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Our Retro Pic of the Day gives a glimpse, from the pages of the 1974 Forrestdale yearbook, into the baby faces of some of the eighth grade graduates back then.
The page is entitled Mouseketeers. Hmmmm.
Do you know any of these “model” students? Where were your baby pictures taken? And which of these gems is your favorite?
Tonight is Fair Haven Borough Council meeting night.
There are a few things on the agenda that may pique people’s interest.
First, Larry Quigley, a longtime resident who has served on roughly nine committees and commissions, including the Planning and Zoning boards and Historic Preservation Commission, will be honored with a proclamation.
Congratulations to Larry. Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect will be there to follow up with a full story.
In addition to Quigley’s proclamation, a few issues will be workshopped.
Among those issues on the agenda is a slated discussion on invasive (plant) species. Mayor Ben Lucarelli had said that while the borough is hesitant to be the arbiter of what people can and cannot plant on their properties, there have been problems with species — a certain variety of bamboo, in particular — rooting, creeping under property lines and cracking and unearthing driveways, for instance.
A speed limit change to River Road will also be discussed as will some tree permit denials.
To check out the agenda yourself, click here.
An official goal has been scored for four student athletes at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH).
Letters of Intent — the written commitments of those sports stars to play college soccer and football at certain schools — were signed on Feb. 4 in the RFH library.
Parents and faculty present, the following RFH athletes did their signing to the specified colleges on National Signing Day 2015:
• Sam Eisenstadt, Elon University, football;
• Meagan McGurl, Lafayette College, soccer;
• Grant Rataski, Bryant University, football;
• Charlie Volker, Princeton University, football.
Volker is one of four Shore Conference athletes who will play football in the Ivy League. Others will be playing for Yale University and University of Pennsylvania.
*Information culled from a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School press release.
That deep chill is still in the air and many minds are on warmth — like the toasty feeling you get when hitting the beach for some sun drenching and catching up with a buddy.
Our Retro Pic of the Day today is dedicated to soaking up that kind of sunny memory.
At the beginning of fall, Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect caught a moment between pals on the Sea Bright Public Beach.
Take a moment to remember such a snapshot in time of your own. And remember that the warmth will return.
Stay warm!
By Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven’s reorganization day may have come and gone, but a few appointments had yet to be made.
So, that business was completed at the Jan. 29 meeting with an appointment to the borough Planning Board, Memorial Park Advisory Committee and Historic Preservation Committee.
With all the post-Superbowl talk about the grandiose pop star-studded halftime, we figured our Retro Pic of the Day should be an ode to simpler, well, high school halftimes.
So, that in mind, our featured photo is of the 1976 RFH Marching Band.
No, there were no myriad costume changes, acrobatics, flying people or gigantic glass tigers (that was a tiger, right?) toting pop star Katy Perry, but these guys had a following of their own and their time to shine on the field.
We won’t editorialize on the Katy Perry popularity contest.
Now, who do you recognize in this RFH photo?
Yes, there’s a change in the weather — a hazardous one.
After a long night’s worth of rain, temperatures plummeted to below freezing kept falling while a heavy band of snow fell mid-afternoon in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.
About an inch of snow blanketed the ice and freezing sludge within an hour, making driving conditions slippery and treacherous pretty quickly.
The National Weather Service issued three advisories for the area: a winter weather advisory, in effect until midnight; a hazardous weather outlook, advising people check regularly about slippery road conditions; and a short term forecast, cautioning the dangerous effects of the weather and heavy snow showers for Monmouth and Ocean counties.
The short term forecast notified the public of the following for the night:
“THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE EVENING, PLUNGING TEMPERATURES AND STRONG GUSTY NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CONTINUE.
“SCATTERED FLURRIES WILL ALSO MOVE THROUGH. IF DRIVING, PLEASE BE CAREFUL AS ALL TEMPERATURES ARE BELOW FREEZING AND DROPPING. DRIVING OR WALKING
ON UNTREATED SURFACES WILL BE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS.”
The forecast for Monday night calls for a total snow accumulation of up to half an inch, northwest winds traveling anywhere from 18 to 26 miles per hour. Wind gusts could reach 44 miles per hour and the wind chill may dip as low as -1 degrees.
Tuesday is slated to be sunny with the same wind chill and a northwest wind of up to 13 miles per hour.
The following is an edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH):
Students from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) recently learned the stories behind the artwork and architecture of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.
Accompanied by their advanced placement (AP) art history teacher Kate Okeson for the “vertical tour” on Jan. 15, the behind-the-scenes, hour-long tour was described as “adventurous.”
On principal, all the cash that was asked for was $1. Now, only a few days after a devastating fire that destroyed longtime Monmouth Beach resident and former CFO/Tax collector Jim Fuller’s home, roughly $14,000 has been raised on a Go Fund Me page.
Knowing her uncle — a 53-year borough resident who is paraplegic — would be pridefully resistant to charity or anything that evoked pity, Fuller’s niece Laurie Escalante-Hernandez decided to set the funding goal at a symbolic $1, according to her narrative on the Go Fund Me page.
Why? Because she felt, knowing her uncle, that the cause is far from being one about about material possession. It’s about paying it forward — plain and simple, as she explained it.
