Tag Archives: feature

Local Life

Locals’ Summer: Fishy River Kid Reflection

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There’s something fragrantly fishy about quiet river time frolicking among childhood friends down by the Fair Haven Dock.

It’s a common, soothing sight to see — a gaggle of kids clamoring around a fishing net, exploring a good catch. Of course, they throw the little fish right back in as the tide rolls out. After all, it’s the bonding down by the river that counts most.

Home. The solace of the scene. This is it for them. For many. The bright sun dancing with a simple, happy time. The sound of lapping water peppered by giggles and gasps over a few fish wiggles, seaweed and shells. The sand between the toes. The home in the heart made to keep kid memories.

Take a look … Remember? (CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Remembrance: Chairman’s Footnotes

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James Acker
Photo/Kathy Robbins

On the year without the fair … We look back to a story originally published in 2015 all about just how the largest firemen’s fair in the state was run and a bit about that famous clam chowder. The details come straight from a longtime fair chairman and his son years later … RIP, Jim Acker. All’s fair ….

There was a time when there was one. Now there are three. We’re talking Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair chairmen. Yes, there was one person in charge of all that’s fair, getting it started and keeping it going. That guy was James Acker back in the day a few decades ago from the late 1960s to early ’80s. Then it was Gary Verwilt, former longtime Knollwood School teacher.

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Crime, Rumson Police and Fire Files

Rumson: Golden Goose Jewelers Store Owner Charged with $260K Theft

The owner of Rumson store Golden Goose Jewelers was charged today with theft after allegedly failing to return more than $260,000 worth of jewelry that was left at his store on consignment or for redesign, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced in a released statement.

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Remembrance: Someone’s in the Kitchen

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Just when the guy in charge of the kitchen has retired, a pandemic comes along and obliterates the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and all that annual fine fair food. So, on the year without a fair, we look back again to our 2015 story of fair food, who did it all back in the day, what was done, how and who’s still cooking. Can you wait another year? The absence of fair food wafting through the air likely has everyone drooling for the next fair already … No one’s in the kitchen this year but the ghosts. They’re always there …

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  • Raquel Falotico at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2015 working the dining room Photo/Elaine Van Develde
  • Amanda Lynn and Kim Ambrose at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2015 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
  • Present-day kitchen crew, or most, after a ride at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair 2010 Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly
  • The guys in the kitchen back in the day at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly, FHFD Yearbook
  • The ladies tending to the sausage, meatballs and sauce upstairs at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair back in the day Photo/courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly, FHFD Yearbook

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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Remembrance: My Balloon Mama

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The following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again, on the year without a fair, in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated along with my dad, Bill … 

Sally Van Develde selling balloons at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Grab Bag Booth

Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.

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Local Life

Fair Remembrance: A Firemen’s Night

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They call it Family Night now. But, the Wednesday night of each Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair is forever Firemen’s Night to any kid who grew up hearing sirens blaring through the streets where they lived on that eve that welcomed and honored firefighters from near and far to the fair grounds.

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Local Life, Opinion

Simple Summer: Guarding a Sea Bright Dawn with a Friend

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On Monday morning, I’m going away with my friend …

It may have been a Saturday in the Sandpipers’ famed song Come Saturday Morning, but it sure looks like this Monday captured at Sea Bright’s sunrise today by longtime Fair Havenite and Knollwood School teacher, Andy Dougherty.

When morning has broken on a final summer’s day, nothing compares to the serene veracity of the moment, especially when shared with a childhood friend.

The softness of the vivid colors, the loud silence, the magic in the clouds’ formations, the whole world inside each droplet of a wave’s crash. The hush frozen in time in a minute’s worth of snapshots.

The simplest of moments atop a lifeguard stand with a best friend. Saturday or Monday, the awakening calm of the dawn, the moment remains, many of them …

“Just I and my friend. We’ll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles. And then we’ll move on. But we will remember … long after Saturday’s gone.”

The simplest of summers. Remember the moments. Savor them. Exhale with a smile.

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Local Life

Fair Remembrance: Rides & Reunions

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On the historic year without the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, we offer a look back at some classic moments of the past five years, since R-FH Retro has been roving the grounds freezing snippets of time.

To anyone who has grown up in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, the fair is a reuniter, an end-of-summer community anchor, a generous memory giver. So, on the year without the fair, here’s a look back at the more recent past and best of moments among friends who became family in a place called home. Take the ride with us …

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