Retro Joyous Fall for the Leaf Pile — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

Sometimes a kid just has to take the plunge and fall for it!

Plunging into a big pile of leaves was always a simple fall pleasure for kids. Untethered to phones and TVs, Fair Haven kids of the 1960s resorted to the great outdoors in a small town. Sometimes they took it to the streets with marathon games of dodgeball, one taking the traffic alert commander position with a “CAR!!” shout now and then and a clear-out of the ball court. Nevermore. There might be a helicopter parent police alert if kids did that nowadays. Ahem.

Then there were those who took to the front yard with great fervor in the fall just waiting for that leaf pile to pile up high. Kids back then, in eager anticipation, often jumped in … to the raking realm just to help get the dream pile going. Once it was piled high, all that work put into it, with parents’ blessing, they’d dive right in with a glorious swoop to wreck all that stellar NIMBY suburban lawn status.

All it took was one plunge, though, to make a kid’s day, reveling in the season, the free feeling and joyous mess of a pile of leaves.

So, we take you back to that feeling of utter fall joy with a look back to Fair Haven-raised little Mary Croft, taking the deep dive and coming up roses, leaving no joyous leaf unturned.

Fair Haven kids can’t jump off the dock anymore. They can’t play in the streets for fear of a renegade unlawful speeder. They’ve long been advised to not jump in the leaves — well, in the street anyway. That would, indeed, be dangerous due to the rash of inattentive drivers parking in them to get the best spot.

So, leave it up to the parents and their kids to just go ahead and fall for it all in the privacy of their own lawn. Here stays the neighborhood! Get off my lawn! Jump back to a ’60s pile of joy in fall!

— Photo/courtesy of Mary Croft