They’re setting up for the return of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.
The fair has been a tradition for decades. That’s no secret. And there has always been food, rides and prizes.
Continue reading Retro Fair Stock Dudes
In anticipation of the return of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we take a look back again at a game of chance, its history and families that spin together.
Most often, working at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is a longtime family affair.
So, the Retro Pic of the Day today is an ode to just that, in addition to featuring those behind the booths.
Continue reading Retro Fair Family Affair Spin
It won’t be long before the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair returns home where it has always belonged — on those firehouse grounds.
Continue reading Retro ‘Fair’ Ladies of the Dining Room“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
Fred Rogers
And sometimes that meeting comes every day with the same person on the same street for about half a century. What is left stays … in the neighborhood heart.
“How ya doin’?” It’s what I heard in a friendly, mellow cadence from across the street pretty much every day for most of my life. It was a soothing, subtle reminder that I was home and a good neighbor was always there, looking out, never judging, nitpicking or naysaying. Caring, instead, with a knowing smile and a few simple words.
Knowing. Knowing that we were all there for the same reason. Neighborhood. Simple gestures. That’s all it really takes. And take it to microcosmic heights unknown is what this one neighbor did. Daily.
The neighbor was Conrad. Conrad Decher. The forever Fair Haven guy from my 54-year block was laid to rest on Monday. His spirit, however, will always be fluttering around. The flutter. It’s gentle. It’s not grand, not intrusive. Still, it’s deliberate. It stays — a subtle, soft, strong, consistent gesture. Like a heartbeat. After all, here, in the heart, stays the neighborhood.
Continue reading Beautiful Days in the Neighborhood: Remembering Conrad from the BlockAll’s fair, after all! It’s the post-quarantine, pandemic state-of-emergency news all Fair Havenites at heart, near and far, have been waiting for: The Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair will return this year.
The highly-anticipated news, that was expected by mid-June came via the fair chairmen via social media within the past hour or so:
“We are thrilled to be able to announce that after review with our members, vendors and of course NJ safety protocols, 2021 will see the return of the Firemen’s Fair — Friday, August 27 – Saturday, September 4 (closed Sunday)!
The fair will continue traditions of rides, game booths, Outback and our 50/50 raffles. More details to be announced at a later time.
Our Seafood Dining room will *not* be open at this year’s Fair but will be back in 2022! In the meantime, look forward to planning your Fair week and when the call for volunteers goes out,
please join in the fun!”
Here’s a glimpse back to the last fair in 2019 to boost the good-time memories … (Click on one to enlarge and scroll!)
Fair Haven has lost another longtime resident. The lady who countless people saw year after year manning the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair’s Grab Bag Booth, affectionately known by many as “the balloon lady,” Jeanette Choma, passed away on Nov. 20. She was 88.
Continue reading In Memoriam: A Look Back at Longtime Fair Havenite Jeanette Choma, 88
On the year without the fair … We look back to a story originally published in 2015 all about just how the largest firemen’s fair in the state was run and a bit about that famous clam chowder. The details come straight from a longtime fair chairman and his son years later … RIP, Jim Acker. All’s fair ….
There was a time when there was one. Now there are three. We’re talking Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair chairmen. Yes, there was one person in charge of all that’s fair, getting it started and keeping it going. That guy was James Acker back in the day a few decades ago from the late 1960s to early ’80s. Then it was Gary Verwilt, former longtime Knollwood School teacher.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Chairman’s FootnotesJust when the guy in charge of the kitchen has retired, a pandemic comes along and obliterates the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and all that annual fine fair food. So, on the year without a fair, we look back again to our 2015 story of fair food, who did it all back in the day, what was done, how and who’s still cooking. Can you wait another year? The absence of fair food wafting through the air likely has everyone drooling for the next fair already … No one’s in the kitchen this year but the ghosts. They’re always there …
By Elaine Van Develde
Someone’s in the kitchen at Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair grounds.
And while they may have, at one point another been with someone named Dinah, as the old ditty goes, it’s a definite they’ve been with someone named Mike, Dale, Sue (x2), Raquel, Ethel (x2), Mary, Anne, Amanda, Skippy, Hodgie, Mary Ellen, Joe, Evie, and, oh, yeah, Andy and a few others.
And they certainly haven’t been strummin’ on any ol’ banjo. They’ve been way too busy — cutting, peeling, filling, flouring, husking and just plain cooking.
Except there’s nothing plain about what’s cooking in the fair kitchen, who’s cooking it, when, where, why or how.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Someone’s in the KitchenThe following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again, on the year without a fair, in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated along with my dad, Bill …
Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: My Balloon MamaThey call it Family Night now. But, the Wednesday night of each Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is forever Firemen’s Night to any kid who grew up hearing sirens blaring through the streets where they lived on that eve that welcomed and honored firefighters from near and far to the fair grounds.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: A Firemen’s NightOn the historic year without the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we offer a look back at some classic moments of the past five years, since R-FH Retro has been roving the grounds freezing snippets of time.
To anyone who has grown up in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, the fair is a reuniter, an end-of-summer community anchor, a generous memory giver. So, on the year without the fair, here’s a look back at the more recent past and best of moments among friends who became family in a place called home. Take the ride with us …
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Rides & ReunionsThis Retro Pic(s) of the Day story was originally published on Aug. 25, 2015. It is being run again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, which would have been running this week. On a historic summer without the fair, we remember how some fair traditions got started, like lost fair art of candy apple making, waffle ice cream sandwiches. Then there’s the art of spinning cotton candy, something that was formerly mastered and commandeered by the late Millie Felsmann, also the champ of candy apple making. This is how they did it and continue to do it at the fair … Until we meet again at the Out Back in 2021 …
When it came to cotton candy — that fluffy spun light blue and pink sugar on a cone that melts in your mouth, on your mouth and many times on your hands, too — Millie Felsmann was the pro at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.
Don’t get us wrong, here. We know that Millie also commandeered the candy apple making. Yes, Candy Bennett was there, too — for many hours a day, making and selling those candy apples, apropos name and all. And, in another Retro Pic of the Day from 2015, we touted her as the candy apple lady.
Well, she was — she was Candy, the candy apple lady. Yes, Candy had a lot do do with those candy apples — but Millie was the boss. She, along with her troupe of kids and Candy, Betty Acker and Mrs. Frank, started work on those apples as early as 6:30 a.m.. And, even further back, to 1965 or 66, Mrs. Topfer made those apples, too.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: The Fair Art of Candy Apple Making, Cotton Candy Spinning & Ice Cream
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