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Local Life

A Retro Happy Thanksgiving from the Kids’ Table

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Thanksgiving at the kids' table in the 1960s with Kate and Ben Hamilton Photo/Hamilton family
Thanksgiving at the kids’ table in the 1960s with Kate and Ben Hamilton
Photo/Hamilton family

Our annual Thanksgiving tribute to the kids’ table … Remember that? Happy Thanksgiving, all! Stay safe. Stay healthy. Enjoy!

It’s Thanksgiving, and, yes, it’s all about giving thanks.

So, the Retro Pic of the Day is an ode to just that.

It’s a snapshot back in time to the 1960s with a sibling duo from Fair Haven — Ben and Kate Hamilton. Ben passed away and Kate had posted this picture on Facebook giving thanks for him. RIP, Ben.

The photo brings back memories of the era the kids’ holiday table. Remember that one?

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Local Life

Retro RFH Homecoming Gaming

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RFH Thanksgiving Day football game
Photo/George Day

If some old RFHers had a winning turkey wishbone to yank on, they may be hoping to pull the bigger end to make a wish to revisit their own RFH Thanksgiving Day Homecoming game. Any other may just do, too.

Back in the day, the RFH football season used to peak with what then was the classic rivalry homecoming/Thanksgiving Day game between Red Bank Catholic and RFH.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Show Time: Oz Wizadry

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Show time is tomorrow for the RFH Tower Players’ fall production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow back on the stage at the high school. In honor of opening night curtain and returning to the stage, we offer a look back at a trip down the RFH Yellow Brick Road to Oz and some staged wizardry of the early 1970s at RFH.

I have a feeling we’re not in Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) anymore …

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Hip & Hooray Boys

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The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977 Photo/George Day
The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977
Photo/George Day
The boy cheerleaders of RFH Powder Puff Football 1977
Photo/George Day

There’s nothing like a good ol’ RFH cheer. It’s just hip, hip … happening! Cheering has changed over the decades at RFH. Still there’s nothing quite as unique as this cheer crew. So, for cheer’s sake, we give these guys an annual fall encore of this Oct. 8, 2015 Retro Pic of the (George) Day from two views! Cheers!

The 1977 RFH Powder Puff Football game was a good one that made for some great photo ops.

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Local Life

Retro Fall For Three RFH Guys & a Skateboard

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Triple threat RFH guys’ skate in the 1970s
Photo/George Day

A must of a seasonal reprise, just because … The season says it all. Every fall has a rise and these RFH guys always seemed to find a way to rise to the occasion of a good skateboarding adventure and antics. So, this seasonal reprise from October of 2019 seemed a repeat of the finest RFH kind.  Ride on, RFH guys … 

You’ve seen them before … this crew of daring, not so diabolical RFH guys who had a little skateboarding club. Call these views the triple threats.

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Local Life

‘DO’Retro Sandy-Ravaged Donovan’s

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People walk the sea wall by Donovan's Reef in Sea Bright after Sandy, checking out what's left of the iconic spot. Photo/Elaine Van Develde
People walk the sea wall by Donovan’s Reef in Sea Bright after Sandy, checking out what’s left of the iconic spot.
Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Donovan's Reef after Sandy 2012 Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Donovan’s Reef after Sandy 2012
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

It was nine years ago that the havoc wreaked by Superstorm Sandy left monumental wreckage in its wake in Sea Bright.

Once the ghost-town kind of calm settled in after the storm, people flocked from all over to witness the devastating damage done first hand.

One iconic spot that Sandy decimated, hoisting up its buildings and fiercely slamming them down onto twisted tar, was Sea Bright’s Donovan’s Reef.

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Local Life

Retro Sandy Heroes: Alabama Power

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Nine years ago there was an awful lot of darkness and confusion in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

Then came a band of power company heroes to shed some light and offer a whole lot of relief for weary residents in the Rumson-Fair Haven area who went without power for roughly two weeks.

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Local Life

Happy Retro RFH Halloween!

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Halloween is here!

And back in 1977, it was a really happy one for the RFH Class of ’78 and some underclassmen. It was a tradition back then to get the Halloween party started early — like from the beginning to the end of the day at school.

So, RFHers arrived via the bus or (ahem) other appropriate or inappropriate mode of transportation all dressed up for the occasion with somewhere to go. RFH. They spooked, laughed, pranked and played all day and even paraded over to the Rumson elementary schools.

Yes, RFHers did Halloween in grand style. Take a look …

(Click, WAIT — give it a minute to load — and watch our slideshow. And click on that full screen button to get the best view!)

May the retro spirit of RFH haunting be with you!

Can you guess which character is this RFH Retro publisher/founding editor?

And, thanks to the fabulous George Day for these spectacular shots! 

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro RFH Halloween: Some Bunnies & Ghouls

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RFH Halloween of 1977 with a gaggle of girls Photo/George Day
RFH Halloween of 1977 with a gaggle of girls
Photo/George Day

Reprise … Just because it’s that time of the year and it’s a classic shot … 

Some bunny got dressed for RFH Halloween 1977 — or a few bunnies and other assorted suspicious characters, that is.

The Halloween spirit was in the air, that’s for sure. And this senior gaggle of girls embodied it. From controversial, yet timely and popular, Playboy bunny costumes, to Raggedy Ann, a ghost, a cat, a gypsy and whatever else, they were parading and pleased with their choices.

Then they benched themselves for a little haunting respite and pose. But, surely, knowing this crew, there was some mischievous haunting to come. They weren’t done.

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Local Life, Opinion

Reflection: Retro Halloween Parading

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The following opinion piece on Halloween through the generations in Fair Haven was originally published in 2015. It is reprised annually … 

After the parade passed by, this kid from Fair Haven had 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 noticed a few this year and the green-eyed jealousy monster of a near senior 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.

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