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

Retro Rumson Summer: The Barn Theater

Image July 13, 2023 Elaine Van Develde Leave a comment

Clip of press photo for The Barn Theater's production of "The Fantasticks" in the summer of 1977 — Clip of press photo for The Barn Theater’s production of “The Fantasticks” in the summer of 1977

"Bye Bye Birdie" at The Barn Theater in Rumson circa summer of 1977 Photo/Elaine Van Develde — “Bye Bye Birdie” at The Barn Theater in Rumson circa summer of 1977
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

The following piece was originally posted on July 8, 2015. As we dive into summer season, we thought it only fitting to remember good summer times outside of the usual beach romp for those who grew up and raised their families in the Rumson-Fair Haven area — summer theater. Once upon a time, there was a special little place in Rumson called The Barn … Take a trip back with us to simple summers and magical, theatrical times …

Remember The Barn Theater in Rumson?

Well, if you don’t, you missed out and are probably significantly younger than those who do and didn’t — miss out, that is.

It’s a plus if you’re that young. But, it’s definitely a factor in the minus category if you didn’t work, play or get entertained there.

It was a community theater that cast hundreds, maybe thousands, from the area, including many Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) students.

The building is still there, only a few blocks away from the high school on Avenue of Two Rivers near the intersection at Ridge Road. The reason why it was called The Barn was, well, because it was an old barn, gutted (if there is such a thing with a barn) and converted into a small arena-type stage theater, with the stage at floor level and risers around it as seats, though not all the way around.

You get the picture. Now, here’s what’s behind the place’s show folk and shows …

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Rumson Albertina Steam Ship Dock & Stroll

June 8, 2023 Elaine Van Develde

Albertina docked in Rumson circa 1920
Photo/collection of Loujeanne Cuje

There’s a Navesink River waterfront spot in Rumson that’s an iconic slice of waterborne travel history. More than a century ago, the vicinity was the site of flourishing happy-go-lucky times of transport and community. It was the site of the Rumson Dock where the famous Albertina steam ship made stops for commuting, community and entertainments’ sake.

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Local Life, Opinion

A Mother’s Day Salute to R-FH Area Moms Through the Generations

Image May 13, 2023 Elaine Van Develde

Reprise! We’ve said it every year; and we’re saying it again this year …

Happy Mother’s Day to Rumson-Fair Haven area moms of the past and present!

You put the coffee on. You called for us when dinner was ready. You held on tight when we needed a hug. You wiped our dirty little faces, sopped up tears and runny noses. You were there, front and center, at many a school open house, game, play, concert and, yes, principal’s office visit.

You welcomed the neighborhood kids as if they were your own. You wrote all those notes to get us out of gym class (because some of us were clods). You shook your heads in disbelief over our antics and yelled our full names like a loving banshee when you were mad. You had our backs. You were just plain there — the unshifting foundation of a community through the years, building a legacy.

Thank you. We remember those who are gone and salute those who carry on …

— Elaine Van Develde

Photos/courtesy of Facebook friends

Local Life, Opinion

Retro Knollwood Cool Kids’ Hangout

May 4, 2023 Elaine Van Develde

The cool kids of Fair Haven’s Knollwood School in 1974
Photo/courtesy of Debra Giffin Schluter

Get out! That’s what most school kids are likely wishing to do these dank spring days. And get out with the “in” crowd was always the cool thing to do before school back in the 1970s in Fair Haven.

Picture that. A picture is worth a thousand awkwardly cool moments in the memory of a middle school kid.

To a Fair Haven eighth grader of the 1970s, there was nothing cooler than being asked to hang out, before the bell rang, on the side of Knollwood School by the bushes with the clique of the coolest kids.

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Local Life, Opinion

Old News: A ‘Cheers’ to Iconic Places & People

February 24, 2023 Elaine Van Develde

There’s a reason why the 1970s and ’80s TV show Cheers was so popular.

The title song said it all in one sentence “You wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” It resonated with millions. Everyone wanted that place to go to where they knew they belonged. A nose-to-the-screen-free environment. Face-to-face social interaction with a family of another kind that, good or bad, always showed up. Regulars. A place like Cheers — with parents.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Firehouse Santa ‘Sleighing’

Image December 15, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

Mary Ellen and Tim Kelly with Santa at the Fair Haven Firehouse circa 1987. Photo/Evie Connor Kelly — Mary Ellen and Bill Kelly with Santa at the Fair Haven Firehouse circa 1987.
Photo/Evie Connor Kelly

This is our annual reprise celebrates the upcoming traditional pics with Santa at the Fair Haven Firehouse and continues our hunt for those classic pics of miserable children not enduring their mandatory torturous visit with Santa very well at all. Send us YOUR miserable children on Santa’s lap photos! Email them to evd@rfhretro.com. We’re checking our list and waiting!

