Category Archives: Opinion

Editorials, letters to the editor and other articles reflecting on iconic people, places and traditions related to them in the area.

Local Life, Opinion

Reflection: Retro Halloween Parading

Image October 21, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

The following opinion piece on Halloween through the generations in Fair Haven was originally published in 2015. It is reprised annually …

Before the parade passes by, this kid from Fair Haven has some parading memories on which to reflect. Remember this scene?

It’s a longstanding tradition — the Fair Haven Halloween Parade.

I remember it well — from my first parade trek back in the late 1960s to the ’70s, 80s, 90s and now.

It all started at age 7 with a wish to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I’ve noticed a few in more recent years and the green-eyed jealousy monster of a near senior has reared its head. But I digress … That little dress-up fantasy of the 60s of mine was foiled when my mother couldn’t get the gingham outfit together, my pigtails were not so poised for the silver screen look and my sister refused to crawl down Hance Road as Toto.

I guess it was bad enough that from the age of 3, she was forced by this pint-sized dominatrix 5-year-old Dorothy to crawl on a makeshift Funk and Wagnall’s encyclopedia Yellow Brick Road to Oz in the living room. The neighbors never quite got over it, either.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Cheer for the Boys

Image October 16, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977 Photo/George Day — The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977
Photo/George Day

Cheers to sunny fall days and classic looks back! The sun is still out and, despite the fall sting in the air, it’s something to cheer about. So, we’re taking you back, once again, to a special crew of RFH cheerleaders — the boys of RFH’s Class of ’78 in an encore of this Oct. 8, 2015 Retro Pic of the (George) Day from two views! Cheers!

The 1977 RFH Powder Puff Football game was a good one that made for some great photo ops.

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Opinion

9/11: Day’s End Reflection, 23 Years Later

September 11, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

The following piece, with a few changes as time goes on, is published annually on 9/11 as a testament to never forgetting …

It was a beautiful Tuesday. The sun was smiling with a crisp warmth. The air was a snappy fresh. The coffee even tasted especially good.

I remember. Most of us remember where we were on Sept. 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m.. I know I do. I also remember how everything went from bright, crisp, fragrant and optimistic to dark, dank, acrid and fearful in one second. I remember how it wasn’t about us observers, storytellers. It was about them — the victims, their loved ones, their message.

For me, a professional observer, a professional storyteller, thankfully close enough, yet far enough, yes, it was so very much about them — painfully so. I wasn’t one of them. I was lucky. I was grateful. I watched. I listened intently. They shared.

I was a reporter living in Fair Haven and covering Middletown. On what started out as a typical day, they ended up unwittingly, graciously, lighting a less traveled path for me. For many.

It’s this one storyteller’s perspective.

Through this one fortunate observer’s eyes and heart, it went like this …
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Local Life, Opinion

Retro School Daze: The Rope Lady

Image September 5, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

A reprise in honor of those folks who used to be in charge of keeping the kids safe on their walk to school. Remember when everyone walked to school?

It was a time when kids had to walk the … rope.

The first day of school, last week, was commemorated with a look back to that first day in 1965 in Fair Haven.

It was the very first day of school — for kindergarteners. It was also a finale year. That class was the last of all that walked on a rope to the Youth Center (now Fair Haven Community Center downstairs and the police station upstairs).

While classmates were remembered, the identity of the official lady tugging that rope was not.

So, as an ode to that woman, who was eventually remembered as Mary McDaniel, the Retro Pic of the Day is another look, from the archives of the Red Bank Register, of that kindergarten class walk, headed by Mc Daniel.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Back-to-School Walking the Rope

Image September 4, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

Our annual back-to-school Fair Haven rope walk reprise …

“But I don’t wanna walk on the rope next to her!” I cried from under my fresh-cut kindergarten bangs. “I wanna walk on the rope next to Pam!”

Pam was my neighbor. She was my best buddy.

It was 1965. It was the ’60s. The memories are there, but fuzzy. I can sill see it — with my reading glasses, of course. One thing’s for sure: Our Fair Haven kindergarten class was the last to have its first year of school at what was called the Youth Center, now the Fair Haven Police Station and Community Center on Fisk Street.

We kindergarteners were also the last to be tugged down the street on a rope, yes a rope, headed by an official-looking police-type lady.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro First Day of School Girls

Image September 3, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

First day of kindergarten in Fair Haven 1965
Photo/Sally Van Develde

A back-to-school reprise …

Knock-kneed, nervous and all dressed up with somewhere to go, this gaggle Fair Haven neighborhood girls of 1965 lined up so their moms could get that classic first-day-of-kindergarten shot. And there wasn’t a smile among them.

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Remembrance: All’s Fair in the Middle

Image September 1, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

Our annual reprise about what it really means to experience all that’s fair for a Fair Haven kid …

There are a lot of significant beginnings and endings this time of the year. The end of summer. The beginning of locals’ summer. The start of school — new chapters and first days.

But, what about the middle? The end of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has always brought me, and many a “fair” kid, back to that middle haven. It’s home.

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Local Life, Opinion

Steeping in Fair Memories: Cooking Up Firemen’s Fair Goodness

Image August 27, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

The following piece was originally published on Aug. 27, 2015. It’s fair time again, so it’s time to take a look back at how things were and are done a pivotal place at the fair — the kitchen and dining room.

By Elaine Van Develde

Someone’s in the kitchen at Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair grounds.

And while they may have, at one point another been with someone named Dinah, as the old ditty goes, it’s a definite they’ve been with someone named Mike, Dale, Sue (x2), Raquel, Ethel (x2), Mary, Anne, Amanda, Skippy, Hodgie, Mary Ellen, Joe, Evie, and, oh, yeah, Andy and a few others.

And they certainly haven’t been strummin’ on any ol’ banjo. They’ve been way too busy — cutting, peeling, filling, flouring, husking and just plain cooking.

Except there’s nothing plain about what’s cooking in the fair kitchen, who’s cooking it, when, where, why or how.

Mike Connor and John Riley get ready to start another fair night 2024
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Reflections: An Ode to Opening Night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair

Image August 23, 2024 Elaine Van Develde

Our annual reprise in celebration of opening night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair …

All’s fair. The night before. The decades later. It’s something a Fair Haven kid will always see … a shooting star that they grabbed and tucked away in their heart, holding onto the glistening, magical light.

The night is still. A light is on. Trucks are out of the bays. Cartoony faces and ghosts in empty seats on unassembled carnival rides stare back in the dark. Someone’s cooking at the Fair Haven firehouse. It’s fair time.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Bridge to a Reunion Invite

Image August 6, 2024 Elaine Van Develde 1 Comment

A bridge RFH reunion invite
Photo/Doug Borden

Well, it’s a summer of revived RFH reunions and RFHers love a good reunion and embrace them by reuniting however and whenever they can.

As far as getting the word out, though, things have changed quite a bit since those first 10-year reunions for the classes of the 60s, 70s and even 80s and 90s and before. But, there’s one iconic mode of invite that has been missing for quite some time. The painting of the bridge!

There was a time when communication was limited to phone books, landline phones, snail mail and word of mouth. Of course, there were paper invites. But, there was nothing better than getting the word out by just reverting to old school days and painting that bridge.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Girls’ Last Summer Drive

Image June 25, 2024 Elaine Van Develde Leave a comment

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

Sun up! There’s nothing quite like a summer drive in a classic car with the top down, especially when it’s the summer of senior year. 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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