Retro Fair Haven Day with Iconic Fair Havenites

George Giffin at the first Fair Haven Day Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Saturday was a tough day for Fair Havenites longing to keep tradition going, but flogged by a pandemic. It would have been the eighth actual Fair Haven Day on Saturday. The day that started it the annual Fair Haven Day tradition was the Fair Haven Centennial Celebration in 2012.

Generations of Fair Havenites and Rumsonites gathered in Fair Haven Fields to celebrate 100 years of Fair Haven being Fair Haven, a place that many have called home and considered home forever. Because of it’s success, residents wanted an annual Fair Haven Day. They got it.

Since the centennial, the borough has lost some of its longtime residents who everyone knew in one capacity or another. They were some of the true faces of Fair Haven.

So, the Retro Pic(s) of the Day honors two of those people who were there on the first Fair Haven Day, proud longtime Fair Havenites and icons: Life member of the Fair Haven Fire Department’s Ladies Auxiliary, Pat Topfer; and ever-popular RFH science and dance teacher extraordinaire, George Giffin. It also honors Fair Haven-raised Ben Hamilton, who, as an adult, also made Fair Haven his home and forever haven.

There are more who have passed since then, though the three pictured here were icons of a special kind — the hometown kind, for different, simple reasons.

Pat Topfer had come to Fair Haven decades ago to raise her family. She became a longtime member of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, a regular in the Acme and just an all-around ray of Fair Haven sunshine. Pat was fun. She was a bundle of Fair Haven love and enthusiasm. And she donned a very sparkly celebratory outfit on the centennial, to boot, to show everyone how it’s done.

What more could anyone say about RFH teacher and dancer extraordinaire George Giffin (Giff) except that he, always equipped with a song, some dance moves and humorous advice, was the epitome of an icon of the teaching kind. He, too, exuded some serious Fair Haven and RFH love. And there was always a dance, a giggle and few words to heed to go with it. Last I saw George Giffin, he told me “When you get that beat, you gotta moooooove your feet!” Dance on, Giff!

And there was Ben Hamilton. A kind guy who lived on and loved the water, Ben was always around town offering a serene smile, nod, gentile way and some sunset views to share. He loved waterborne sports and could almost always be seen as a fixture on the Navesink River by his house. Riding into the sunset on the water was Ben’s signature joy. He imparted that joy to many.

Each was special in his or her very own way. So, once again, we look back at them representing on the day of their Fair Haven, true examples of home love rolled into one being, and we say Rest in Peace.

You will always be a part of the place you called home.

This year, because of the pandemic, Fair Haven Day will be combined with the annual September Oktoberfest for a Fair Haven Fields gala event on Sept. 21.