It’s a banner summer vacation day when a Fair Haven police officer, also a Middletown fire chief, and his two children wander onto, or seek out, some Clerks III movie set action.
Continue reading Scene Around: Fair Haven Cop, Kids & Clerks IIIA Fair Haven neighborhood, family and friends are in mourning for a “larger than life” neighbor known as a community pied piper, inspiring neighborhood unity, fun and kindness to all whose lives he touched.
The neighbor, friend, father and husband, Robert “Bob” Carr passed away on Saturday, Aug. 14. He was 64.
Continue reading In Memoriam: Fair Havenite Bob Carr, 64
Son of a Fair Haven business icon! Anthony Fabbri, son of Umberto’s Silvio, spoke the truth when he said in our recent interview that he had been making pizza since the age of 2.
Continue reading Retro Umberto’s Pizza Pie in the Sky Tyke Flip-Out
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
A reprise in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair coming back to town after a COVID-19 pandemic unheard-of hiatus last year. There used to be a prize boat at one time. Then there was a car. Now there’s the Super 50/50; and, in another altered tradition, tickets are on sale now, in advance of the fair’s comeback in a couple of weeks.
Summer heat’s on and the fair in all of it’s area coolness is coming back. What a prize! Right?
Speaking of prizes, we take you back to this reprise sequel of those firehouse girls-on-the-boat photos for a tidbit about fair winnings and reminder that the grand prize of all prizes, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is on its way back.
Continue reading Retro Fair Haven Gals and a Fair Prize Boat“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 Block
The view from the Fair Haven Dock is a bit askew if you’re fast forwarding from a sunny Monday to a hazy Tuesday with The Carpenters’ 1971 song Rainy Days and Mondays burrowing a massive ear worm in your head.
So, just going along with an updated Hazy Days and Tuesdays doesn’t get rid of the tune, just the lyrics. And then there’s the view from the dock. It seldom, if ever, gets one down.
In fact, it seems like there’s always a giant yellow smiley face, just like the 70s, calling all, like a siren, to the end of the dock. It’s that terminal sign that sunnier days always return. So, in anticipation of the sun and solace of the timeless view from the dock, take a look (click on one pic to enlarge and scroll), soak it up and smile.
Sunny days topped with sprinkles on top are ahead, according to the National Weather Service …
Former Fair Havenite Raymond “Ray” John Chrisner passed away peacefully at home on July 22. He was 78.
Continue reading In Memoriam: Former Fair Havenite Ray Chrisner, 78
It’s the heart of summer. And with summertime in the Rumson-Fair Haven area comes a tsunami of waterborne activity.
It’s the peninsula way of life. Always has been. And because of it, back in 1962, members of the Fair Haven Fire Department’s First Aid Squad created an underwater rescue team, as they referred to it. The team would exist for water rescue and recovery emergencies. It made sense.
Continue reading Retro R-FH Water Rescue Cruisin’“Her life was meaningful, and she made a positive impact wherever she went. Her family is very proud of the legacy Joyce left behind.“
Family of Joyce Scanlon in her obituary
Legacy. Positive impact. Moments. Impressions. Intricate inflections from one person in the neighborhood. They’re bigger than a neighborhood kid in a small town would think. Snippets from somebody’s mom who likely never knew she or they would be remembered. They would matter.
Then you become an adult, and start to age. And you’ve unwittingly become, or hope to become, that person to someone. You’re somebody’s mom. Oh, there’s not just one of those moms. In a small community, there are many — if you’re looking hard enough to see the microcosms. If you pay attention to those daydreams that made your mind wander about who that lady really is beyond a mom. If you tuck the little things revealed in the musings carefully away in that niche of your mind that rears itself to remind you of what matters.
When you’re that neighborhood kid and all through adulthood, every single time you pass by the home of your childhood friend and classmate, you smile and sigh contentedly — a homesick stalker. Of course, you should have stopped. But it never really occurs to you that one day you won’t be able to and it’ll be up to you to remember the little things. They won’t leave.
The drive-by brings back a waft of simple thoughts of that lady with the bright blue eyes, warm smile and caring way all wrapped up in a no-frills stretchy hair band. It’s then that you know you’re lucky to have grown up with yet another one of those people in your life.
