Focus: Digging Sunny River Time Daze

This photo gallery/reflection are dedicated to my friend, Fair Haven-raised Jenny McCullough, RFH ’80, who passed away very suddenly recently, because “love never dies … ”

Call it falling for bucket list wish — even if you’re a kid with, literally, just a little plastic bucket to fill with river time gifts of sand, shells, water and sunny day memories. Go ahead, fall for it. Most Rumson-Fair Haven area kids do … down by the Navesink River.

Those bright fall days on the Navesink at the Fair Haven Dock are the ones that naturally become prime time for sun-drenched river time — digging it all, just to collect a cache of warm, soothing memories like shiny chards of prizes stowed away in a time capsule treasure chest. And the mind’s shovel is always there to dig them up to remind a Fair Haven kid of what really matters most when the sun goes down and the tide goes out, taking youth with it.

So, instead of falling for, or into, a pile of dead leaves that the season says is right, diving into a bucket full of river time beckons. After all, unearthing and holding on tight to river time prizes for the first time to the last is all a pint-sized tyke or an elder river-raised kid needs to exhale a lifetime of peace and love of the grooviest kind, ’70s hippie or not.

So, kids, grab your shovel and get set to dig in down by the rive this week. The sun calls …

Click here for the week’s weather forecast from the National Weather Service. And remind yourself of your own river time in the photo gallery below and say, “Ahhhhhh, life is good when you’re river-raised … ”

(Click on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

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