It’s not every day that a bunch of longtime Fair Haven Knollwood School teachers from the 1970s era get together. It’s one day — for the first time in decades.
Continue reading Scene Around: A 70s Knollwood Teaching Moment
Students were back to school in the Rumson-Fair Haven area this week. Those classic first day of school shots were plastered all over Facebook.
And 50 years ago, or 51, to be exact, in September of 1966, while 91,000 students and 4,700 teachers headed back to public school classrooms in Monmouth County (13,014 to parochial), according to a Red Bank Register story of Sept. 6, 1966, the anticipation of the photo taken with that Brownie camera mounted as that picture of the day developed — taking weeks at times.
And those photos were classics … Mom-styled hair gone awry, buck-toothed and missing tooth grins, shiny Mary Jane shoes, Buster Brown penny loafers and, well, cheesy fashion in which to pose and say, “Cheese!”
At Knollwood School in 1966, half a century ago, there was a first-grade class, headed by Mrs. Ginny Kamin (deceased Red Bank Register editor Art Kamin’s wife) and filled with some area kids who ended up becoming entrenched in the community. One of those kids was me.
Some are no longer with us. Others have moved away, but keep in touch. Others, still, have stuck around and raised their children here, too. One common thread is that none of them have forgotten their hometown and likely that walk to the first day of school so many decades ago.
For me, the memory of the badly side-combed bangs kinda sticks like the Dippity-doo that was in them. Sorry, Mom. So do those little faces that seemed to loom like the Man in the Moon back in that slightly nerve-wracked elementary school daze. And it seems like yesterday. Yes, that’s scary. It’s especially scary since it wasn’t, in fact, yesterday.
Back in those days, we walked to school with a buddy. For me, those buddies were my best friend and neighbor Pam Young and Jeff Lang. Pam and I met up with Jeff at the corner and the three of us walked the rest of the way together. Yes, Jeff occasionally would carry my books. I remember that vividly. He is gone now, but that memory is a vivid and enduring one. So is the memory of Mrs. Lang waving to us from the front porch and reminding him to do just that.
The first day of school photos were taken on the front porch, in the front yard or on the sidewalk before the first stroll back then. There was that wait for the film development. Remember that? Then there was the wait for the annual class photo, like the one above, when the picture people grabbed a comb from a tub and gave all the kids a really bad comb through before that elementary school grimace moment. Not a good hair day for most of us little kids subject to Mom’s fashion whims.
It’s all a walk down a Fair Haven memory lane with a stumble or two for good measure.
What’s your first day memory? Stumble? Who did you walk with?
— Elaine Van Develde
It’s how the tradition goes … Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time is old friends’ reunion time.
Continue reading Focus: Fairing Well with Old Friends at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair
Fair Haven Republican Borough Council candidates Susan Sorensen and Betsy Koch cordially invited, as all invites go, Fair Havenites and all other interested parties to a meet-and-greet, getting-to-know-you gathering at The Raven and the Peach Thursday evening.
Sorensen, the incumbent, has served on various committees in her tenure, including starting the non-profit Foundation of Fair Haven, which is designed to offset costs for special events like Fair Haven Day and Oktoberfest.
This is a first run for political office for Koch. A longtime teacher at Knollwood School, she has said that she felt the timing was right for her to pitch in as a seated councilwoman in the hometown borough she loves and as a testament to the legacy of her husband Jerome, who served on council until his premature death a few years ago.
Take a look at the photo gallery below for a glimpse into the evening …. (and don’t forget to click to enlarge!)
— Elaine Van Develde
Well, the word is official. After a few great weather days, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair has been rained out due to Mother Nature’s lack of cooperation.
That means that the rides and other attractions will be shut down for the evening. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that the kitchen is open, volunteers are cooking and people are invited to grab a seat in the dining room for fair food or hit the take-out window to bring some home and brighten the dank day with a little of the fair’s finest comfort.
As the sign on the firehouse says, “Only dining room is open tonight — 6-10 p.m.”
All’s fair!
The Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair got off to a rousing start on Friday and Saturday nights with mighty fair weather and friends reunited in the name of community tradition.
Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect was there to grab some snapshots capturing the moments. Take a look … (And don’t forget to click to enlarge!)
— Elaine Van Develde
The year was 1987. It was a year of big hair, mullets, boom boxes, break dancing, penny loafers, Nintendo, Miami Vice fashion and Ford Crown Victoria police cars. And it was the year that one cop began his now 30-year career in Fair Haven.
The following Retro Pic of the Day, an annual ode to summer riverfront life in the area, was originally posted on Aug. 1, 2016. Take a look back with us again …
Summers in the Rumson-Fair Haven area are rife with river-oriented activities that have become tradition.
River Rats’ sailing “camp” is no exception. OK, nobody was camping. It was more like a little club. Still is.
It’s been a sort of rite of living on the Navesink passage for decades — since 1955. Kids learn how to boat and do a lot of summer fun bonding in the process.
A contingent of Fair Haven residents riled over the proposed removal of 50-foot sweet gum trees along Third Street and Cedar Avenue were quelled by the eventual edict at Monday’s Borough Council meeting that, for now, officials will leave the trees be.
Fair Havenite Megan Douty wiped away a few tears, smiled and told a capacity crowd at Monday’s Borough Council meeting, “I’m just so honored” as she accepted a proclamation honoring her for being a Team U.S.A. World Cup champ.
Flanked by family, friends, fans and old high school lax team girls, Douty expressed gratitude to her hometown and posed for some photos.
Douty, a 2011 Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) graduate and 2015 graduate of The University of Maryland, was part of the U.S.A. Lacrosse Team that beat Canada, getting the gold in an undefeated 2017 season.
Douty has participated in the U.S.A. program for the past three years. She was then selected for the 2017 U.S. World Cup Team.
While Douty was a student at RFH, she was known as a star athlete on the high school’s lacrosse team. As a Terrapin at University of Maryand, she became known as one of the top lacrosse defenders in the country who earned all-American status in 2014 and 2015.
“It was a great honor for the Borough of Fair Haven to have one of its residents, Megan Douty, represent the United States of America and Fair Haven,” the proclamation said, designating Aug. 7, 2017 as Megan Douty Day in Fair Haven.
Congrats, Megan!
— Elaine Van Develde
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