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Local Life

Retro Joyous Fall for the Leaf Pile

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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.

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Local Life

Retro RFH 1930s Football Boys

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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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro School Daze: The Rope Lady

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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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro Back-to-School Walking the Rope

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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.

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Local Life, Opinion

Retro First Day of School Girls

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

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.

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Local Life

Retro Youth Center P.M. Kindergarten Class Act

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Fair Haven afternoon Kindergarten Class of 1965

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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Local Life

Retro RFH Dudes of Caribbean Locals’ Summer

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A reprise Retro Pic of the Day, originally posted on Sept. 14, 2016 in the spirit of a balmy locals’ summer day, knowing that the summer spirit never truly ends for the Rumson-Fair Haven area young and forever young at heart … And these guys are about to reunite at their 50th RFH reunion …

With locals’ summer and school’s start, students’ thoughts naturally turn to warmth and freedom. They start to daydream before they even hit the classroom. That’s how it goes in the R-FH area when those beaches become barren and more room is made for the locals to get down to the business of soaking up that locals’ summer partying spirit.

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Local Life, Opinion

Fair Remembrance: All’s Fair in the Middle

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Our annual reprise about what it really means to experience all that’s fair for a Fair Haven kid …

There are a lot of significant beginnings and endings this time of the year. 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 has always brought me, and many a “fair” kid, back to that middle haven. It’s home.

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Local Life

Remembering My Fair Daddy

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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. 30, 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 on the fair grounds …

Retro Fair Haven Firemen's Fair stock room days in the 1970s Photo/FHFD booklet
Retro Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair stock room days in the 1970s
Photo/FHFD booklet

By Elaine Van Develde

It’s been 42 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.

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