Category Archives: Opinion

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

Obituaries, Opinion

The Neighborhood: Steeping in Love of Home to Honor Jane Croft

Here stays the neighborhood. Yes. For the love of home, we’re always steeping in it.

Even though another forever Fair Haven neighbor is now gone, the neighborhood stays, as always — right in that hometown heart. The one that swells with a different kind of pride and comfort that some unlucky souls will never understand.

That neighbor, the latest who has left the block, is Jane Croft. Born in Fair Haven, she lived her entire life there, always with that easy-going smile and soothing, welcoming cadence in her voice.

Continue reading The Neighborhood: Steeping in Love of Home to Honor Jane Croft →
Local Life, Opinion

Staying Home with My ‘Fair’ Lady on Her Birthday

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  • Sally Van Develde at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair in 1969.
  • Sally Van Develde and Mary Farley

Our now annual reprise honoring the inspiration for R-FH Retro — my mom, Sally Van Develde — on what would have been her 99th birthday. A birthday wish … Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom. You remain in the hearts of so many … Besides, I won’t let them forget.

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?” ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

For the love of home and a Fair Haven mom … that’s right.

Sometimes a birthday without her is about lighting the candles, making the wish, sustaining the simple legacy of going home, staying home with my mom, Sally Van Develde.

Today would have been her 99th birthday. If she had lived to blow out all those candles on her cake, I wondered what she would have done. What her wish would have been.

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Local Life, Opinion

Focus: Black & White Navesink River Tidings

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Black & White Winter at the River in Fair Haven
Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro only

It’s black-and-white simple, stark. The crackly, cool-hued solace offered by the winter’s Fair Haven Navesink River view is a prelude to all that’s warm. It’s a constant. A reminder that all that’s good is pretty simple.

The tide still rolls in gently over the patches of snowy, broken ice. All is a still, simple move forward, yet keeping all that’s good in its niche. The river is always there. A home anchor. Its shore a welcome mat. The tide gently wipes out all that’s broken, a little bit at a time. All that soothes melds together, soaking up the same goodness in one sliver of Earth. The tide that always comes in saturates the shore and hometown heart with searing sunshine for the soul.

Nothing really changes when it comes to the river view or its wealth of healing power. And all you have to do is take a minute to take it in … rolling ever so gently with its inspiring tide.

Say “Ahhhh” and take in the scenes … (CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy! And can you find those ducks?)

Here’s what’s headed this way weatherwise, courtesy of the National Weather Service …

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Local Life, Opinion

Focus: Fair Haven Dock Winter Blues & Sunshine Hues

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If the winter blues have set in after a day or two worth of spring(ish) respite, a little Fair Haven Dock time is a reminder that the blue hued winter sky and crackled icy shore is always a prelude to sunshine.

If not in the sky, in the heart. Through every crack in the icy snow coat on the beach under the dock, sun is seeping in for a peek into the happy place. The melt? Well, we know the cold sting in the air doesn’t stop the softening of the hometown heart with a glimpse back to dock days.

Of course, some of those dock days of the past involved a little mischief and jumping, which we are always asked to remind is prohibited. All the more the melt. But the daydream of one of your miscreant friends taking a plunge into that icy Navesink River water on a dare does crack a grin on the face.

How about the jaunt to a sliver of beach under the dock with a frozen cheesecake and a bottle of Boone’s Farm? Hmmmm … If that kind of memory doesn’t take away the winter blues … Focus back. What scene do you see?

Say “Ahhhhhh” to the serene river scene of blue and daydream the sun and smiling crazy times back. After all, the weather forecast is promising a peek through the icy cracks into spring again …

**Don’t forget to CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll! Enjoy!**

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro only

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Local Life, Opinion

Catching Fair Haven Rays: Remembering, Emulating Ray Taylor

Ray Taylor weeps for those lost at a Memorial Day ceremony in Fair Haven
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

“Cornerstone: A stone which lies at the corner of two walls and unites them” (often the starting point of a building), hence, figuratively, “that on which anything is founded.” 

Fair Haven’s cornerstone has been yanked from it rightful place. Its walls full of solid hometown brick and mortar are now wobbly — crumbling with sorrow. One of the last of the borough’s icons has taken his final trek down Fair Haven’s River Road.

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Local Life, Opinion

Scene Around: Townie Walk with Ray Taylor

The following story was originally posted on Sept. 10, 2021 … after a chat with Mr. Ray Taylor on is way to the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair. With the very sad news today of Mr. Taylor’s passing, we are reprising it in his honor. As all in the area grapple with the death of this cornerstone of the borough and we struggle to pay the best of tributes to him in a story, this serves as a simple, happy reminder of what really matters. Rest In Peace, Mr. Taylor, the best of best friends to Fair Haven. We will always remember. Read on. Remember. Smile …

“I got to keep movin’!”

That’s the first thing that came out of 98-year-old Ray Taylor’s mouth when R-FH Retro ran into him doing his usual walking and savoring the smallest of moments in his Fair Haven hometown.

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Obituaries, Opinion

Remembering Sunshine: Fair Haven-Raised, RFH ’85 Grad, Kay Corson Zierold, 55

“One of the greatest, kindest, funniest, most loyal, honest, and definitely one of the loudest, stars has moved on …
Even the sun couldn’t stand to
face the day without her.”

Kitty McNally on her lifetime friend, Kay Corson Zierold

The sun looked for her. The horizon went dark. Its ball-of-fire compadre could no longer be found, shining, warming those close on Earth. That’s how the sudden death of one girl seemed to friends. That girl.

Continue reading Remembering Sunshine: Fair Haven-Raised, RFH ’85 Grad, Kay Corson Zierold, 55 →
Local Life, Opinion

Living in the R-FH Area Past: 2021’s Top Retro Pics of the Day

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again … Sometimes you just have to live a little … in the past.

That’s the purpose of R-FH Retro’s Retro Pic of the Day. It’s important to remember from whence we came, so to speak. Remembering our roots is an anchor. It offers sharp insight into who we are. Who we have become.

Like it or not, it’s a big part of us all. And most like it, as evidenced by the popularity of the Retro Pic of the Day. Renting that snippet of daily space as a transient in the hometown past has become a favorite pastime of sorts for area people.

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