There’s nothing like a best buddy — or a few best buds. There was also nothing like the combination of best friends and the iconic bridge that was a leftover statue or cement billboard of sorts from the McCarter estate in Rumson.

So, to pay tribute to both buds and the bridge, the Retro Pic of the Day offers a glimpse of both in milestone moments of friends paying homage to one another by painting the bridge way back in time.

The painting in this shot was a message among buddies to let one another know they were special enough to risk limb, espadrilles and the long arm of the law catching them not only painting, but posing for a pic of their homage artwork.

The featured shot is of this editor’s best friends perched atop the bridge in ode to their buddy’s RFH Class of ’78 Senior Variety Show finale rendition of the then-popular What I Did for Love from Broadway’s A Chorus Line — “Kiss today goodbye” … 

It was close to graduation time and the sentimentality was setting in for buddies who would be separated by miles and college choices, but not hearts. Not ever.

This is the stuff you just never forget. As the song goes, “Won’t forget, can’t regret what I did for love.” No forgetting. No regrets. Ever. Not with besties in your hometown and heart. Though, two are no longer with us, they are never forgotten. Thank you, my best buds, forever — for all the laughs, the risks and the love.

The bridge and buddies. Who needs anything else?

Did your RFH pals ever paint the bridge with a message for you? Nothing quite like it.

— Elaine Van Develde

• In Memoriam: Former Fair Havenite Maura Hickey McCarthy, 61
• Retro Knollwood Grads Walking the Walk
• In Memoriam: Red Bank Resident, Mary Trozzo, 89
• Retro RFH Guys’ Summer Dive
• In Memoriam: Fair Haven- and Rumson-Raised RFH ’78 Grad, Pattie Leutz Lyons, 66