100th birthday of likely the only living member of the Rumson High School Class of ’35, here’s a glimpse back to those times and that tiny high school class.

Continue reading Retro Rumson High Class of 1935 Pic

Happy Retro RFH Halloween!

Happy haunting Halloween from the RFH Class of ’78!

Who are those guys and ghouls?

Thanks to George Day for these timeless photos!

Focus: Sandy, Five Years Ago

It was the year that Halloween wasn’t. It was 2012 and Superstorm Sandy had pummeled the Jersey Shore. It decimated Sea Bright and destroyed low lying parts of Rumson. Fair Haven was a bit war torn and powerless.

Beach cabanas landed like Dorothy’s house to the Witch of the East on West Park lawns. Boats were hoisted by surging water onto dock tops and back yards. Gunning Island, in the Shrewsbury River, was loaded with the moored belongings of Sea Bright and Rumson people. Trees were downed. Transformers exploded.

Sea Bright residents were homeless. The beach was in the road. Sea Bright Rising began with some good-hearted burger flipping by Woody’s owner Chris Wood and chef Onofrio Moscato. The U.S. Army National Guard was parked in the Sea Bright municipal lot. There was no electricity.

There was a curfew. At nightfall, people scurried back into their homes, if there was anything left to go home to, like moles burrowing into cold, still night. Things were awfully dark. And Halloween was cancelled. There was no treat in Sandy’s trickery, just in the kindness of those who were good neighbors.

Take a look back … (and click to enlarge).

— Elaine Van Develde

Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Retro RFH Halloween Parading

RFH ghouls, or something like that, on parade in 1977
Photo/George Day

Well, scary season is upon us. I’m not talking about politics, I’m talking about Halloween.

RFHers have been celebrating Halloween for decades. It’s a tradition.

Today was the RFH Halloween parade, which is in the halls, on the grounds and sometimes spilling elsewhere.

So, the Retro Pic of the (George) Day honors the RFH Halloween parade with a look back on one in the 1970s.

Recognize any of these guys and ghouls?

Thanks to George Day for this haunting look back at Halloween RFH style! 

Retro Remembrance: Rumson Jersey Girl Kit Rowett

She might have hated all this attention. Then again, maybe not. It’s a pretty sure bet that it would have at least cracked a smile on her face, perhaps followed by an eye roll and a wise crack. Sister Chris told me that during the end of her battle with cancer, Kit Rowett (White) was enjoying reconnecting with friends on Facebook and remembering good times with old friends and family.

Continue reading Retro Remembrance: Rumson Jersey Girl Kit Rowett

Retro RFH Hunt Party Starters II

RFHers get supplies to the tailgates at The Hunt in the late 1970s or early 80s
Photo/RFH reunion slideshow screenshot

So, at last retro view of The Hunt, RFHers were making their way onto the grounds of the Amory Haskell estate in the late 1970s or early 80s with lots supplies and spirit (or spirits) in tow.

Continue reading Retro RFH Hunt Party Starters II