Local Life

Retro ‘Night Out’ Mayoral Dunkin’

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Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli gets a dunking at Night Out 2012 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli gets a dunking at Night Out 2012
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Reprise … in honor of the best of National Night Out times …

Every year there’s a Fair Haven National Night Out. Tonight’s that night.

It’s a night, celebrated on the national level, designed to familiarize residents, from kids to seniors, with police and other emergency responders in town. That Night Out is always the first Tuesday in August. So, Tuesday it is in Fair Haven. There are plenty of Night Out memories to recall, but this featured one is a classic from 13 years ago.

There are games, demonstrations, looks at emergency equipment, food, smiles and handshakes — and a dunk tank.

And every year well-known dignitaries and leaders of the borough have gotten a good dunking at the hands of residents just dying to see how well they could take it.

Well, former longtime Mayor Ben Lucarelli got a good soaking in 2012. He rallied and he was proud — nearly drowned like a river rat as he was as a child. It made for a prime photo op. And he took it all with a smile — somewhere in there.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day honors the Fair Haven Night Out Dunk Tank tradition and the former mayor’s soaking and sense of humor over it all. Hey, he grew up in Rumson. There’s that.

He did once say that every good mayor deserves a good dunking. Anyone?

— Elaine Van Develde