Lately, in the Rumson-Fair Haven area, for the students who have little to no knowledge or cares about a vote on a $15 million plus referendum, it’s been all about school pictures. They’ve been more worried about striking that pose without some missing teeth, bad hair or the wrong outfit. Then there’s the class photo. Side-by-side posing and playing around, the snapshot is a lifetime keeper. Call it a class act.
Continue reading Retro Fair Haven Fifth Grade Class Act & Reunion
Didn’t you get the memo? It’s that time of the school year when kids strike a usually awkward, but priceless pose for class pictures.
Call them players. It’s all about keeping in step with the high school game. And the RFH Football Team played on …
So did the band. Both players of a different kind. Playing to the same tune — the game. But school spirit and team player strength doesn’t always come in numbers. With high school football season on the horizon, memories come to mind of the old days when the RFH Band played on and in step with many more field-marching members than these days. The football team the band was playing about? Not so much. There was a time when the RFH football team was small — smaller than the band that trumpeted the team.
Band was big and so was a big band era decades ago, for that matter. In fact, going back more than half a century, like back to the 1930s, when RFH was Rumson High School, the football team was minuscule by comparison. There was no regional in the high school name. And the population was, well, low. There were sprawling estates, farms (with a lot of asparagus growing wild) and berries aplenty for picking.
Continue reading Retro RFH Football Players
School bells are ringing. Class is in session. Or half session, if it’s kindergarten. Things in that department are the same as they ever were for at least more than half a century. That’s more than a little snapshot in time.
Continue reading Retro Kindergarten Class Photo SessionSept. 11 marked the 35th anniversary of the iconic Fair Haven Whistle Stop owner Frank Leslie’s death. So, in honor of Mr. Leslie and the wonderful memories he and his wife, Barbara, gave so many Fair Haven kids, we are reprising our piece on the Leslies and their oh, so sweet after-school stop. Thank you, Frank Leslie. You are remembered. Thirty-five years? Wow.
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By Elaine Van Develde
Sometimes all it takes is a jawbreaker, a slice of Elio’s frozen pizza, pinball and friends all enveloped in a gingham-curtained room with a jovial giant of a dad host to make a bunch of kids smile.
Sometimes. Some simpler time back in time.
Continue reading Retro Whistle Stop Kids’ SceneThere have been a lot of significant beginnings and endings lately. The end of summer. The beginning of locals’ summer. The start of school — new chapters and first days.
But, what about the middle? The end of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair brings me, and probably more than a few others, back to that middle.
The following piece was originally published on Aug. 31, 2015. It is being re-run, with changes only in the amount of years that have passed, in memory of my father, Bill Van Develde, former longtime Fair Haven Fire Company member, president and captain of the Fire Police and chairman of the stock room at the fair, on the anniversary of his death on Aug. 31, 1983. RIP, Dad. You are missed. Thank you for all the embarrassing moments that I didn’t appreciate enough. Thank you for making Fair Haven my home. Thank you for being a real dad. See you later at the fair …
Photo/FHFD booklet
By Elaine Van Develde
It’s been 36 years, but I can still see his face and that kooky Brylcreemed hairdo. I can still hear his crazy belly laugh and that signature “Take ‘er easy, buddy!” I can still see him slapping kids on the back, forever clutching his trusty clipboard, pencil perched behind his ear, sweat on the brow and finger wagging.
Continue reading Remembrance of the Fair Stock Room Dude — Dad
The following piece was originally published in August of 2015. Here it is again in honor of the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and my mom, Sally Van Develde, to whom this site is dedicated …
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.
Continue reading Retro Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair Balloon Boss & Buddies
The night is still. A light is on. Trucks are out of the bays. Cartoony faces and ghosts in empty seats on unassembled carnival rides stare back in the dark. Someone’s cooking at the Fair Haven firehouse. It’s fair time.
Continue reading A Fair Haven Girl’s Fair Haunt
Summertime is reunion time for all good Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School alumnus. This weekend it’s the RFH Class of ’79’s turn to turn back time four decades.
Continue reading RFH Reunion Time: Retro Fair Haven Class Act
About a quarter of a century ago, a little girl got on the carousel at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and took a ride.
Continue reading Retro Merry-Go-Round Ride
In the wake of a Fair Haven Fire Department award and reflection on the bond among its members through generations, thoughts turn to times when the bonds were forged.
Continue reading Retro FH Fire Company Family Time
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