Sometimes you just have to leave things up to chance. And there’s nothing better to personify that notion than a moment at what was the Grab Bag Booth at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.
Continue reading Retro Fair Grab Bagging ’60s-Style 
The following piece was originally published on Aug. 27, 2015. It’s fair time again, so it’s time to take a look back at how things were and are done a pivotal place at the fair — the kitchen and dining room.
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.
All’s fair — at least for Rumson-Fair Haven area folks. It’s Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair week, after all.
Continue reading Focus: Fair Riding, Gaming and Fraternizing 
Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge replacement and associated roadway construction activity continues this week from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through Friday, weather permitting, with an upcoming channel closure alert.
Continue reading Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge Summer Travel & Channel Closure Alert Fair Haven-raised Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Class of 1974 graduate Paula Morton, more recently of Tinton Falls, passed away at home on Sunday, Aug. 18th, after a courageously-fought battle against lung cancer. She was 68.
Continue reading In Memoriam: Fair Haven-Raised RFH ’74 Grad, Paula Morton, 68 Our annual reprise in celebration of opening night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair …
All’s fair. The night before. The decades later. It’s something a Fair Haven kid will always see … a shooting star that they grabbed and tucked away in their heart, holding onto the glistening, magical light.
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 Fair Reflections: An Ode to Opening Night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair
It’s all fun and island-hopping games until they have to start a fire.
Yes, there comes a time when end-of-summer Rumson island-hopping coolness sets in, parents rang the unheard dinner bell and a bunch of hungry, wayward, marooned kids try to cook that fish they caught and toast their own little buns.
Continue reading Cooking Up ’50s-Style Fun on Starvation Island 
The following story was first published on Sept. 7, 2016. In honor of the upcoming Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair on Friday and all its tradition, including that famous clam chowder, here it is again …
The recipe for the famous Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Manhattan clam chowder was considered a highly-guarded secret. People flocked to get their fill at the fair, because they could only get it once a year. It was a secret taken to the grave with former Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Chairman James Acker.
Continue reading Old News: All’s Fair in the Secret of a Clam Chowder Recipe 
Reprise … in honor of the best of National Night Out times …
Every year there’s a Fair Haven National Night Out.
It’s a night, celebrated on the national level, designed to familiarize residents, from kids to seniors, with police and other emergency responders in town. That Night Out should have been last week in the borough, but it was rained out. No mind. There are plenty of Night Out memories to recall.
There are games, demonstrations, looks at emergency equipment, food, smiles and handshakes — and a dunk tank.
Continue reading Retro ‘Night Out’ Mayoral Dunkin’ 
Ahoy! Ship Ahoy, to locals beaching it back in the summer of ’63, that is.
Yes, it’s locals’ summertime. Always has been. And the locals’ summer spots have always been a place of respite from the out-of-towner beach crowd in the Rumson-Fair Haven area. They call them beach clubs.
Continue reading Retro Summer Beach Babies’ Bingo It’s been an ongoing crime in the Rumson-Fair Haven area and it hit Fair Haven again yesterday — a car theft.
Continue reading Car Theft in Fair Haven; Police Issue Warning 
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!
Continue reading Retro Wheel of Fair Fortune 
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