Tag Archives: Fair Haven Fire Department

Retro Wheel of Fair Fortune

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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Retro Fair Haven Gals’ Fair Show Boating

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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A Birthday Wish: Going Back Home with Mom

Our annual reprise honoring the inspiration for R-FH Retro — my mom, Sally Van Develde — on what would have been her 103rd 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.

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In Memoriam: Former Longtime Fair Havenite, 64-Year Fire Company Life Member, Actor, Broadcaster, Tom Dorick, 86

Sixty-four-year Fair Haven Fire Department member and former longtime Fair Havenite, actor, voice-over artist and radio broadcaster, Tom Dorick, more recently of The Villages, FL, passed away peacefully on Thursday, Oct. 9. He was 86.

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Retro Firemen’s Halloween Party Posse

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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In Memoriam: Former Longtime Popular Teacher, Fair Havenite, Fireman, Gary Verwilt, 79

Former Fair Havenite, longtime popular teacher, fireman, Charles “Gary” Verwilt, passed away peacefully, after a long battle with dementia, on Monday evening, Aug. 4, at his temporary home in Eatontown. He was 79.

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