“Push ’em back. Push ’em back … waaaayyyy back!” We’re not talking football with that. We’re talking the year of that kind of cheer and its leaders — the RFH cheerleaders of the early 1970s.
Continue reading Retro RFH Smiley Cheerleader Pile-up
Those are not lined up bottles of Lowenbrau in this 1980s pic, yet RFH old timers can’t help but hear the classic jingle in their minds when seeing this. “Here’s to good friends. Tonight is kinda special …” Yes. TGIF.
A reprise in honor of longtime iconic teacher and friend to many in the area, Gary Verwilt, who passed away recently …
We’re talking class action; and, it’s not about a lawsuit — more like suiting up for a class picture.
That’s what they did back in the early 1970s. Well, at least one in this shot suited up in the literal sense. Figuratively speaking, though, this Sickles School sixth grade shot of Gary Verwilt’s class encapsulates that picture day mindset of the past.
Continue reading Retro Fair Haven Picture Day Class Action
Sometimes a kid just has to take the plunge and fall for it! Yes, it’s officially fall. But, it’s still locals’ summer for R-FH area folks. So, fear not, we may be falling for the season, but we’re not donning the jackets quite yet. Still, leaving behind the hot weather is something to jump for joy over. Remember those days of literally falling for the season … into a big pile of leaves?
Yes, plunging into a big pile of leaves was always a simple fall pleasure for kids. Untethered to phones and TVs, Fair Haven kids of the 1960s resorted to the great outdoors in a small town. Sometimes they took it to the streets with marathon games of dodgeball, one taking the traffic alert commander position with a “CAR!!” shout now and then and a clear-out of the ball court. Nevermore. There might be a helicopter parent police alert if kids did that nowadays. Ahem.
Continue reading Retro Joyous Fall for the Leaf Pile
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.
Something went awry when the photographer gave the “Cheese!” cue to this motley crew of 1960s Rumson kindergarteners. It looks like they got a whiff of Limburger rather than Nufatchel to fuel their scowling little grimaces.
TGIF! The simple acronym held a great deal of meaning for RFHers back in the 1980s.
Continue reading Retro RFH TGIF Girls
If the class fits, snap the pic? Well, that may or may not hold true for this group of RFH Class of ’73 sophomores.
Continue reading Retro RFH Sophomoric Snapshot
A reprise in honor of those folks who used to be in charge of keeping the kids safe on their walk to school. Remember when everyone walked to school?
It was a time when kids had to walk the … rope.
The first day of school, last week, was commemorated with a look back to that first day in 1965 in Fair Haven.
It was the very first day of school — for kindergarteners. It was also a finale year. That class was the last of all that walked on a rope to the Youth Center (now Fair Haven Community Center downstairs and the police station upstairs).
While classmates were remembered, the identity of the official lady tugging that rope was not.
So, as an ode to that woman, who was eventually remembered as Mary McDaniel, the Retro Pic of the Day is another look, from the archives of the Red Bank Register, of that kindergarten class walk, headed by Mc Daniel.
Our annual back-to-school Fair Haven rope walk reprise …
“But I don’t wanna walk on the rope next to her!” I cried from under my fresh-cut kindergarten bangs. “I wanna walk on the rope next to Pam!”
Pam was my neighbor. She was my best buddy.
It was 1965. It was the ’60s. The memories are there, but fuzzy. I can sill see it — with my reading glasses, of course. One thing’s for sure: Our Fair Haven kindergarten class was the last to have its first year of school at what was called the Youth Center, now the Fair Haven Police Station and Community Center on Fisk Street.
We kindergarteners were also the last to be tugged down the street on a rope, yes a rope, headed by an official-looking police-type lady.
A back-to-school reprise …
Knock-kneed, nervous and all dressed up with somewhere to go, this gaggle Fair Haven neighborhood girls of 1965 lined up so their moms could get that classic first-day-of-kindergarten shot. And there wasn’t a smile among them.
Our annual back-to-school reprise all about those first days of school along with some who, what, when and boogeyman parts … Take this little trip back in time with us to remember Fair Haven’s kindergarten days of yesteryear …
It was a real first and last class act of 1965 — the kindergarten class that was the last to get its first lessons learned in school at what was the Youth Center in Fair Haven. You know. It’s the police station now.
Back in the day — OK, waaaaay back in the day — there was a third school in Fair Haven for kindergarten, you see. It was the Youth Center. That was also way before preschool. People now know it better as the Fair Haven Police Station and by its newly adopted name that hasn’t quite caught on yet, and may never for “older” folks still in town — Fair Haven Community Center. Phooey to that. Some things just need to keep a name for nostalgic purposes alone. Besides, the youth part soothes us old codgers.
That and it’s just a matter of what sounds like home to you. For instance, my very nice grandmother, a Matawan native, was pretty hostile about the “new” Aberdeen split and name. Paid it no mind. And if forced, said it with “blah, blah, blah” contempt. Back to the Community Center … There, I said it.
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