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Local Life

Simple Summer: Gone Crabbin’

Crabbing at the Fair Haven Dock. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Crabbing at the Fair Haven Dock.
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

A Simple Summer reprise from 2016 … ’cause everyone could use a little river time now …

Yes, it’s pretty simple. Summertime crabbing at the Fair Haven Dock.

It’s the go-to simple summer activity in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

It’s something that spans generations and demographics. If you grew up in this area, it’s pretty customary to, at some point in your youth, grab a bucket, a net and steal some of your mother’s chicken (that she may have counted on cooking that night) to go crabbing at the dock.

Who knows? You could end up changing the dinner menu anyway.

It’s a simple summer thought of the day. See?

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Best Buds & A Bridge Message

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With RFHers’ graduation, sentimentality has set in. It’s that milestone summer of senior year … There’s nothing like a few best buds, a graduation summer, a message of forever friendship and the bridge — RFHers’ iconic cement billboard of sorts left over from the McCarter estate in Rumson.

So, to pay tribute to both buds and the bridge, the Retro Pic of the Day offers a glimpse of both in a milestone moment of friends paying homage to one another by painting the bridge way back in time.

Continue reading Retro RFH Best Buds & A Bridge Message →
Local Life

Unmasked: Retro Bridge Nude Beach Plea

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With the new pandemic the edict from NJ Gov. Phil Murphy for people to now wear masks otdoors, we’re thinking … it’s pretty interesting to ponder how that may work on the nude beach at Sandy Hook. Bathing suits optional. Masks, not so much … Hey, whatever works and floats your sun bathing and swimming gondola …

There are many more beach days ahead, masked or unmasked. Suits or not There was a time, though, that the clothing optional part was a cause for which a large contingent of RFH nude beachgoers fought — gloves on. In fact, it was taken to the famed Rumson McCarter bridge for a bit of campaigning. Everyone knows how that went.

Continue reading Unmasked: Retro Bridge Nude Beach Plea →
Local Life

Hackensack Meridian RMC Foundation Fireworks to Go Boom Over Navesink, Sans Crowd

There will be Fourth of July fireworks over the Navesink River this year, courtesy of the Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center Foundation; but, due to COVID-19 concerns, there won’t be an audience, exclusive or not.

Continue reading Hackensack Meridian RMC Foundation Fireworks to Go Boom Over Navesink, Sans Crowd →
Local Life

Simple Summer: Fair Haven Dock Sunset Solace

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Summertime can be hectic. Not quite as much these post-quarantine pandemic days of summer, though. Most are pretty tired of alone time. Still, there’s nothing better than some an end-of-day solo time to unwind, distanced, in the fresh air … embraced by a familiar, comforting scene.

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Local Life

Retro Rumson Barn Summer Theatrics

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The following piece was originally posted on July 8, 2015. It’s just the right time for a reprise. As we dive into summer season and word comes that the lights have gone out on Broadway for the rest of 2020, we thought it only fitting to remember good summer times in a premier summer theater in the Rumson-Fair Haven area. Once upon a time, there was a special little creative niche in Rumson … 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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Local Life

Retro Neighborhood Kids: Bathing in the Beauty of Firsts

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Bathing beauties of a Fair Haven neighborhood in 1965
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

This Retro Pic of the Day is being run again as an ode to priceless firsts with your first friend, your first real neighbor and the warmth of those times under the summer sun. It is a thank you to that neighborhood kid, the tallest of us kids, with the fancy, flouncy, skirted bathing suit, the flowery bathing cap and the chutzpah to give this Fair Haven kid many firsts with questionable veracity, but always loyalty and love.

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Local Life

Retro RFH BFFS’ Summer Ride

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RFH girls’ ride into the summer of ’78 … Stephanie DeSesa, Elaine Van Develde, Debbie Humbert and Daryl Cooper Ley
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

There’s nothing quite like a summer drive in a classic car with the top down. So, we’re re-running this piece just because the sun needs to shine on friendships and good times like these. There’s nothing quite as warm. Put the top down and take a drive back with us again … 

The drive is all the better if it’s made with best friends. So, as a continuing ode to summer fun of the past at the hands of RFH teens, the Retro Pic of the Day encapsulates the whole idea — best friends, a cool ride and warm memories.

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Local Life

A Happy 98th Birthday Tribute to a Fair Haven Icon: Ray Taylor

Images of Ray Taylor
Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Fair Haven’s iconic Ray Taylor is two years shy of a centenarian today. That means he’s just about as old as his hometown. It also means that he has a cache swelling with love, memories and future plans for the place he has called home for longer than most.

Continue reading A Happy 98th Birthday Tribute to a Fair Haven Icon: Ray Taylor →