Our annual reprise about what it really means to experience all that’s fair for a Fair Haven kid …
There are a lot of significant beginnings and endings this time of the year. 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 has always brought me, and many a “fair” kid, back to that middle haven. It’s home.
Continue reading Fair Remembrance: All’s Fair in the MiddleThe 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. 30, 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 on the fair grounds …
By Elaine Van Develde
It’s been 41 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 Remembering My Fair DaddyIt’s that night of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair that’s a gleaming, blaring, whirling truck-loving kid’s dream. It’s Firefighters’ Night; and it was last night at the fair.
Continue reading Focus: A Fair Firefighters’ Night 
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’ 
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