Tag Archives: Fair Haven Fire Department

Local Life, Opinion

A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with Mom

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  • Sally Van Develde at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair in 1969.
  • Sally Van Develde and Mary Farley

Our annual reprise honoring the inspiration for R-FH Retro — my mom, Sally Van Develde — on what would have been her 102nd birthday. A birthday wish … Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom. You remain in the hearts of so many … Besides, I won’t let them forget.

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?” ~ Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

For the love of home and a Fair Haven mom … that’s right.

Sometimes a birthday without her is about lighting the candles, making the wish, sustaining the simple legacy of going home, staying home with my mom, Sally Van Develde.

Today would have been her 102nd birthday. If she had lived to blow out all those candles on her cake, I wondered what she would have done. What her wish would have been.

Keep Local News homegrown in Sally’s HONOR. Donate coffee.
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Local Life

Scene Around: Swearing In Fair Haven Fire Department’s Line Officers

There’s a new chief in town. Well, there’s a new chief, deputy chief, assistant chiefs, lieutenants, captains, president and vice president in the Fair Haven Fire Department’s fire company, first aid squad, auxiliary and water rescue.

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Obituaries, Opinion

Remembering Fair Haven’s Garry Allers: A Lifetime of Relative Kindness Passed On

It’s all relative. You’ve heard it before. “He was like family.” Like. And sometimes people just say someone was family, no “like” involved. Family.

That’s usually because sometimes, DNA be damned, someone is no doubt family to someone, or many, in every way but the genetics. And sometimes, that’s just because a person’s actions in life scream a louder familial compassion and love than their genes — like a bear hug that squeezes all the good into us.

One girl called forever Fair Havenite Garry Allers her uncle. Uncle Garry was laid to rest yesterday. While on this Earth, he didn’t flinch at the relative reference from his adopted niece. It was the truth in every way that mattered, after all. Yes, it’s all relative.

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Local Life

Retro Motley Firemen’s Halloween Party Crew

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It’s spooky and kooky Halloween party season.

And there’s nothing quite like a costume party full of festive, fun fiends who take full advantage of the season to say the devil made them do it when it comes to tricks and the sometimes questionable treat of their disguises.

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Fair Haven Police and Fire Files, Local Life

Scene Around: Fire Safety Lessons Taught in Fair Haven

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Stop, drop and roll with the lesson! That’s what Fair Haven Fire Department volunteers are teaching kids these days about fire safety.

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Local Life

Retro Wheel of Fair Fortune

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Manning a Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair game of chance booth in the 1960s
Photo/FHFD

Reprise, because the countdown to Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time has begun! Yes, there are games of chance at the fair, but most would agree that everyone’s a winner with the fair and its cache of memories for any area-raised kid. Spin …

“Round and round she goes; and, where she stops, nobody knows.”

That usual was the sing-song mantra echoed through the grounds of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair back in the day. It was emanating from the guys manning the game of chance booths that still line the grounds — the loud ticking of the wheel with the spin, numbers going round and round, fingers crossed, breath held … until they stopped on that winning number. “Aaaaaand we have a WINNER!” Woohoo!

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Local Life

Retro Fair Haven Gals’ Fair Show Boating

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The FHFD girls on the boat to be raffled at the fair circa 1960s
Photo/.FHFD

The heat is on and the countdown has already begun to the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.

And, back in the day, the 1960s day, the fire department, rather than raffling off a car, SUV or a big chunk of cash (as in Super 50/50), decided to make a boat the prized prize of the fair. And they advertised that with the help of some fire department-affiliated bathing beauties.

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From the Meeting Room

Names in Fair Haven News: New Administrator, Volunteers

Who’s who and what? Well, in Fair Haven, starting at the literal top of the list, the borough’s new administrator, Christopher York, started work on Monday.

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Obituaries

In Memoriam: Former Longtime Fair Havenite, Police Officer, Fire Co. Member, RFH ’64 Grad, Richard Post, 78

Former longtime Fair Havenite, police officer, fire company member and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School graduate, Richard Post, died on Monday, June 10, at Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, SC., surrounded by his children and grandchildren he loved and loved to spend time with.

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