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Retro Fair Sweets Queens

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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Retro Fair Grab Bagging Balloon Lady & Buds

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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Retro Fair Haven Fire Company Picnic Pack Fun

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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Retro RFH Reunion Roustabouts

RFH Class of ’78 friends reunited at reunion in 2013
Photo/Elaine Van Develde

Summertime is reunion time for all good Rumson-Fair Haven Regional     High School alumnus. In fact, the RFH Class of ’83 just had a very untraditional 39th. Hey, when the reunion spirit moves an RFHer, any year is the right one.

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Retro Sandy Hook Lifeguarding Muscle

Sandy Hook lifeguards circa 1984
Photo/courtesy of Joanne Distefano Garelli via Miguel Mejia, Facebook screenshot

Well, it’s been a sizzling summer and everyone’s been diving in … to the ocean for refreshment and, of course, in the name of locals’ tradition. And while everyone’s diving in and swimming with the summer tide, lifeguards are making sure that all make it back to shore.

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Retro Stokes Hip to Be Square Dancing

Square dancing at Stokes in the 1970s
Photo/courtesy of Lisa Ericson

A reprise from 2019 in honor of the annual tradition of that trip to Stokes State Forrest. In honor of wrapping up the Stokes experience with that last dance … Dance on and dose doe, sixth graders!

It was truly terrifying. The mandatory square dance at the Fair Haven sixth graders’ Stokes State Forrest trip.

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Retro Happy Stokes Campers

Stokes girls’ cabin 1978
Photo/Angela Carpenter

A reprise in honor of the culmination of the usual end of the sixth graders’ trip to Stokes State Forrest

It’s all about another stoked for Stokes moment. The year was 1976, and a bunch of girls gathered in their cabin for that classic snapshot of sixth grade bunk mates.

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Retro Sea Bright Summer Daze & P House Ways

Elisha Slocum poses on Sea Bright Beach circa 1937. Photo/courtesy of Jo Ann Slocum Mazucca
Elisha Slocum poses on Sea Bright Beach circa 1937.
Photo/courtesy of Jo Ann Slocum Mazucca

The sun is shining again and things are warming up, so we’re thinking back to summer days and a bit of a daze from decades way back in Sea Bright. Call it a retro summer day’s capture with many different messages.

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Retro RFH English Teaching Moments

RFH English teachers of the 1970s
Photo/RFH ’78 Yearbook

It’s all about writing what you know, as they say. So, since it’s Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re stepping back several decades to show some appreciation for RFH teachers we knew and some of their teaching moments, profound or not, that stuck with us.

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