Retro ‘Fair’ Ladies of the Dining Room — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair ladies of the dining room
Photo/FHFD media archives

It won’t be long before the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair returns home where it has always belonged — on those firehouse grounds.

Most everything will remain the same this year, after a sad, rare hiatus last year due to COVID-19. Set-up has begun. Each attraction is going back to its rightful place. The mainstay rides, like the Zipper, will be back. The wheels on the games of chance will spin again. Mini golf will putt back in place. It’s a “fore!” for the fair. The Out Back goodie stand will serve up some dogs, burgers, fries, ice cream, zeppole and more.

But, One highly-anticipated tent/room will be missing — the seafood dining room/tent.

Usually about this time in the set-up process, the tent appears, jutting out from the truck bays. The ‘fair’ ladies and men of the dining room start cooking up some great food and service. And, when the fair starts, the lines usually run down the street to get in for a deluxe fried seafood meal. All is right at fair time.

It will all be right again. Everyone will still smell the fried splendor in the air, because our fair memories won’t let it go. It, too, will return, though. Just not this year.

So in this year without a seafood dining tent that coincidentally also celebrates the 100 years of the Fair Haven Fire Department Auxiliary, formerly the Ladies’ Auxiliary, we take a look back at a decades old view of the ‘fair’ ladies of the fair dining room. Many of the ‘fair’ ladies pictured in our Retro Pic of the Day will all likely return to ‘work’ the fair. Some are no longer with us, but always remembered as iconic fair ladies.

Did you know that the Auxiliary has been around almost as long as the fair itself? Your favorite dining room food? Ahhhhhh, smell the memories in the air.

See you at the fair!

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