“He has no idea I am writing this and when he finds out he is going to be very upset with me,” Escalante-Hernandez said on the Go Fund Me page. “The last thing he wants is anyone to pity him.”
And when Fuller found out about the page his niece set up, his reaction was as she had anticipated — “initially embarrassed and a bit upset.”
But, he explained in his own post, he was so overwhelmed with gratitude that “after a long cry, I realize(d) that it would be an insult to turn away any of the incredibly generous contributions or offers of help that I have received in person or seen on this site. I am humbled and honored beyond my ability to articulate it. Indeed, as I type this, I am weeping with gratitude and am just overwhelmed by all the love and support I am feeling.”
In keeping with her original intent to honor her uncle and abide by his modest wish to hang on to his pride, Escalante-Hernandes made it clear that the decision of how and what to give is priceless in itself.
“… Whether you donate money, clothes, your time and or services, a shoulder to cry on or simply an ear to listen, believe me it appreciated more than I can begin to explain,” Escalante-Hernandez said on the Go Fund Me page. “The sad fact is my uncle had no homeowners (stet) insurance and the house is a total loss. I would love for him to be able to rebuild his home but even if that’s not in the cards, I want you all to know that my family and especially my uncle will be forever grateful for everything that every one of you have done.”
She went on to explain what her uncle means to her and the community in which he has lived and served most of his life.
Fuller, she said, is 56 and has lived at 13 River Ave. in Monmouth Beach since the age of 3.
He is a 1974 graduate of Shore Regional High School; and, in his freshman year at Rutgers University, he was in a serious accident that ended up rendering him quadriplegic, Escalante-Hernandez’s post said.
After teaching himself to drive again, in 1979, Fuller began to work for the borough of Monmouth Beach, she added. He eventually became the borough’s tax collector and CFO.
He retired in 2012 after 33 years.
Fuller was rescued from the third floor during the early morning Jan. 28 fire, which was ruled accidental.
“I will be thanking everyone individually as I have the time, but I just wanted to express a public and deeply heartfelt thank you, to all who have reached out during this difficult time,” Fuller said on the Go Fund Me page. “You have turned despair into something beautiful. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. Bless you all.”
Click here for a direct link to the page where you may donate.
Our Retro Pic of the Day takes us back to a former mayor and Fair Haven Day fundraiser — Michael Halfacre at Oktoberfest 2014.
Oktoberfest is a relatively new annual event in the borough. It took hold in 2012 when officials decided that people enjoyed the centennial Fair Haven Day celebration so much that they’d have one every year in June.
The Foundation of Fair Haven, a (501c3) non-profit organization, was created to raise funds to offset the cost of the day, pay for fireworks, music and keep the food and drink prices low.
Since Oktoberfest has been such a hit, The Foundation of Fair Haven has decided to organize a luau dubbed Tiki Haven that’s slated for Feb. 28.
In light of the recent massacre of 12 staffers at the Paris headquarters of magazine Charlie Hebdo over a cartoon satirizing the Muslim prophet Muhammad, staff at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) held a seminar dubbed Art, Censorship and Violence for students to examine this and other similar global issues from both philosophical and historical perspectives.
The Jan. 13 study hall seminar, organized and hosted by RFH English teachers Erin Burke and Dana Maulshagen, social studies teachers Tom Highton and Mike Emmich, and art teacher Kate Okeson, 25 students opted to participate, a release from RFH said.
“Sometimes certain events occur and they really make you think about what you are doing at school and in your daily life,” Okeson told the students, according to the release. “We are hoping that this is just the start of a series of conversations we can have about what ‘plays out’ as a result of current events.”
Okeson sparked discussion by reading aloud from an Art, Censorship and Violence packet that was given to participants containing informational articles, links, and questions on the topic.
Among the issues addressed were those involving the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, or “freedom of speech,” the release added. Students and staff discussed the ways in which laws of certain cultures and religions can be misconstrued; and, whether anyone has the right to prevent any type of artist from displaying complete creative expression.
Questions the students grappled with: everything from “Does censorship promote ignorance?” to “Is freedom of expression always a good thing?”
“It is always a good idea to put yourself in the mindset of the people creating art, and to have an open mind toward other peoples’ perspectives as well as your own,” said sophomore Rachel Makstein in the release. “That might be a way to more fully understand creativity and censorship and other peoples’ motives.”
The teachers, according to the release, were pleased by the turnout as well as the results of the seminar and hope to plan similar events.
“I think that events like the one in Paris regarding censorship and violence can cause us to question ourselves,” Burke told the students. “But they also spark discussions like these, in which we are asking difficult questions such as ‘What is truly important for us to experience and be aware of?’
“I think we have all learned a lot from one another today, and I hope we can have more discussions like this in the future.”
By Elaine Van Develde
All was calm in the Rumson-Fair Haven area after the blizzard hysteria settled into nightfall after a manageable snow storm.
People shoveled, walked dogs, sledded down streets and a colorful sunset set in down by the Navesink River.
Life is good and all is well in the R-FH area.
See for yourself.
Click on the arrow in the center of the slideshow above and click on the bottom right corner for a glimpse into the scene set to music. Enjoy!
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