Editorials, letters to the editor and other articles reflecting on iconic people, places and traditions related to them in the area.
It was just over two weeks ago that a capacity crowd gathered at The Whitechapel Projects in Long Branch to honor 63-year-old iconic rocker Tim Cronin, of Ribeye Brothers, Monster Magnet and Jack’s Music Shoppe fame, and raise funds to help ease any hardships in his battle with ALS.
Continue reading Tim Cronin: A Rocker’s Legacy of Connection & the Life Celebration to Come
An collaborative opinion piece from Tony MacDonald, director of the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute and Dr. Barbara Brummer, state director of The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey …
As New Jersey’s coastal communities prepare for summer boating and hurricane season, a unique public-private partnership is advancing a smart, sustainable approach to protecting our coast.
Continue reading NJ Turns the Tide with Innovative Coastal Sediment Strategy
Sun up! When you’re scorched from a heatwave like this week’s, it’s time to let the sun bring on warm memories instead. 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.
Continue reading Retro RFH Girls’ Summer Ride 
The following was originally posted in May of 2017. It is being re-run in honor of graduation, time honored traditions of the past, and this RFH Daisy Chain girl of ’78, who passed away in February of 2018 — Daryl Cooper Ley.
In high school social circles, it was considered a popularity status symbol to be chosen for the chain. Daryl wasn’t all too thrilled about it at the time. It had confirmed what only her closest friends knew — that she was cool. It was often repeated to her. “I didn’t think so,” was always her answer. Sorry, Dar. We win. Got the last word. You were. RIP, Dar. You are remembered … in our hearts, souls and print, like it or not! Love you forever more. Oh, she would kill me …
It was considered a privilege and honor. They were chosen from the junior class at RFH to serve as the debutante-like ushers for the graduating class. All dressed in white and supposedly gracefully toting a chain of daisies, the Daisy Chain girls were a fixture of high school finery at graduations in the 1970s.
The origins of the somewhat upper-crust tradition date back to the 1900s, but this Retro Pic of the Day was snapped in 1978.
Continue reading Retro RFH Graduation: The Daisy Chain Girl
A reprise in honor of that eighth grade Knollwood graduation on Wednesday … Congrats in advance, grads!
The Fair Haven Knollwood School grads are styling every year. And, the truth is that the eighth grade graduation attire has improved to the point of even parents turning wannabes of that mini-fashion world.
You’d have to admit, though, that fad dress-up attire has been kinder to the male gender over the years — except for the leisure suit. That was an unforgiving polyester fashion fail.
Continue reading Retro Stylin’ 2002 Knollwood Grads Today is Father’s Day.
And, we at Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect are of the mind that the day was really about much more than flipping a burger and patting a good ol’ dad on the back.
It’s bigger than that. It goes way beyond your own dad’s back yard and a grilling or two.
Growing up in a small-town niche like the Rumson-Fair Haven area carries with it that family tie feeling. Some of us were fortunate enough to have great dads. Some not.
Continue reading Cheers to the Grand Daddies of the R-FH Area
You could say this bunch of RFH boys was on track for success … and some fun along the way.
Continue reading Retro RFH Boys on Track 
A reprise, originally posted in 2015, because a new RFH superintendent has reported to the office …
RFH has a new superintendent. He’s reported to the office and has walked those hallowed halls of good ol’ RFH.
And with thoughts of welcoming the new, the old and that teacher-administrator rapport comes to mind. Back in the day, or the ’70s at least, there were those administrators who weren’t just a Charlie Brown teacher’s voice cawing over the ol’ daydreaming student’s non-thought process. Some, or one in particular, are remembered as a real education innovators.
Continue reading Retro RFH Teacher-Administrator Cool at School Moment Today is Mother’s Day.
And, we at Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect are thinking, the day should not just be one in which kids dutifully pay attention to the woman who pretty much, well, twisted her heart up and spit it out to ride a Big Wheel at 100 miles per hour with no helmet. OK, so that was a tad dramatic.
But, it’s not really just for all that jazz — though, it is important jazz. It should be about moms celebrating one another, especially to learn a little bit about one another’s roots in a tight-knit community such as the Rumson-Fair Haven area.
There are so many women in this area who served as unbreakable bricks in the foundation that is this community now. It goes back may generations. We are thankful for those women of all different motherly types — yes, different. Each unique and special in her own way. Each contributing in her own way. Each leaving her indelible fingerprint on many here, through generations.
You see, the strong community foundation that brought us all here is not about a number and a few borrowed phony promotional words — real estate value, flipping and the lingo concocted to make the sale.
The sale was made long ago and the value was tucked away in the hearts of some of these moms who were here when it all started, caring for one another through their community.
It’s about lifeblood — the lifeblood of, in this case, matriarchs who have bequested a legacy of true love.
They put the coffee on. Who’s bringing the crumb cake? Yes, crumb cake. When it comes to community, you can indulge in the simple a little to keep it very sweet.
Take a look at our slideshows of some area moms from the past and present. Some are still with us. Some are not. But, they are remembered for their own contributions to one another and laying bricks in the foundation that is the Rumson-Fair Haven area. If you have a photo you’d like to add, of a mom from the past, email it to us at evd@rfhretro and we will include it in a gallery.
What would Teacher Appreciation Day be without a little ode to those who unwittingly set a writer on her twisted path to write — about them?
They are the English teachers at RFH. Back in the 1970s, they comprised quite the crew of educators. They taught us how to communicate more effectively. They chided us for using improper grammar. They expected better when they knew we were capable of the best. They glommed onto the small details that mattered in stringing a better sentence together with the peskiness of a dangling participle.
Continue reading Retro RFH English Teacher Appreciation 
Ahhhhh, the Easter Bunny … the tradition, the joy, the mystery, and, yes, the horror.
There’s a lot more to the symbolically giant fluffy rodent with cartoon eyes in a fixed freaky stare and a head the size of one of the small children he visits on Easter. For instance, his head pops off. It’s also a sweaty death trap. Those are facts, people. I know. I was the Easter Bunny quite a few times.
Continue reading Old News: The Truth About Being the Easter Bunny 
Two of these kids are not like the others. But, who would know when a Fair Haven neighborhood in the 1960s was pretty much a family affair anyway, right?
Continue reading Retro Fair Haven Neighborhood Easter Hams 
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