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

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

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Our annual reprise in celebration of opening night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and how all the scents and sights the night before flood a Fair Haven kid’s mind with memories of the fairest kind. This year, this reprise is dedicated to my little sister. May life be forever fair in our haven of priceless memories …

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

Grow with Grace: Fair Time is Fall Veggie Time

When the tents go up in front of the firehouse, the excitement of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is always tempered with a little end-of-summer blues. If you’re a gardener, you may feel as though you’re headed toward the end of the season, too.

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Local Life, Opinion

Old News: Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and its Flying Geraldos, 10-Cent Charleston Dances, Ponies, Carousels & Spin Art

The Charleston, flying trapeze artists, the Zipper or not, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has been an end-of-summer tradition since its inception in 1921. That’s 105 years ago. Yes, some things never change — like the fair’s core of community legacy.

Yes, legacy. It’s a concept that those lacking a sense of community and connection in their souls just don’t get. Their loss. And it’s a big one.

Continue reading Old News: Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and its Flying Geraldos, 10-Cent Charleston Dances, Ponies, Carousels & Spin Art →
Local Life, Opinion

Retro Fair Candy Apple Daze

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Candy, Ray and Marion Bennett tend to the candy apples at the Fair Haven Firemen's Fair circa 1979 Photo/Fair Haven Fire Department Yearbook, courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly
Candy, Ray and Marion Bennett tend to the candy apples at the
Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair circa 1969
Photo/Fair Haven Fire Department Yearbook, courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly

It’s Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time! With the fair, of course, comes goodies. Confections. Fair food. One favorite that hasn’t made a comeback is the candy apple. So, we look back and reminisce about a fair treat and tradition gone with this “back by popular demand” reprise and a little addition …

How do you like them apples? If the name fits, you know … And it did. She may not have been the actual boss lady of the booth, but perhaps we could call her the Big Dipper? I mean, who better to one of those at the helm the candy apple operation at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair than a woman named Candy — Candy Bennett?

The Retro Pic of the Day offers a glimpse back to fair days in 1969 with yet another fair family affair at another booth — the candy apple booth (a corner of the Outback, or what used to be called just the hot dog booth).

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Local Life, Opinion

Grow with Grace: How to Weed Through Your Garden’s Good, Bad & Ugly

Well, we took a little time off from garden toiling last week, relaxed and mused about the bountiful mess of it all and what to do. Yes, now is the time to address some common issues we see in the late-summer garden. Let’s dig in!

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Crazy Days of RFH Boys’ Summer

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RFH Class of 1979 guys on a day at the beach Photo/courtesy of Paul Hughes, Class of '79 reunion slideshow
RFH Class of 1979 guys on a day at the beach
Photo/courtesy of Paul Hughes, Class of ’79 reunion slideshow

A reprise in honor of sizzling hot summer days on the beach with some cool RFH guys … 

Remember that horror movie When a Stranger Calls? The babysitter  gets a repeated freaky call from a stranger asking, in measured terror tones, “Have you checked the children lately?”

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Local Life, Opinion

Grow with Grace: Order in the Garden, Tomato, Tomahto & Cocktail Concoctions

Here we are in the middle of August. That neat, orderly garden you planted back in May is probably looking a whole lot more chaotic now. What to do to bring the garden and its harvest joy back?

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Local Life, Opinion

Grow with Grace: Squashed, ‘Bored’ and Herbal

Welcome back to Grow with Grace!

As your garden starts to hit its stride, tomatoes are beginning to ripen, cucumbers are coming in, peppers are producing, and if you planted zucchini, your kitchen is probably starting to fill up. Midseason is when the garden really begins to reward us—but it’s also when some of its biggest challenges start to appear. Let’s dig in!

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Graduation: The Daisy Chain Girl

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RFH 1978 graduation in front of the high school, replete with daisy chain
Photo/Daryl Cooper Ley

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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Cheers to the Grand Daddies of the R-FH Area

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It’s 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.

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