It’s all fun and island-hopping games until they have to start a fire.
Yes, there comes a time when end-of-summer Rumson island-hopping coolness sets in, parents rang the unheard dinner bell and a bunch of hungry, wayward, marooned kids try to cook that fish they caught and toast their own little buns.
Continue reading Cooking Up ’50s-Style Fun on Starvation Island 
It’s a case of summer island plopping. Yes, that’s right. Island plopping.
That would be the more accurate term when telling the pretty common story of some Fair Haven and Rumson kids taking their own eight-hour tour of the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers and ending up settling down for some adventure on Starvation Island in Rumson on pretty much any summer day.
Continue reading Retro Rumson Island Ploppers Longtime Rumsonite, public defender, professor, dad and “crabber of the Navesink River,” John F. “Jack” McMahon, passed away on June 18 in the arms of his wife Pat and surrounded by family. He was 90.
Continue reading In Memoriam: Longtime Rumsonite Jack McMahon, 90 
Call it a boatload of waterborne sunshine.
On the cusp of the unofficial start of summer, thoughts turn to sunny cruising on the Navesink River.
Continue reading Retro River Cruise into Summer Daze Fair Haven residents and beyond are still fishing for an answer to an unprecedented rogue wave of a Fair Haven governing body decision to knock a volunteer out of a regional committee of his own resurrection designed to protect the Navesink River.
What was dubbed a “slap in the face” turned into some verbal fisticuffs when a wave of riled residents at Monday’s Fair Haven Borough Council meeting turned out to turn the tide of borough business by defending that volunteer, fourth-generation Fair Havenite and boat captain, Brian Rice. It became a full knock-out when the ousting became official with a contentious 3-2 vote with one abstention.
Quality river time. It’s a rite of passage for any Rumson-Fair Haven area kid.
When the spring air hits, the banks of the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers call to kids like mythological Sirens. And they burrow themselves in the sand and tides like hermit crabs.
Continue reading Retro Little Tykes’ River Time 
Sometimes you just need to sit a spell and get let the river cast its magic.
And it will. Always does. Sunshine, crisp fall air and river mystique knows no bounds. Taking that front-row seat puts the “Ahhhhhh” into the exhale. From there, it’s all about the infinite inhale of tranquility. Thanks, too, that the intoxicating view remains a best friend that transcends time, never leaving a Rumson-Fair Haven area kid’s carefree mind.
Continue reading Focus: A Seat and a River Time Spell Cast
There’s nothing like a crisp, bright fall day down by the river. It’s nothing to throw shade on, unless, of course, an umbrella or several are involved at an iconic spot along the Navesink.
That spot would be Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson. The shade? Well, when the fiery sunshine sears that fuzzy warmth into your soul, the umbrella that shades takes the glare away, calling the view into vivid focus. Call it falling for the same old, yet always new, scene. The river time scene.
River time. It’s time forever well-spent — sunny side always up under the umbrella of a day completed down by the river.
Take a look and feel the fall riverside sunshine in your soul. (Click on one pic to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)
The sun is set to shine bright for the rest of the week, bringing another little waft of locals’ summer. Here’s the Rumson-Fair Haven area forecast through the weekend from the National Weather Service …
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You could call these sunny fall days the dog days of river time. Really.
Continue reading Focus: Sun-Sopped River Dog Days
Call it a wash. Down came that rain and washed the murky, humid muck in the air away.
And like the song, it seems like “you can see forever more,” especially from the iconic shores of the Navesink down by Barnacle Bill’s. No matter how far a hometown Rumsonite or Fair Havenite roams, the riverfront always calls them back to hold them tight.
It’s never a fishing expedition. The line was cast long ago and the anchor never rusts. This one’s a diamond. Unbreakable, it glistens with magnetic light shining, calling from deep in the river’s sandy floor.
The precious anchor stone’s gleam reflects in that hometown kid’s eyes, offering the view no one else has. It’s from that river’s shores that, murk or not, that kid at heart can see more clearly every inch of beauty that’s always been there, yet still lies ahead. They look back while looking ahead to see those little big things that brought them there. Held them there.
Those things? They’re still holding … with soothing tightness.
Hold those thoughts and keep them … like a kid collecting shells down by the river.
Click on one photo in the above gallery to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy the view!
— Elaine Van Develde
The weather forecast …
Heatwave humidity and wildfire smoke has cleared. Here’s what’s in store with the weather in the Rumson-Fair Haven area through the weekend and into next week.
Sometimes the best front-row seat is the one that cradles your river time.
Wherever it is, front-row Rumson Barnacle Bill’s or docked, it’s that seat that offers a hometown view with heart. Even in the haze, the the clarity of what matters most is caught like an opening night bouquet tossed into the audience’s lap from the Navesink River’s scenic stage.
It’s a show without a ticket or playbill. Curtain’s always up, even if the lights are dim and no one’s in the house. That’s because it’s always your own show with a take-away that stays like pressed flowers from the best of times.
That front-row seat to river time always calls, offering river time its own sitting ovation — always bowing in, not out.
That’s the show that holds down by the river. Always. Take a look at the above photo gallery for a glimpse from the seat ... (CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)
— Photos/Elaine Van Develde
The weekend weather …
Continue reading Focus: River Time Front-Row Seat
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