It’s something to steep in … the thought of any sort of Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair food. Many do all fair week long. This year the steeping is limited to visions of fried seafood combo, steamers and clam chowder dancing in their heads. They’re the kind of dreams a seasoned fair goer needs to dive into.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: Food To Go Now & ThenTag Archives: Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair
Scene Around: Weather, Tides, COVID, PIcs & a Meeting
Well, the week has begun with an awful lot of silence around Rumson and Fair Haven. The sounds of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair are missing.
Continue reading Scene Around: Weather, Tides, COVID, PIcs & a Meeting
A Happy 98th Birthday Tribute to a Fair Haven Icon: Ray Taylor
Photos/Elaine Van Develde
Fair Haven’s iconic Ray Taylor is two years shy of a centenarian today. That means he’s just about as old as his hometown. It also means that he has a cache swelling with love, memories and future plans for the place he has called home for longer than most.
Continue reading A Happy 98th Birthday Tribute to a Fair Haven Icon: Ray Taylor
A Covid-19 Era Break in Tradition: Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Cancelled
The historic, unprecedented news came on Tuesday night. For the third rare time in more than a century, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2020 has been cancelled.
Continue reading A Covid-19 Era Break in Tradition: Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Cancelled
In Memorium: Longtime Fair Havenite Sheila Haese, 73
Longtime Fair Havenite Sheila Egan Haese passed away at Riverview Medical Center on April 25 from multiple medical complications and cancer. She was 73.
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Focus: A Fair Finish
The rides are dismantled. The chowder is sold out. The grounds are cleared. Games of chance are won and done. Town tales spun, lifetime friendships rekindled and begun. The 2019 Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has come to a close for another year, but not before a banner finale.
Here’s a glimpse into fair closing night happenings and people on Saturday, from daylight to dark … (Don’t forget to CLICK on each photo to enlarge! Click again on same photo to advance to the next. Enjoy!)
— Elaine Van Develde
Reflection: All’s Fair in the Middle
There have been a lot of significant beginnings and endings lately. The end of summer. The beginning of locals’ summer. The start of school — new chapters and first days.
But, what about the middle? The end of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair brings me, and probably more than a few others, back to that middle.
Remembrance of the Fair Stock Room Dude — Dad
The following piece was originally published on Aug. 31, 2015. It is being re-run, with changes only in the amount of years that have passed, in memory of my father, Bill Van Develde, former longtime Fair Haven Fire Company member, president and captain of the Fire Police and chairman of the stock room at the fair, on the anniversary of his death on Aug. 31, 1983. RIP, Dad. You are missed. Thank you for all the embarrassing moments that I didn’t appreciate enough. Thank you for making Fair Haven my home. Thank you for being a real dad. See you later at the fair …
Photo/FHFD booklet
By Elaine Van Develde
It’s been 36 years, but I can still see his face and that kooky Brylcreemed hairdo. I can still hear his crazy belly laugh and that signature “Take ‘er easy, buddy!” I can still see him slapping kids on the back, forever clutching his trusty clipboard, pencil perched behind his ear, sweat on the brow and finger wagging.
Continue reading Remembrance of the Fair Stock Room Dude — Dad
Retro Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Balloon Boss & Buddies
The following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated …
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.
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Retro Fair Take-Out
Photo/Elaine Van Develde
It’s something to steep in … the thought of any sort of Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair food. Many do all fair week long.
Continue reading Retro Fair Take-Out
Focus: A Fair Start in Fair Haven
Call it a fair beginning. The end of the summer signals the start of The Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair — more than a century’s worth of big tradition in the small peninsula borough.
Continue reading Focus: A Fair Start in Fair Haven
A Fair Haven Girl’s Fair Haunt
The night is still. A light is on. Trucks are out of the bays. Cartoony faces and ghosts in empty seats on unassembled carnival rides stare back in the dark. Someone’s cooking at the Fair Haven firehouse. It’s fair time.
Continue reading A Fair Haven Girl’s Fair Haunt
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