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Local Life

Retro RFH Hippies’ Hunt Hill Chill

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It’s that time the year again when thoughts of old-time Hunt times come flooding back for many Rumson-Fair Haven area folks. There still may be a Hunt, but not this one. So, we are offering a glimpse back to the days of the Haskell Hunt from a non-tailgating vantage point with a reprise of the following Retro Pic(s) of the Day piece originally posted on Oct. 20, 2017 … 

We went on the hunt for more Hunt photos and stumbled onto a couple of glimpses at the happening scene up on hip, hip Hippie Hill.

It was probably the late 1970s. These peacefully assembled cool long hairs and renegades likely snuck into the Haskell Hunt through the fence and onto that infamous hill on ol Amory Haskell’s elegant estate.

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Local Life

Retro Fair Haven Tigers Cheer!

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Fair Haven Tigers cheerleaders circa 1973 or '74 Photo/courtesy of Karen Memmot Hooten
Fair Haven Tigers cheerleaders circa 1973 or ’74
Photo/courtesy of Karen Memmot Hooten

A reprise of a cheery Retro Pic of the Day, originally posted in September of 2016, in honor of the spirit of football for the pint-and-a-half sized of the Rumson-Fair Haven area … 

Can we have a retro cheer for the football season of a pandemic kind ahead?

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Local Life, Opinion

Old News: A Royal Red Bank Procession

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King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Red Bank, arriving at the train station, in 1939
Photo/courtesy of Karen Allas

It was a parade fit for royalty — the king and queen of England kind of royalty, to be exact.

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II and all the honor and ceremony that has come with it, retro minds go back to a royal day in Red Bank when the queen, who just recently died at 96, having ruled for 70 years, was only 13. Her father, George VI, was king. Her mother, the first Elizabeth, was queen. And while visiting the United States and Canada, the royal couple made a stop in Red Bank.

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Local Life

Retro 80s RFH Class Stand

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Sometimes half a high school class just has to take a stand … or a seat … in its football stadium.

In this case, the class, or half of it, was the RFH Class of ’82. And somehow the class ended up all together at the high school’s Borden Stadium as posers rather than sports spectators.

That’s OK. It didn’t matter why they were there or how they ended up in such a collective group pose. What mattered more was that the photo ended up being a classic testament to RFH times decades ago.

First of all, let’s check out the fashion. This was a preppy picture perfect snapshot of those back-in-the-day popular wide-striped rugby shirts, plaid blazers, button down Oxford shirts and crew neck sweaters. The smiles and clowny antics? Oh, that was all RFH spirit and pure joy over taking that stand or seat in their cozy RFH class niche.

Soon there will be games to watch from that stadium for yet another football season. The spectators? They’re forever cheering from the same place for the same place — home turf.

Now, exactly what is this half of a class up to? Can you find the best group photo bomber? There are a couple of doozies in there. We know our favorite. Yours? Your favorite preppy outfit of. the era? Do the stripes get it? How about those sweaters and button downs? Hmmmmm …

There are an awful lot of stripes on these RFH stars! Ponder the take-a-Borden-stand moment of 40 years ago.

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Local Life

Retro 60s Back to School: Fair Haven Kindergarten Posers

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Fair Haven kindergarten a.m. class of 1965

School’s back in session and it’s just about time for students and teachers to rise, shine and show off a little at Back to School Night.

And kindergarten is the first and best of what was formerly called Open House for kids and parents. First of all, the parents don’t need to tear up and down stairs and speed through hallways to make it to the next class when that bell rings. A little 5K training should be a prerequisite for middle- and high school Open House nights.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Back-to-School Neighborhood Line-Up

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First day of kindergarten in Fair Haven 1965
Photo/Sally Van Develde

A back-to-school reprise dedicated to everyone’s first friend on that first day of school as a kindergartener. My first friend and neighbor in Fair Haven was Pam Young (second from right), who passed away in July of 2020 … Everyone can relate. Go back with us. Remember your first day of school and that first friend …

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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Fair Sweets Queens

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Millie Felsmann making cotton candy at the Fair Haven Firemen's Fair circa early 1990s Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Millie Felsmann making cotton candy at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair circa early 1990s
Photo/Elaine Van Develde
Millie Felsmann and her candy apples back in the 1960s Photo/courtesy of Monica Felsmann
Millie Felsmann and her candy apples back in the 1960s
Photo/courtesy of Monica Felsmann

This Retro Pic(s) of the Day story was originally published on Aug. 25, 2015. It is being run again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and the Felsmann family to honor them in light of their recent loss of Millie Felsmann’s son, John, or “Smokey,” husband to Trudy and dad to his fair-raised children. He didn’t like getting his picture taken, so we will respect that and honor him via his family. This is how they concoct and serve up those sweets at the fair … 

When it came to cotton candy — that fluffy spun light blue and pink sugar on a cone that melts in your mouth, on your mouth and many times on your hands, too — Millie Felsmann was the pro at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair.

Don’t get us wrong, here. We know that Millie also commandeered the candy apple making. Yes, Candy Bennett was there, too — for many hours a day, making and selling those candy apples, apropos name and all.

Well, she was, after all, Candy, the candy apple lady. Yes, Candy had a lot do do with those candy apples — but Millie was the boss. She, along with her troupe of kids and Candy, Betty Acker and Mrs. Frank, started work on those apples as early as 6 a.m.. And, even further back, to 1965 or 66, Mrs. Topfer made those apples, too.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Fair Grab Bagging Balloon Lady & Buds

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Sally Van Develde selling balloons at the Fair Haven Firemen's Fair Grab Bag Booth
Sally Van Develde selling balloons at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Grab Bag Booth
Photo/FHFD

For decades there was what was referred to as The Grab Bag Booth at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair. The booth was there for kids to get consolation prizes, featuring, of course, real brown paper grab bags full of goodies, that parents could buy if they didn’t win at the wheel games of chance. And there were balloons … and some fair ladies to keep the fair goodness going strong.

The Grab Bag Booth is now gone from the midway. At one point, for many years, my mom, Sally Van Develde was the chairwoman of the booth. This piece is an annual reprise to honor the booth’s goodness, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and those things that never disappear like helium balloons into the dark sky … Memories of a special lady — my mom.

Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.

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Local Life

Retro Fair Haven Fire Company Picnic Pack Fun

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A gathering of Fair Haven Fire Department folks of the past. Photo/FHFD Yearbook, courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly
A gathering of Fair Haven Fire Department folks of the past.
Photo/FHFD Yearbook, courtesy of Evie Connor Kelly

On the cusp of Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair, thoughts turn to the longtime members of the fire company who have made it happen every single year for more than a century.

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