And you remember. You just never forget those little things, like the time you were at that sixth grade Stokes trip and she was volunteering there. She was there for all the kids. And they surely had their moments, too. But, that one day, when something profound was on your wandering, weird mind and you found her by the lake, likely deep in her own thoughts, escaping kids like you, she saw you, smiled and listened as you rattled on about something you thought was so very deep and important.
It was likely that you were scared of that night’s square dance or that the boys, maybe even hers, would capsize your canoe just for laughs. You couldn’t swim. Only in the pool in your back yard or at Camp Arrowhead. A lake was different. In your weird little mind, it had the potential to swallow you whole into the belly of some ominous beast. Or you had anxiety about the popular kids in your cabin. You philosophized quite seriously about all of the kid stuff, earnestly believing in your maturity and depth. She listened like you were a peer. You remembered. She saw you, that kid. You saw her. That mom, a grown-up lady.
It seemed like your secret. She understood you like no other. From then on, she was your secret pal. There were sporadic conversations as you got older, grew up with her kids, in the Acme, at an event or walking down the street. There may have even been more big girl chats. The knowingness was in her eyes each time, even if she struggled to remember your name, whose kid you were, which kid of hers you knew. She always somehow saw you and understood you. And though you’d like to think you were special to this neighborhood lady, somebody’s mom, she just unknowingly had that effect on everyone. She just saw everyone.
And, years later, when you never stopped, but always asked about her, feeling as if this somebody’s mom would terminally be around, you find out it’s too late to stop, to tell her. Her son, your friend since kindergarten, sends a message. She has passed away. Who was even thinking that she had already gotten to the age of 90? Not this kid … at 60. That somebody’s mom who knew every kid mattered, who had that unknowing effect, was Fair Haven’s Joyce Scanlon.
Rest In Peace, Joyce, knowing you mattered in that little town in that special niche in the world — and far beyond.
Here’s what Joyce’s family had to say about her in her obituary …
Longtime Fair Havenite Joyce E. Scanlon (nee Nelson) passed away on July 20. She was 90.
Immersed in the community, while raising four children, Joyce worked in the Fair Haven school system for many years, coached girls’ softball, and volunteered in any way she could. She also was an avid participant in Boy Scouts, beginning as a den mother, then working endless summers at Quail Hill Camp as the Arts & Crafts Director until she was awarded the scouts’ highest honor from the Monmouth County Council.
Joyce was also lifelong Yankees’ fan, attending Babe Ruth’s funeral at Yankee Stadium as a teenager.
“She loved movies, took adult Spanish classes, and cooking. Maybe most (paramount) of all was her love of nature and animals.
Family of Joyce Scanlon
She adopted many animals and loved them all. She traveled to Maine nearly every year of her life, most often camping.
Her genuine, kind personality led her to
many wonderful friendships and experiences.”
Born in Kearny, Joyce graduated from Kearny High School, where she was the drum majorette leading the Kardinal Marching Band at every parade.
After high school she attended Bucknell University, focusing on creative writing and a general pursuit of greater knowledge as a member of Delta Zeta sorority.
After school, she worked for Blue Cross in Newark before marrying Martin J. Scanlon in 1957, who moved in across the street from her on Stuyvesant Avenue. The couple moved to Fair Haven where they remained, raising their children and living their lives out.
Joyce was predeceased by her parents, Harry and Kathryn Nelson, and her loving husband of 52 years, Martin J. Scanlon.
She is survived by: her children, Ellen, and her husband Cameron, Harry, Jim, and his wife Veronica, and Steve, and his wife Patti; her grandchildren, Alex, Matt, Lynelle, Carolyn, and Holly; and her step-grandchildren Jake and Madison Clapp.
Visitation will be Sunday, July 25, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Thompson Memorial Home, Red Bank. A graveside service will be held on Monday, July 26, at 10 a.m. at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Middletown.
Rainy days and Saturdays won’t get the folks at Fair Haven’s Fisk Chapel down.
They’re cooking up something good, as usual. It’s a fish fry this time; and it benefits the historic church in this Fair Haven niche.
The serving up of the good food and company starts at noon and lasts until the food is gone at the church at 35 Fisk St., Fair Haven,
Here are more details …
They just might be called those “lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer,” as in the song, because when the heat is on and the humidity’s as high as it’s been, sluggish is the feeling one gets.
Continue reading Focus: Hot, Hazy Summer Daze
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