Local Life

Retro Fair Haven Folk Singer Parading

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Fair Haven Folk Singers in a Fair Haven parade circa early 1970s
Photo/Jack Croft via Mary Croft

They had the “whole world” in their hands. The whole wide world. And they didn’t even know it.

It was a song the Fair Haven Folk Singers used to strum, sing and march to in parades. It encapsulated some happy insular times in one tiny niche in the world aptly called Fair Haven. The mission of the Fair Haven Folk Singers was a simple one — learn to play the guitar, all three chords, strum, sing, smile and spread the joy of music.

We’ve talked about the Folk Singers before. For those who didn’t experience them, now they can picture the whole thing, thanks to the archives of the late Jack Croft, of the Register.

Fair Haven-raised kids of the 1970s know all about the Folk Singers. Many of them were there, marching in step and strumming to the beat. Their fearless musical leader? Barbara Leslie, of course, that Whistle Stop lady. More like Pied Strummer.

She would teach the kids to play guitar for, as we saw in a Register ad, $2 an hour. Yes. You saw that right — $2 an hour. Simple. Leaving no child behind. If a kid’s parents couldn’t afford the two bucks, well … they still got the lessons.

Barbara Leslie’s students walked to the Whistle Stop on Forman Street, guitar strung over their shoulders, fantasies of folk singer stardom swirling over their pigtailed heads. Some even dreamt bigger — that this would lead to back-up singing, playing and touring with their dreamboat, David Cassidy. Ahem.

At the end of the walk, in a little back- or upstairs room at the Whistle Stop, a patient Barbara Leslie would teach, as she confessed, three chords and a little picking, to boot, just to keep things fancy plain for the kids.

And when the kids were pavement-ready, they’d don a simple gingham sash, white button-down shirt, jeans or shorts aaaaand march … and sing … and play.

Directing, Leslie and other parents who played, led the troupe of merry kid singers and players marching backward. No. No tripping-while- strumming casualties involved. Not that we remember, anyway. The Folk Singers marched in a lot of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair opening parades. Remember those? And they marched in the borough’s bicentennial parade in ’76. There were other “gig” dates peppering the parade route.

The “set” list? Well, that would the the Whole World song, of course, Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Blowin’ in the Wind, Kumbaya and more we can’t remember. Anyone? Tom Dooley? David Cassidy? Uh, nope.

No matter the song, marching to the beat of the Pied Strummer of the 1970s put the whole world at the feet of many Fair Haven kids. And they danced in it with glee.

Thank you Barbara Leslie!