Tag Archives: feature

Grow with Grace: Composting for Fall Garden and Earth’s Sake

For people like me who love fall gardening, the season is just beginning. Even if you’ve decided not to plant this fall, many summer vegetables have run their course. If your garden is anything like mine, you may find yourself removing an increasing number of plants every week.

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Retro 60s Back to School: Fair Haven Kindergarten Posers

Fair Haven kindergarten class of 1965
Photo/copy obtained from archival collection of Karen Allas for publication on R-FH Retro only by Elaine Van Develde

School’s back in session and it’stime for students and teachers to rise, shine and show off a little at Back to School Night.

And kindergarten is the first and best of what was formerly called Open House for kids and parents. First of all, the parents don’t need to tear up and down stairs and speed through hallways to make it to the next class when that bell rings. A little 5K training should be a prerequisite for middle- and high school Open House nights.

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9/11: Day’s End Reflection, 25 Years Later

The following piece is published annually on 9/11 as a testament to never forgetting … 

It was a beautiful Tuesday. The sun was smiling with a crisp warmth. The air was a snappy fresh. The coffee even tasted especially good.

I remember. Most of us remember where we were on Sept. 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m.. I know I do. I also remember how everything went from bright, crisp, fragrant and optimistic to dark, dank, acrid and terrifying in one second. I remember how it wasn’t about us observers, storytellers. It was about them — the victims, their loved ones, their message.

For me, a professional observer, a professional storyteller, thankfully close enough, yet far enough, yes, it was so very much about them — painfully so. I wasn’t one of them. I was lucky. I was grateful. I sought the bare honesty in the moments. I watched. They shared. I listened intently. I reported.

I was a journalist living in Fair Haven and covering Middletown for the Independent, Greater Media Newspapers. On what started out as a typical day, those victims of 9/11 and the people of Middletown manning the chaos and being the helpers ended up unwittingly, graciously, lighting a less traveled path for me. For many.

It’s this one storyteller’s perspective.

Through this one fortunate observer’s eyes and heart, it went like this …

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Retro Back-to-School Walking the Rope

Photo/Sally Van Develde for R-FH Retro ONLY

Our annual back-to-school Fair Haven rope walk reprise …

“But I don’t wanna walk on the rope next to her!” I cried from under my fresh-cut kindergarten bangs. “I wanna walk on the rope next to Pam!”

Pam was my neighbor. She was my best buddy.

It was 1965. It was the ’60s. The memories are there, but fuzzy. I can sill see it — with my reading glasses, of course. One thing’s for sure: Our Fair Haven kindergarten class was the last to have its first year of school at what was called the Youth Center, now the Fair Haven Police Station and Community Center on Fisk Street.

We kindergarteners were also the last to be tugged down the street on a rope, yes a rope, headed by an official-looking police-type lady.

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Retro Fair Haven Back-to-School Line-Up

First day of kindergarten in Fair Haven 1965
Photo/Sally Van Develde

A back-to-school reprise … 

Knock-kneed, nervous and all dressed up with somewhere to go, this gaggle Fair Haven neighborhood girls of 1965 lined up so their moms could get that classic first-day-of-kindergarten shot. And there wasn’t a smile among them.

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Grow with Grace: Bugged Out and Relaxing with the Fruits of Garden Labor

After all the hot summer garden work—and before fall gardening really kicks into full swing—I’m off to parts north to snip a few plant samples for propagation and sip a few cocktails for relaxation. While I’m spending time in a beautiful place by the sea, the new school year is kicking off here in the Rumson-Fair Haven area.

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