Tag Archives: feature

Retro Fair Family Affair Spin

Tom Kirman and daughter Rebecca work the Big Six booth at the Fair Haven Firemen's Fair in 2014. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Tom Kirman and daughter Rebecca work the Big Six booth at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair in 2014.
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

In anticipation of the return of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we take a look back again at a game of chance, its history and families that spin together. 

Most often, working at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is a longtime family affair.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day today is an ode to just that, in addition to featuring those behind the booths.

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Retro Umberto’s Pizza Pie in the Sky Tyke Flip-Out

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.

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Living the Dream: Umberto’s Anthony Fabbri’s Pizza Passion & New ‘Amici’ Place

When Fair Haven’s iconic Umberto’s pizzeria closed, Anthony Fabbri, son of pizza icon Silvio, said his dad would have said, “OK. It’s time to go home.” Home, as he knew it, was where the heart was and his and his family’s heart was and has always been with their passion — pizza.

And now, just more than a year after the doors to the brick-and-mortar Umberto’s, Anthony, like his pop advised, has brought his passion back home again — right to his pizza-flipping heart.

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Retro Fair Haven Gals and a Fair Prize Boat

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.

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Scene Around: One Eyed Jack Sighting

Call it the real macaw — up close and personal.

“Well, that made my night!” a woman could be overheard exclaiming after a chance meeting with a special parrot that broke the table wait tedium at a packed Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson on Saturday night.

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Beautiful Days in the Neighborhood: Remembering Conrad from the Block

“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.

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Focus: Hazy Dock Daze & Tuesdays

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 …

Retro R-FH Water Rescue Cruisin’

Fair Haven First Aid Squad’s Water Rescue Unit circa early 1970s
Photo/FHFD media collection

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.

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