Tag Archives: Halloween

Focus: Fair Haven Halloween Parading

A longstanding time-honored tradition made its comeback in Fair Haven on Sunday — the Halloween parade.

As always, ghosts, goblins, ghouls, historic characters and a host of other haunters of all ages marched their way down the usual parade route from Knollwood School to River Road to the firehouse, where the collection of festive creepers socialized and got prizes.

R-FH Retro caught up with the spirited trickers and treaters. Take a look at the photos in the below gallery for a glimpse into the day (AND don’t forget to CLICK to enlarge and scroll! Enjoy!)

Happy haunting!

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro exclusively

Focus: Halloweening Tricks & Weather Treats

Tricks and treats are back on this year with the Halloween that wasn’t last year.

And with that comeback comes tricks of the season’s decorating trade and the treat of taking a cruise to sight see the result of all the creativity around the towns.

As the old Addams Family credo goes, the Halloween curb appeal on Rumson-Fair Haven area front lawns had a little creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky and altogether ooky.

The best part? The decor is still sprouting all over the towns. This was just a smattering of a spooky season prequel that endures for more than just the trick or treating day — sometimes weeks before and after.

The weather has been quite cooperative in getting decorations out and up. And this week’s forecast calls for more sun to shine on the creativity and joy ride to soak up the season.

According to the National Weather Service, what’s on the horizon is below. Check it out.

And while you’re doing that, check out what’s brewing in the area’s witch’s cauldron of decor and tell us where to find the best area haunts! Send your photos to [email protected] for our next haunt collage. In the meantime, check out the competition by clicking on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy. Happy haunting!

Focus: Remembering Superstorm Sandy’s Wrath

A reprise from 2017. Taking you back again after eight years … Remember?

It was the year that Halloween wasn’t, but was in a sense. People in the area woke up to a nightmare, if they slept at all the night before. It was 2012 and Superstorm Sandy had pummeled the Jersey Shore. It decimated Sea Bright and destroyed low lying parts of Rumson. Fair Haven was a bit war torn and powerless.

Continue reading Focus: Remembering Superstorm Sandy’s Wrath

Retro RFH Halloween Parade Prep

 

RFH ghouls, or something like that, on parade in 1977
Photo/George Day

In honor of the Halloween season, a reprise Retro Pic of the Day originally posted in 2015 … 

It’s all about Halloween festivities in an unprecedented trick, treat and haunting era right now in the Rumson-Fair Haven area. There’s distancing where there was a lot of congregating. And while the era of high alert for razors in apples is a bygone one, now there’s a pandemic, rules about touching, masking, more masking, less tricking and more careful treating. But, the Halloween show goes on. 

So, to honor the crowded gathering of ghouls in socially distanced days, we take a look back at the RFH prep for parading as all seniors packed themselves into the lounge, mingled and tried to figure out who was what and why and just have some fun. 

Continue reading Retro RFH Halloween Parade Prep

Scene Around: Commandeering a Coffin

Fill ‘er up … with premium Halloween tricks and treats!

It’s not every day that you stop at a gas station and almost get run over by a masked Dracula-commandeered coffin. This ghoul guy was running on empty when he swung into the station in Highlands with flailing cape gusto and had a little topple at the pump.

“Did ya get that?” the masked marauder said as he picked himself up from the pavement and dusted off his cape. All gassed up and set in his coffin ride, he gave us a few waves and went on his way.

Just who was that masked Halloween treat of a man? No clue. Uber? No back seat. Can’t exactly commandeer that ride. But, hey, if the coffin fits, take a spin and a little spill.

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Retro RFH Witchy Women’s Ride

Witchy RFH women on Halloween of 1977 Bonnie Werner and Sue Brower
Photo/George Day

Call it Halloween buddy system brooming. Remember the old buddy system? Trick or treating with a buddy to stay safe. Ever apply that theory in high school tricks with the only treat being the friendship and good ride through it all together?

Well, this gruesome twosome of best buds applied the system for some double trouble all in good ghoulish fun. Now that’s a special brand of mischief. You could say they were headed every witch way on this Halloween in the late 1970s, except to class.

The two would be Sue Brower and Bonnie Werner of the RFH Class of ’78.

So the double-dose Retro Pic(s) of the (George) Day feature them at their Halloween best.

Continue reading Retro RFH Witchy Women’s Ride

Retro RFH Ghostly Gaggle

An RFH ghostly gathering on Halloween in 1977
Photo/George Day

A Halloween reprise to honor the season of the ghost …

Scary season has set in. People in the Rumson-Fair Haven area aren’t just out raking leaves, either. They’re haunting up their homes, crafting costumes and getting into the spirit. So, why not add a little extra retro spooking from RFH students of the past?

BOO … who or what? It was all in the haunt for RFHers back in the 1970s. They started getting the Halloween party going early on and ended up with a pretty festive feast of ghouls on the grounds of the high school and, yes, beyond.

Continue reading Retro RFH Ghostly Gaggle

Focus: Halloween Haunts II

Some are creepy. Some kooky. Some mysterious. Some spooky. And some, as the Addams Family theme song goes, are “altogether ooky.” That is how Halloween decorations around the towns in Rumson and Fair Haven can be described.

But to see for yourself is to know the thriller factor of it all. So, a good drive-boo (or by), or two or three, of local haunts is always in order on such a “holiday.” The Halloween spirit, or spirits, seem to have moved residents — or at least jarred them a bit. Good ghoul! Now, that’s the All Hallows spirit!

Take a look at the latest and most diabolical decorations we spied and tell us about the best haunters in your ‘hood for Halloween!

Photos/Elaine Van Develde

Halloween in Fair Haven
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

The R-FH Area Weekend: Fair Haven Halloween Egg Hunt & Parade

2014 Fair Haven Halloween Parade
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

A new tradition in Fair Haven precedes a very old one on Saturday when the borough’s Halloween Egg Hunt (of all things) gets things literally rolling in Sportsman’s Field at 10:30 a.m. before the Halloween Parade at 11.

Egg hunts are typically called the “quickest” events in borough history, as kids gather behind a designated, cordoned-off line and are let loose with one signal to scramble all over the field and gather Halloween eggs filled with prizes. Yes, Halloween eggs. No Easter bunny involved.

Immediately following that, across the street at Knollwood School, the lineup for the parade begins. The parade follows the usual route down Hance Road, onto River and then on to the Fair Haven Firehouse grounds for treats, prizes and a little spooktacular (or something like that) fun.

See you around the towns!

2014 Fair Haven Halloween Parade
Photo/Elaine Van Develde