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Local Life

Scene Around: Rumsonite Renee Swartz’s Literacy Honor Among Friends

You could say she’s booked. In fact, she’s been booked for quite some time.

Longtime former Rumsonite Renee Swartz was recently (on July 19), and quite literally, booked at an event honoring her work with Monmouth County Library System since 1960 and, mostly, her retirement from her work since 2001 as founder and chair of the NJ Center for the Book at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank.

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Local Life

Focus: Washed in River Daze

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Call it a wash. Down came that rain and washed the murky, humid muck in the air away.

And like the song, it seems like “you can see forever more,” especially from the iconic shores of the Navesink down by Barnacle Bill’s. No matter how far a hometown Rumsonite or Fair Havenite roams, the riverfront always calls them back to hold them tight.

It’s never a fishing expedition. The line was cast long ago and the anchor never rusts. This one’s a diamond. Unbreakable, it glistens with magnetic light shining, calling from deep in the river’s sandy floor.

The precious anchor stone’s gleam reflects in that hometown kid’s eyes, offering the view no one else has. It’s from that river’s shores that, murk or not, that kid at heart can see more clearly every inch of beauty that’s always been there, yet still lies ahead. They look back while looking ahead to see those little big things that brought them there. Held them there.

Those things? They’re still holding … with soothing tightness.

Hold those thoughts and keep them … like a kid collecting shells down by the river.

Click on one photo in the above gallery to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy the view!

— Elaine Van Develde

The weather forecast …

Heatwave humidity and wildfire smoke has cleared. Here’s what’s in store with the weather in the Rumson-Fair Haven area through the weekend and into next week.

Local Life

Retro Sizzling Rumson Dock Girls’ 50s Summer

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Rumson girls Alice Coyle Mansfield and Linda Zerr Feeny in the late 50s
Photo/Ken Card, courtesy of Alice Mansfield
Alice Mansfield and Linda Feeny now

Reprise, because everyone’s asking about those hot Rumson girls of the 1950s dock days. And they’re still around the towns …

Well, we are steeped in steamy summer heat. And there’s really nothing more sizzling summer hot than two Rumson girls of the 1950s who took the plunge into and out of summers together — suited up, off the Rumson Dock and into a longtime friendship.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Rumson Summer: The Barn Theater

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Clip of press photo for The Barn Theater's production of "The Fantasticks" in the summer of 1977
Clip of press photo for The Barn Theater’s production of “The Fantasticks” in the summer of 1977
"Bye Bye Birdie" at The Barn Theater in Rumson circa summer of 1977 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
“Bye Bye Birdie” at The Barn Theater in Rumson circa summer of 1977
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

The following piece was originally posted on July 8, 2015. As we dive into summer season, we thought it only fitting to remember good summer times outside of the usual beach romp for those who grew up and raised their families in the Rumson-Fair Haven area — summer theater. Once upon a time, there was a special little place in Rumson called The Barn … Take a trip back with us to  simple summers and magical, theatrical times … 

Remember The Barn Theater in Rumson?

Well, if you don’t, you missed out and are probably significantly younger than those who do and didn’t — miss out, that is.

It’s a plus if you’re that young. But, it’s definitely a factor in the minus category if you didn’t work, play or get entertained there.

It was a community theater that cast hundreds, maybe thousands, from the area, including many Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) students.

The building is still there, only a few blocks away from the high school on Avenue of Two Rivers near the intersection at Ridge Road. The reason why it was called The Barn was, well, because it was an old barn, gutted (if there is such a thing with a barn) and converted into a small arena-type stage theater, with the stage at floor level and risers around it as seats, though not all the way around.

You get the picture. Now, here’s what’s behind the place’s show folk and shows …

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