ELATED CATEGORY GLOUCESTER CITY HISTORY

BY CNBNews Staff

Bill Tourtual, Butch Shaffer, and myself were talking

A new look for Butch Shaffer photo credit Babe Tourtual

recently about some of the characters we remembered growing up in Gloucester City, NJ back in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Somehow the name of Albert “Monk” Schaffer, (no relation to Howard “Butch” Shaffer), came up in our conversation.

Monk was a local hood who grew up in the 300 block of Morris Street. As a teenager he hung out at Augie’s pool room (28 N. Burlington Street), Tuckers Corner (Cumberland and Atlantic Street) and the Pine House (200 block of N. Broadway). When he got older he could be found at the Sand Bar, 5th and Powell Streets, The Twin Bar, Broadway and Market Street, and The Crown Point Inn, Westville, to mention a few.

My father-in-law, Tom Sarlo and I, bumped into Monk in the Batsto Pine Barrens during a 1970’s December deer hunt. We were heading home. His cadillac was stuck in the mud blocking the road. We tried to pull him out of the mud with our truck, but no luck. Wet snow was falling. He was with two teenagers, his nephews. They were dressed all in black. Not the right attire for hunting deer. As we drove away they were setting the woods on fire trying to get warm. We alerted the rangers about their situation.