It’s the balloons. Yeah, the balloons are the dangerous party tools, not the girls. Yet, while it’s doubtful that anyone would call these “innocents” of the ’70s tools, it’s a sure bet that the combination of RFH girls could be dangerous — dangerously fun, that is.
RFH 1978 graduation in front of the high school, replete with daisy chain Photo/Daryl Cooper Ley
The following was originally posted in May of 2017. It is being re-run in honor of graduation, time honored traditions of the past, and this RFH Daisy Chain girl of ’78, who passed away in February of 2018 — Daryl Cooper Ley.
In high school social circles, it was considered a popularity status symbol to be chosen for the chain. Daryl wasn’t all too thrilled about it at the time. It had confirmed what only her closest friends knew — that she was cool. It was often repeated to her. “I didn’t think so,” was always her answer. Sorry, Dar. We win. Got the last word. You were. RIP, Dar. You are remembered … in our hearts, souls and print, like it or not! Love you forever more. Oh, she would kill me …
It was considered a privilege and honor. They were chosen from the junior class at RFH to serve as the debutante-like ushers for the graduating class. All dressed in white and supposedly gracefully toting a chain of daisies, the Daisy Chain girls were a fixture of high school finery at graduations in the 1970s.
The origins of the somewhat upper-crust tradition date back to the 1900s, but this Retro Pic of the Day was snapped in 1978.
Our annual RFH graduation reprise in honor of the RFH Class of 2025 … Congrats!
RFH graduation ’79
Photo/George Day
RFHers did the graduation walk on Wednesday. And it’s a walk that has veered off onto different paths over the years — but always to Pomp & Circumstance.
Wow. So much has changed, yet stayed the same. The venue has gone from the RFH Borden Stadium to the front lawn to the Borden Stadium (when the stadium was being renovated) and the football field again to the RFH auditorium and mixed up and around over the years. Now it’s at the Monmouth University. And in pandemic times, the venue was outside, masked and virtual. And, again, back to Monmouth.
They did it. They walked the walk. They flipped the tassels. They tossed the caps. The seniors of the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Class of 2025 graduated last night.
RFH Class of 1965 graduation Daisy Chain Photo/courtesy of Kim Christman
In honor of RFH graduation … Reprise of a classic originally posted in June of 2022 …
That’s the sight of the girls working on the Daisy Chain gang! When it comes to RFH graduation traditions gone, the Daisy Chain is a classic, well-remembered one. So are the links in the chain — the girls, not so much the flowers.
“Happiness lies not in doing what you like to do, but in liking what you have to do.”
That was the motto of longtime RFH metal shop teacher, Bob Carter, in his happy life that was “lived with passion,” his daughter Alison said. And for a bunch of RFH teens who had to go to school, Bob Carter gave them a creative, hands-on something to like a lot while drudging through the sometime doldrums in the “have-to-do” academics of RFH.
They made a run for it and won. The Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Girls Outdoor Track and Field team has been named New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) winner.
It’s a science that Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) junior Henry Gaus has mastered.
The RFH Class of 2026 academic standout has been selected as a New Jersey Governor’s School scholar for the 42nd Governor’s School of New Jersey in the Sciences.
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