RFH girls’ ride into the summer of ’78 … Stephanie DeSesa, Elaine Van Develde, Debbie Humbert and Daryl Cooper Ley Photo/Suzan Cooper
Sun up!There’s nothing quite like a summer drive in a classic car with the top down, especially when it’s the summer of senior year. So, we’re re-running this piece just because the sun needs to shine on friendships and good times like these. There’s nothing quite as warm. Put the top down and take a drive back with us again …
The drive is all the better if it’s made with best friends. So, as a continuing ode to summer fun of the past at the hands of RFH teens, the Retro Pic of the Day encapsulates the whole idea — best friends, a cool ride and warm memories.
“We’re captive on the carousel of time … We can’t return. We can only look behind from where we came and go round and round and round in the circle game …” ~ Joni Mitchell
The wound left by the merciless hammer’s mark was a deep one. Somehow it didn’t break the circle, though. It wouldn’t. Never could. That was the consolation, so I was posthumously reminded by his mother, if there was to be any at all in something that seemed so senseless and unfair.
Circle. It was stuck in my head. Once that hammer hit, she started whispering to me as I grappled with how to remember him best for her, for his family, for his friends, with my words.
RFH 1978 graduation in front of the high school, replete with daisy chain Photo/Daryl Cooper Ley
The following was originally posted in May of 2017. It is being re-run in honor of graduation, time honored traditions past and this RFH Daisy Chain girl of ’78, who passed away in February of 2018 — Daryl Cooper Ley.
In high school social circles, it was considered a popularity status symbol to be chosen for the chain. Daryl wasn’t all too thrilled about it at the time. It had confirmed what her closest friends knew. That she was cool. It was often repeated to her. “I didn’t think so,” was always her answer. Sorry, Dar. We win. Got the last word. You were. RIP, Dar. You are remembered … in our hearts, souls and print, like it or not! Love you forever more. Oh, she would kill me …
It was considered a privilege and honor. They were chosen from the junior class at RFH to serve as the debutante-like ushers for the graduating class. All dressed in white and supposedly gracefully toting a chain of daisies, the Daisy Chain girls were a fixture of high school finery at graduations in the 1970s.
The origins of the somewhat upper-crust tradition date back to the 1900s, but this Retro Pic of the Day was snapped in 1978.
“There are places I remember … all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remained. All these places have their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall … In my life, I’ve loved them all.”
In My Life ~ The Beatles
And those who knew her, loved her right back … She was Daryl Cooper Ley.
She grew up in Fair Haven, an adventurous girl who could sport scuffed knees, pigtails, snap some Double Bubble Bubble Gum bubbles and vroom a moped like no other. She was a Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) grad with many a prank to pull, paper airplane to fly and hearty hyena laughs to share. She was a supportive, fun Rumson mom and wife with a brazen love of all babies, children, adolescents and teens. She was a compassionate philanthropist. She was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend.
It’s summertime and the living is filled with typical summer activity — and not-so-typical. We’re in the midst of a heatwave.
A lot of people in the Rumson-Fair Haven area have predictable seasonal habits — like vacationing, beach clubbing, beachfront partying, fine dining … any number of things.
Then there are others who have opted to take the opportunity to do some charitable work or just simply take some quality time with the kids — one-on-one.
We ran into RFH grad Daryl Cooper Ley and senior-to-be daughter Becca set to take a mom-daughter stroll on the Sea Bright beach for what mom said was some “overdue quality-time walking and talking.”
Nice. Do you like to keep it simple in the summer? What’s your simple summertime activity? Tell us and/or send a pic to [email protected].
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