An RFH Halloween ghostly gaggle of the 1970s Photo/George Day
A reprise from 2017, just because … BOO!
Scary season has set in … in more ways than one.
People in the Rumson-Fair Haven area have been 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.
The following opinion piece on Halloween through the generations in Fair Haven was originally published in 2015. It is reprised annually …
The Fair Haven Halloween Parade passed by last weekend. Missed it! But, as always, this senior-aged (OUCH) kid from Fair Haven has some parading memories on which to reflect. Remember this scene?
It’s a longstanding tradition — the Fair Haven Halloween Parade.
I remember it well — from my first parade trek back in the late 1960s to the ’70s, 80s, 90s and now.
It all started at age 7 with a wish to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I’ve noticed a few in more recent years and the green-eyed jealousy monster of a near senior has reared its head. But I digress … That little dress-up fantasy of the 60s of mine was foiled when my mother couldn’t get the gingham outfit together, my pigtails were not so poised for the silver screen look and my sister refused to crawl down Hance Road as Toto.
I guess it was bad enough that from the age of 3, she was forced by this pint-sized dominatrix 5-year-old Dorothy to crawl on a makeshift Funk and Wagnall’s encyclopedia Yellow Brick Road to Oz in the living room. The neighbors never quite got over it, either.
RFHers at The Hunt of the late 1970s or early 80s Photo/RFH reunion slideshow screenshot
A reprise from an original 2017 post all about The Hunt. It’s that time of the year, and we always need a little bit of retro cheer, so here’s to fond Hunt memories revisited! Happy Hunting in your dreams …
Halloween in Fair Haven’s Sickles School in 1985 Photo/Kathy Robbins
It’s cool to be a ghoul in school, right?
Wait. Is that a lobster raising its claw to answer the teacher? Why, yes, it is. The teacher is unfazed. But the lesson? Well, it seems that this day in a Fair Haven 1980s classroom is all about costumes and little to nothing about reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.
A little RFH cheer lift and a king circa 1970s Photo/George Day
Yes, they got carried away. And why not? There was and is always something to get carried away over at RFH. This time it’s all about those RFH Bulldogs and cheer for a winning football season!
And no one lifts the Dawgs on the field more than the cheer squad — however it turns up — and away with kooky enthusiasm.
RFH tech crew for Plaza Suite in 1977 Photos/George Day
Another RFH Tower Players fall show, another set to be built. So it goes in the theater world, high school or not. This and, yes, it goes like that. As actors rehearse, the behind-the-scenes scene is literally set — or built, to be exact. It takes a set … and actors … and lighting … and sound … and, bippity-boppity-boo, the show goes on. And so it goes for this year’s fall production of Cinderella.
RFH cheerleader guys and a VW bug circa 1977 Photo/George Day
A reprise in honor of David Memmott, RFH ’78, who passed away suddenly four years ago, on Sept. 29, 2022. Ride on, Dave …
Sometimes you just find yourself up a puddle without a paddle. And sometimes the way around it, or through it, is by spilling out of a VW bug like a bunch of RFH clowns in a clown car.
RFH girls’ night at home circa late 1970s/early ’80s Photo/Leslie Gunther
This Retro Pic of the Day is being reprised in loving memory of RFH ’80 Jenny McCullough (top, right) who passed away very suddenly recently. Jenny knew the true meaning of unbreakable bonding among childhood friends and firmly believed that “love never dies …. ” You were so loved, Jenny, and you will be forever missed by us kids and times together you never forgot and reminded us of frequently with a good laugh and tons of love …
What do you get when you put a gaggle of RFH girls in a flowery ’70s wallpapered kitchen with a nouveau push-button wall phone? A girls’ night — starring the phone. We’re not saying that was the case here, just imagining. Follow us in this inspired daydream into the past. Hey, there was such a thing — a girls’ night starring that phone.
RFH girls’ bake sale fun Photo/Marc Edelman, Facebook
Football season at RFH is pretty sweet. Always has been. And it’s not just because of the game. It’s about those sideline hustles, too, like, for instance bake sales.
Yes, bake sales.
No, it wasn’t always just about football at game time back in the day — as if that wasn’t enough. Oh, as tradition has it, there were always lots of things happening before, during and after games, whether on the field, off the field, around the bend or, well, in the parking lot. Yes, the parking lot. That’s where some epic bake sales sweetened up game days — and sometimes spiced them up.
With the advent of the football season comes memories of old days when the RFH Band played on with more members, but many may not recall that the football team was small.
Band was big in the 1970s. But, going back more than half a century, like back to the 1930s, when RFH was Rumson High School, the football team appeared small. There was no regional. And the population was, well, small. There were sprawling estates, farms (with a lot of asparagus growing wild) and berries aplenty for picking.
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