Ken Curchin has been all over the world. He’s done and seen a lot. He flew a B-17 Bomber in World War II. He married his best gal and became a dad to five children. He was a barber in his family’s shop on Mechanic Street in Red Bank. He jumped off the Fair Haven Dock. All this and he says, with an eye twinkle and a his own brand of hearty hyena chuckle, that he’s “never been in the newspaper until now, sons a b******!”
Well, this is the second (or, we’re told, third) time, Mr. Curchin. Born on April 19, 1917 in the building that is now Frame It Yourself on River Road in Fair Haven, he is 100 years old today. Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect caught up with him for a second time on Easter. And what a time it was!
Happy Birthday, Mr. Curchin! Listen and learn … (Be sure to click the video to enlarge!)
Sometimes a little solitude, a stroll and a serene scene down by the Fair Haven Dock is the best thing for the soul.
While the scenery may look the same, no two riverfront snapshots in time are ever identical. Each moment is unique. Each picture different. The effect, too, of given day down by that Navesink River can change like, well, the seasons.
It’s spring in Fair Haven. And that riverfront stroll is as soothing as the sun’s warm embrace. That’s because it’s a walk home.
After a week peppered with foul weather, forecasters are seeing the light — sunlight — peering through and making way for some weekend activity in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.
Award-winning young adult fiction author Jordan Sonnenblick speaks to eighth grade students at Knollwood School Photo/Fair Haven School District
Award-winning young adult fiction author Jordan Sonnenblick visited Knollwood School recently to give students a glimpse into the mind of a writer who explores teenage life.
Well, after more soggy, rainy days, the sun made an appearance in the Rumson-Fair Haven area and beckoned people back to the Navesink riverfront.
At the Fair Haven Dock, the scene was one of solitary sun worshipping and a little riverfront romping. Contentment. Comfort on the homefront.
As the forecast tells, the sun will just do a bit of peering on Monday. Then we’ll be hit with hazardous rainy conditions by Tuesday. So, enjoy and get your river romping in.
According to the National Weather Service, there will be rain after 11 p.m. on Monday and showers with a possible thunderstorm and a flood watch on Tuesday. Though, the temperature will hit the mid-60s. The sun comes back on Wednesday.
It wasn’t all that long ago when Lucille Suggs was still living in the Fair Haven neighborhood that she loved.
Tucked away contentedly in her modest home, neighbors, friends, family were known to stop by for a visit. Then there were the police officers who had grown up knowing her as a loving, welcoming presence in the borough who would pop in to make sure that she was safe and cared for during a storm, bout of bad weather, or “just because.”
Mrs. Suggs not too long ago, after more than half a century there, left the Fair Haven home and community she loved in her 90s to be closer to her son and cared for in a nursing home where he lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
She hit 100 in August of 2016 with a big smile on her face, surrounded by loved ones and missed dearly by Fair Havenites who had grown so accustomed to her warm grin, embracing, graceful manner and soulful sense of humor.
Lucille Brooks Suggs passed away on March 23. And she is coming home to Fair Haven tomorrow, Saturday, to be bid farewell at her church, Fisk Chapel AME Church, 38 Fisk St., with a viewing beginning at 9a.m. and funeral services to follow at 11. Interment will be at the Shoreland Memorial Gardens, Hazlet.
Her son, Dennis, posted the following tribute to his mother the day after her death …
“Last night at 11:30, the inimitable Lucille Brooks Suggs decided enough was enough and peacefully took her one woman show ‘to loftier climes.’
“After 100 years and 6 months of being a constant protector, inspiration, non-stop joke machine (I could never figure out where she learned all those, let alone remembered them) as well as an endless source of real POSITIVITY (You should have seen the aides guard her like she was the Queen of England as she declined this week at twin towers), I believe it’s safe to say she felt her time here was well spent, but alas, it was time to go.
“She will be well-remembered and sorely missed. I know if you asked her what to think she wouldn’t want mourning or solemnity, she’d want you to laugh(alot), love people, do kind things and live to the fullest.
“We will be bringing her home next weekend so that she can rest in final peace next to her partner of nearly 50 years, so they can get back to playing pinochle, something I’m guessing is already taking place. Enjoy the day, your friends and loved ones. Cheers!!!”
RIP, Mrs. Suggs. You, a forever Fair Haven friend and neighbor to many, will always be remembered as an embodiment of what this small town is all about.
Knollwood School seventh-grader P.J. Rawlins performs a piano solo of “Clocks,” a hit song by Coldplay.
Photo/Fair Haven School District
Knollwood School eighth-grader Isabelle Papa performs “Minuet and Allegro” on the flute accompanied by Sara Marino and Karen Hauge.
Photo/Fair Haven School District
An ensemble performance of “Shoshanna” featured seventh-grader Hannah Bates on bass guitar, sixth-grader Ben Plesser on drum set/mallets, seventh-grader Liz Harby on drum set/mallets, and seventh-grader Nora Phillips on clarinet.
Photo/Fair Haven School District
And the middle school musicians played on … in the Fair Haven School District’s annual Chamber Music Recital at Knollwood School recently.
“Times have changed,” as the lyrics to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes go …
Yes they have. And they haven’t.
The shows are still going on, but they’re quite different types of productions. The students at Fair Haven’s Knollwood School have staged Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. The show went on in the beginning of the month.
And, way back in 1974, the school’s second ever musical was staged with the middle schoolers. You guessed it. It was Anything Goes.
Yes, times have changed, and mostly because these days they actually have junior versions of otherwise adult-like shows that aren’t really all that adult.
In fact, in those days, nothing was thought of doing a pretty darn adult musical that starred a, ahem, “lady of the evening” turned evangelist, a gangster and his maul, a stowaway, an heiress and a kooky English gentleman all aboard a ship and involved in madcap farce and love triangles.
Who knew? Well, the 1974 cast of Knollwood’s version of Anything Goes certainly didn’t.
You must be logged in to post a comment.