Retro Prized Crabby Halloween Paraders — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

Fair Haven Halloween Parade prize winners in the 1980s
Photo/Kathy Robbins

There’s nothing like getting crabby for Halloween.

So, what do you get when you put a couple of crabs, a crabber and a cook in a Halloween parade? A prize, of course.

And that’s just what happened when longtime former Fair Havenite Kathy Robbins and family got costumed up for marching in the annual Halloween parade in Fair Haven in the 1986. Robbins’ mom Madeline, also a forever Fair Havenite, crafted the crabby costumes. And the prize? Well, this little family crab “netted (haha) first prize,” Robbins said.

And if we don’t say so ourselves, it was quite a clever representation of Fair Haven and life down by the river. I mean, all good Fair Havenites go crabbing at the dock, right? It’s a rite of passage, part of growing up in the borough, after all.

So, since R-FH Retro missed the parade festivities in both Rumson and Fair Haven yesterday and most saw photos via social media anyway, we figured we would take you back to a parade of a different era with a three-generation Fair Haven family and film-developed pics — the kind that you had to wait to see.

The parading joy, of course, started out with a kids-only line-up at Sportsman’s Field, in the featured photo, of those crabs and friends in the form of a pint-sized bridezilla and scout. The pose before the category placement actual parade formation is classic as the car there. What kind of car is that? Anyone?

Crabs and brides and scouts weren’t on that list of most popular 80s Halloween costumes, but, then again, those others didn’t have Madeline Robbins to design uniquely Fair Haven kinda costumes. Right?

What was your favorite 80s costume? Now? Trick or treat?

Thanks to the fabulous Kathy Robbins for this classic look back at Fair Haven Halloween times!