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, that classic Santa pic with the kids just goes terribly awry. And we’re pretty sure that this Sunday’s visits with Santa at the Fair Haven Firehouse will be no exception.

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Obituaries, Opinion

RFH ’78’s David Memmott: Picture of a Childhood in a Classmate Gone

October 4, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

“What’s that? An iPhone 1?” he quipped as I tried to capture a moment between him and his lifetime friend at a reunion committee party with my sad little smashed-screen phone. Click. “Shut up, Dave! Jerk!” I, a 58-year-old woman child, sniped back, with a 10-year-old kid giggle and arm punch.

Then there was the knowing laughter and the look that was only understood among those like us who had had a lifetime of it. The deep all-knowing complex simplicity of a childhood shared in one little world of a small town by the river.

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Local Life, Opinion

Old News: A Royal Red Bank Procession

Image September 20, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Red Bank, arriving at the train station, in 1939
Photo/courtesy of Karen Allas

It was a parade fit for royalty — the king and queen of England kind of royalty, to be exact.

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II and all the honor and ceremony that has come with it, retro minds go back to a royal day in Red Bank when the queen, who just recently died at 96, having ruled for 70 years, was only 13. Her father, George VI, was king. Her mother, the first Elizabeth, was queen. And while visiting the United States and Canada, the royal couple made a stop in Red Bank.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Back-to-School Neighborhood Line-Up

Image September 6, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

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

A back-to-school reprise dedicated to everyone’s first friend on that first day of school as a kindergartener. My first friend and neighbor in Fair Haven was Pam Young (second from right), who passed away in July of 2020 … Everyone can relate. Go back with us. Remember your first day of school and that first friend …

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

Retro Fair Sweets Queens

Image September 2, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

Millie Felsmann making cotton candy at the Fair Haven Firemen's Fair circa early 1990s Photo/Elaine Van Develde — Millie Felsmann making cotton candy at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair circa early 1990s
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Millie Felsmann and her candy apples back in the 1960s Photo/courtesy of Monica Felsmann — Millie Felsmann and her candy apples back in the 1960s
Photo/courtesy of Monica Felsmann

This Retro Pic(s) of the Day story was originally published on Aug. 25, 2015. It is being run again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and the Felsmann family to honor them in light of their recent loss of Millie Felsmann’s son, John, or “Smokey,” husband to Trudy and dad to his fair-raised children. He didn’t like getting his picture taken, so we will respect that and honor him via his family. This is how they concoct and serve up those sweets at the fair …

When it came to cotton candy — that fluffy spun light blue and pink sugar on a cone that melts in your mouth, on your mouth and many times on your hands, too — Millie Felsmann was the pro at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.

Don’t get us wrong, here. We know that Millie also commandeered the candy apple making. Yes, Candy Bennett was there, too — for many hours a day, making and selling those candy apples, apropos name and all.

Well, she was, after all, Candy, the candy apple lady. Yes, Candy had a lot do do with those candy apples — but Millie was the boss. She, along with her troupe of kids and Candy, Betty Acker and Mrs. Frank, started work on those apples as early as 6 a.m.. And, even further back, to 1965 or 66, Mrs. Topfer made those apples, too.

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Obituaries, Opinion

Remembering, Embracing Her Light: 1982 RFH Grad Terri Rowett, 57

August 29, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

My little sister Terri was a light. Sometimes she burned bright and brilliant; other times she merely sparkled … As she traveled, explored, and embraced her worlds, Terri connected with people for a moment or a lifetime; once she made a connection, she cherished it. My heart is broken. I will miss her desperately. ~ Chris Rowett Peter

A light. Always glistening. Shining. Lighting the way to welcome every connection in her universe. Wrapping each in a tight hug of warm, ferocious illumination.

That’s how Rumson-raised Teresa Ann Rowett, better known as Terri or TT, was seen. The youngest of five sisters and one brother, the third sister to pass away, the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School Class of 1982 graduate died suddenly at Shore Point Health in Port Charlotte, on Aug. 22. She was 57. Her life was celebrated on Sunday.

This is how she is remembered …

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Local Life, Opinion

Focus: Sea Bright Coolness Tide Ride

Gallery July 28, 2022 Elaine Van Develde

It’s all about letting the sun and surf shine, and scorch a little, these summer days. And there’s nothing better to take the heat off while soaking the goodness of it all up than a cool ride with the tide along a Sea Bright beach.

The scene is a reminder that the boon of the ocean’s refreshing roar is a mainstay respite, a bigger and brighter beacon that overshadows any sliver of scald.

A bit of relief has come from the sun, and the beach always beckons with cooler days of comfort ahead.

In other words, the heat wave has lifted. Phew. Better days under the sun are ahead. Take in the view, feel the relief and check out the weather forecast, from the National Weather Service, below …

Sun and surf up!