“There are places I remember … all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remained. All these places have their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall … In my life, I’ve loved them all.”
In My Life ~ The Beatles
And those who knew her, loved her right back … She was Daryl Cooper Ley.
She grew up in Fair Haven, an adventurous girl who could sport scuffed knees, pigtails, snap some Double Bubble Bubble Gum bubbles and vroom a moped like no other. She was a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) grad with many a prank to pull, paper airplane to fly and hearty hyena laughs to share. She was a supportive, fun Rumson mom and wife with a brazen love of all babies, children, adolescents and teens. She was a compassionate philanthropist. She was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend.
There’s nothing like a best buddy — or a few best buds. There was also nothing like the combination of best friends and the iconic bridge that was a leftover statue or cement billboard of sorts from the McCarter estate in Rumson.
So, to pay tribute to both buds and the bridge, the Retro Pic(s) of the Day offers a glimpse of both in milestone moments of friends paying homage to one another by painting the bridge way back in time.
RFH Class of ’78 alumni Nancy Whelchel was the first girl to play on the boys’ baseball team. Photo/George Day
In light of baseball season and honoring high school firsts in the breaking down of gender barriers, this Retro Pic of the Day, originally published in 2015, is being recirculated …
Yes, it’s all about baseball right now.
And the idea of RFH girls breaking into sports that were traditionally boys’ is something to think about.
So, who was on first, or, rather who was first to be somewhere on the field with the guys in the 1970s? It was RFH Class of ’78 alumni Nancy Whelchel.
Yes, Nancy got onto the baseball field with the boys at RFH a year or two after Chris Bowden scored a goal for girls in soccer.
It all happened back in the day when girls had just made strides to change the dress code and wear pants to school. That was a mass effort. There were a lot of girls walking around wearing skirts or dresses with pants underneath. But that’s another girls’ liberation story for another day.
It’s about those singular sensation girls who defied a status quo form of sexism when literally playing the fields.
So, the Retro Pic of the (George) Day honors one of those girls — Nancy Whelchel. It’s a snapshot of Nancy on the field with Ward Tietz.
We’re not sure if this is an actual team practice shot or just one in which she was just tossing the ball around for fun with a couple of the guys from her class.
Still, there she is playing ball. She had the guts and the sports acumen to break the good ol’ — or young — boys’ sports network.
Home run.
I somehow don’t recall any sort of rebellion from the boys. She was good. That was all that mattered.
Any firsts for girls on the football field? Anyone? What was Nancy Whelchel’s specialty on the baseball field?
Many thanks, again, to George Day for this classic!
Frank Leslie Sr. and his gaggle of kids at the Whistle Stop in Fair Haven circa 1979 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Today would have marked the 89th birthday of Fair Haven’s Frank Leslie Sr., owner of the iconic Whistle Stop. In honor of that, we are sharing this piece originally posted on July 20, 2016. Happy Birthday, Mr. Leslie! Thanks for the many smiles and simple good times!
By Elaine Van Develde
Sometimes all it takes is a jawbreaker, a slice of Elio’s pizza, pinball and friends all enveloped in a gingham-curtained room with a jovial giant of a dad host to make a bunch of kids smile.
The mourning buntings have once again been hung on the Fair Haven Firehouse. The marquee is a mere microcosm of the long story of a lifelong Fair Havenite’s service to his town and his passing.
“A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.” ~ L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A lot of heart is what the Rumson girl everyone knew as Kit Rowett had. A lot of people loved her — some who even only knew her for a moment. I guess you could say that this impish-grinned, twinkly-eyed Wizard gave her heart to the Tin Man.
And, boy, did he cry. He smiled a lot, too. This Tin Man, embodied as the many loved ones who had a piece of Kit’s heart, smiled a wide, collective, rust-proof smile on Saturday as a celebratory goodbye was bid to the Jersey girl loved and lost on Sept. 19 after a valiant battle with cancer.
The Hunt in the 1990s Photo/courtesy of Hetty Tegen
The Hunt. The Hunt. It was the annual October social gathering of the century in Monmouth County — from 1932 until 1996.
The Hunt, really the Haskell Hunt or Monmouth County Hunt Race Meet. It was where all good Rumson-Fair Haven area hob-knobbers, uppercrusters and hill voyeurs of the famously elite lifestyle gathered on the Amory Haskell Estate in Middletown, pretended to watch horses race and chase a fox, clinked crystal champagne flutes, donned designer duds, and sometimes did a little tipsy debutante tumble in the mud — all in good company. And there were many cheers to the festivity of it all!
Carly Emmons Photo/courtesy of Thompson Memorial Home
She had bright red lips, a pearly white smile, twinkly eyes and always a wink, a wave and some love for a neighbor. She was former Fair Havenite Carly Emmons and she passed away peacefully on Sept. 19 at the age of 84.
Her voice had a distinct ring. It was unabashedly friendly, even a bit exotic. She gushed community love when she said hello in the aisles of the Fair Haven Acme back in the 1970s — always the fashion icon of the supermarket, usually capping a tasteful outfit with some sort of fashionable hat as she waved enthusiastically with a, “Hello, dear!” and a cheek kiss and hug to all she met up with.
Fair Haven’s Knollwood School teachers of the 1970s reunite over breakfast Photo/courtesy of Eileen Kubaitis/Facebook screenshot
It’s not every day that a bunch of longtime Fair Haven Knollwood School teachers from the 1970s era get together. It’s one day — for the first time in decades.
It was a beautiful Tuesday. The sun was shining. The air was crisp. 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.
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