Longtime Rumsonite, musician, actor, director, sportsman, social justice advocate, proud dad and grandfather, the Rev. Dr. James Richard Memmott, passed away on Sept. 1 at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank. He was 89.
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Fair Remembrance: Someone’s in the Kitchen
Just when the guy in charge of the kitchen has retired, a pandemic comes along and obliterates the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and all that annual fine fair food. So, on the year without a fair, we look back again to our 2015 story of fair food, who did it all back in the day, what was done, how and who’s still cooking. Can you wait another year? The absence of fair food wafting through the air likely has everyone drooling for the next fair already … No one’s in the kitchen this year but the ghosts. They’re always there …
Raquel Falotico at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2015 working the dining room Photo/Elaine Van Develde 
Amanda Lynn and Kim Ambrose at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2015 Photo/Elaine Van Develde 
Present-day kitchen crew, or most, after a ride at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2010 Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly 
The guys in the kitchen back in the day at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly, FHFD Yearbook 
The ladies tending to the sausage, meatballs and sauce upstairs at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair back in the day Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly, FHFD Yearbook
By Elaine Van Develde
Someone’s in the kitchen at Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair grounds.
And while they may have, at one point another been with someone named Dinah, as the old ditty goes, it’s a definite they’ve been with someone named Mike, Dale, Sue (x2), Raquel, Ethel (x2), Mary, Anne, Amanda, Skippy, Hodgie, Mary Ellen, Joe, Evie, and, oh, yeah, Andy and a few others.
And they certainly haven’t been strummin’ on any ol’ banjo. They’ve been way too busy — cutting, peeling, filling, flouring, husking and just plain cooking.
Except there’s nothing plain about what’s cooking in the fair kitchen, who’s cooking it, when, where, why or how.
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Fair Remembrance: My Balloon Mama
The following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again, on the year without a fair, in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated along with my dad, Bill …
Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.
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Fair Remembrance: A Firemen’s Night
They call it Family Night now. But, the Wednesday night of each Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is forever Firemen’s Night to any kid who grew up hearing sirens blaring through the streets where they lived on that eve that welcomed and honored firefighters from near and far to the fair grounds.
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Simple Summer: Guarding a Sea Bright Dawn with a Friend
On Monday morning, I’m going away with my friend …
It may have been a Saturday in the Sandpipers’ famed song Come Saturday Morning, but it sure looks like this Monday captured at Sea Bright’s sunrise today by longtime Fair Havenite and Knollwood School teacher, Andy Dougherty.
When morning has broken on a final summer’s day, nothing compares to the serene veracity of the moment, especially when shared with a childhood friend.
The softness of the vivid colors, the loud silence, the magic in the clouds’ formations, the whole world inside each droplet of a wave’s crash. The hush frozen in time in a minute’s worth of snapshots.
The simplest of moments atop a lifeguard stand with a best friend. Saturday or Monday, the awakening calm of the dawn, the moment remains, many of them …
“Just I and my friend. We’ll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles. And then we’ll move on. But we will remember … long after Saturday’s gone.”
The simplest of summers. Remember the moments. Savor them. Exhale with a smile.
RFH Spanish Teacher Christina Gauss Named Monmouth County Teacher of the Year
Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) 2020 Teacher of the Year, Spanish teacher Christina Gauss, has been named Monmouth County Teacher of the Year.
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In Memorium: Rumsonite, Adventurist, ‘King’ Sorensen
Rumsonite Arthur “King” Holmes Sorensen, died on Aug. 26.
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Fair Remembrance: Rides & Reunions
On the historic year without the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we offer a look back at some classic moments of the past five years, since R-FH Retro has been roving the grounds freezing snippets of time.
To anyone who has grown up in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, the fair is a reuniter, an end-of-summer community anchor, a generous memory giver. So, on the year without the fair, here’s a look back at the more recent past and best of moments among friends who became family in a place called home. Take the ride with us …
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Fair Remembrance: The Fair Art of Candy Apple Making, Cotton Candy Spinning & Ice Cream
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, which would have been running this week. On a historic summer without the fair, we remember how some fair traditions got started, like lost fair art of candy apple making, waffle ice cream sandwiches. Then there’s the art of spinning cotton candy, something that was formerly mastered and commandeered by the late Millie Felsmann, also the champ of candy apple making. This is how they did it and continue to do it at the fair … Until we meet again at the Out Back in 2021 …
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. And, in another Retro Pic of the Day from 2015, we touted her as the candy apple lady.
Well, she was — she was 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 6:30 a.m.. And, even further back, to 1965 or 66, Mrs. Topfer made those apples, too.
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In Memorium: Rumson Native, RFH Class of ’80 Grad, Bill Drucklieb, 58
Rumson native and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Class of ’80 graduate William “Bill” Drucklieb passed away peacefully on Aug. 21 at University NE Medical Center, Omaha, NE. He was 58.
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Prosecutor: Cops Plead Guilty to Criminal Mischief; Targeting Citizen After Complaint
An Asbury Park police officer and a former city Special Law Enforcement Officer, Class II (SLEO-2) pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that they vandalized vehicles belonging to a citizen who filed an internal affairs complaint against them, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced in a released statement.
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Fair Remembrance: Food To Go Now & Then
It’s something to steep in … the thought of any sort of Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair food. Many do all fair week long. This year the steeping is limited to visions of fried seafood combo, steamers and clam chowder dancing in their heads. They’re the kind of dreams a seasoned fair goer needs to dive into.
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