Category Archives: News

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Local Life, Opinion

Scene Around: Townie Walk with Ray Taylor

The following story was originally posted on Sept. 10, 2021 … after a chat with Mr. Ray Taylor on is way to the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair. With the very sad news today of Mr. Taylor’s passing, we are reprising it in his honor. As all in the area grapple with the death of this cornerstone of the borough and we struggle to pay the best of tributes to him in a story, this serves as a simple, happy reminder of what really matters. Rest In Peace, Mr. Taylor, the best of best friends to Fair Haven. We will always remember. Read on. Remember. Smile …

“I got to keep movin’!”

That’s the first thing that came out of 98-year-old Ray Taylor’s mouth when R-FH Retro ran into him doing his usual walking and savoring the smallest of moments in his Fair Haven hometown.

Continue reading Scene Around: Townie Walk with Ray Taylor →
Local Life

Focus: Docked & Chasing the Moon

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Sometimes, the basics are the most meaningful. It’s pretty black-and-white. A night view from the Fair Haven Dock always anchors what really matters. It needs no color, no enhancement. Just the simple starkness, sky and moon.

Sometimes what really matters most is just finding the moon, taking in its night magic and chasing those beams. It’s far better than counting elusive sheep. Night time. River time. Best of times and sighs.

A real Goodnight Moon. Gaze and find in our river moon dance gallery.

(Click on one pic to enlarge, find the moon and scroll to the next. Enjoy!)

And while you’re moon gazing and chasing, check out the moody weekend R-FH area weather from the National Weather Service …

Local Life

Police Appreciation: Retro Rumson PD

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  • Rumson Police Chief Scott Paterson at the A.J. Bruder Memorial Rumson Run. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Photos/Rumson PD & Elaine Van Develde

Reprise in honor of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Appreciating Rumson police …

It wouldn’t be a true honoring of Law Enforcement Appreciation Day without taking a look back at Rumson police as well, belated as it may be. They call the area the Rumson-Fair Haven area for a reason — community.

Continue reading Police Appreciation: Retro Rumson PD →
Local Life

Police Appreciation: Retro Fair Haven PD

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Fair Haven police of decades ago and a few years ago/Photos … FHPD

The following is a reprise of last year’s (Jan. 13) ode to Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, which was Saturday, Jan. 9. In case you missed last year’s the sentiment is the same. A big thank you! Here’s to the Fair Haven officers.
Rumson PD will be featured tomorrow.

Law Enforcement Appreciation Day was Jan. 9. So, looks at Fair Haven police of the past and present were peppering social media.

Continue reading Police Appreciation: Retro Fair Haven PD →
Local Life

Focus: Down By the River 2021

Gallery

River time is coveted time for Rumson-Fair Haven area people. Stealing away to capture its peace is a time-honored, often daily, tradition.

Here’s our window into what the river view brought us in 2021.

(Click on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy! Ahhhhh … river time!)

The most popular was the black-and-white “A Leg Up” — a testament to survival with a river view during pandemic times.

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde exclusively for R-FH Retro

Continue reading Focus: Down By the River 2021 →
Local Life

Scene Around: A Fair Haven of Snowfall

From the still of the night to the pristine blanket in the morning, that first glimpse of a new snowfall is a window into moments of peace and purity.

However short the untainted peek, the solace it offers is generous. Enduring. So, take in the untouched Fair Haven snow moments from night to bright sunlight from the yards of three — Susan Culbert (night), Andreea Fegan/Little Bites of Joy (morning), Chris Rodriguez (light) — and exhale.

Hold on to that serenity snippet while you shovel it. Then read all about the upcoming weather for the weekend.

(Click on one photo and scroll for a full view. Enjoy!)

And here’s the weather from the National Weather Service …

Local Life

Scene Around: Gay 90s R-FH Area Moms

While 2021 culminated in a lot of loss coupled with a pandemic surge, there have been some stories of ageless triumph through the birth of the new year.

Those stories are of three Rumson-Fair Haven area moms who reveled in their 90s birthdays unscathed, embracing their new age baking, creating, celebrating and emulating one another’s secrets of how old is renewed — gold.

Continue reading Scene Around: Gay 90s R-FH Area Moms →
Local Life, Opinion

Living in the R-FH Area Past: 2021’s Top Retro Pics of the Day

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again … Sometimes you just have to live a little … in the past.

That’s the purpose of R-FH Retro’s Retro Pic of the Day. It’s important to remember from whence we came, so to speak. Remembering our roots is an anchor. It offers sharp insight into who we are. Who we have become.

Like it or not, it’s a big part of us all. And most like it, as evidenced by the popularity of the Retro Pic of the Day. Renting that snippet of daily space as a transient in the hometown past has become a favorite pastime of sorts for area people.

Continue reading Living in the R-FH Area Past: 2021’s Top Retro Pics of the Day →
News, Obituaries

Remembering Rob Bruce; Fair Haven-Raised RFH ’77 Grad, Pop Culture Icon Found Dead

“We’re all kinda the same guy. Everyday hustling and digging through our warehouses and storage units full of trash and treasure. I guess it helped us realize the real treasures are the days we have with people we love … Our little Jersey circle is a little less colorful and crazy now.” ~ Justin Skyler Daniels, friend of Robert Bruce, on his Facebook page

The year 2021 ended with the sudden death of Fair-Haven raised Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Class of ’77 graduate Robert “Rob” Bruce, a more recent decades-long Red Bank resident known as the area’s pop culture icon.

Continue reading Remembering Rob Bruce; Fair Haven-Raised RFH ’77 Grad, Pop Culture Icon Found Dead →
Local Life

Retro Rumson ‘That 70s’ Kinda Holidaze

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A Rumson 1970s Christmas at the Hoey house
Photo/Tom Hoey

Nothing says 70s quite like a first (or second) Christmas snapshot of a Rumson family rockin’ the look around the tree.

His birthday today, of let’s say decades later, prompted Tom Hoey to post this time warp shot. From the tinsel, to the ornaments, to the hair and outfits and, especially, that TV, nothing could be more “that 70s” of a holiday pose.

Continue reading Retro Rumson ‘That 70s’ Kinda Holidaze →