Autobiography Part I - Beginnings

by Canon William V. Rauscher
Retired Eleventh Rector of Christ Church, Woodbury

Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto. This belief and this adjustment are the religious attitude in the soul.

William James

Born October 17, in the early 1930’s in Long Branch, New Jersey, and the only child of Marie and William, Sr., I was raised in the small shore community of Highlands. I was blessed with wonderful parents who both knew each other as youths in Highlands. There were married in 1930, and were together for 56 years until my father’s death in 1986.

Highlands was a colorful town with many characters and a complement of old showpeople that populated the area left over from vaudeville and living in nearby Fair Haven, Red Bank, Rumson, and specially Keansburg. Highlands was a tavern town on the Shrewsbury River. Clam digging and lobster catchings were an early industry in Highlands. "Highlands was a colorful town with many characters and a complement of old showpeople that populated the area left over from vaudeville..."For some twelve years we lived at 220 Bay Avenue. My parents always remembered the struggles of the Great Depression. We were later to move on the hill, but never forgot the sounds of the tavern late into the night with the noise, the neon sign, and the juke box playing such songs as Harbor Lights, Mexicalla Rose, or Roll Out the Barrel. My formative years in Highlands were a sharp contrast to a creative life that was later to emerge. My maternal grandparents owned and operated a meat market and grocery store at 188 Bay Avenue called The Prospect Market. I remember the sign over the big meat refrigerator, Price figures, but quality is the real test of cheapness. I attended the local grammar school and grew up around that store. My grandfather told me stories of Herrmann the Great and Houdini, and even introduced me to the subject of hypnosis. My Uncle George and Aunt Mamie also had a grocery store and gas station on the hill near my school. During lunch break I would occasionally walk to their store and she would also give me candy. Uncle George taught me one of my first tricks, The Cut and Restored String. I listened avidly to the radio and heard such programs as The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Jack Armstrong, and numerous mystery programs such as Inner Sanctum. One of my favorites was I Love a Mystery. The subject of mystery would become an important part of my life. My grandparents were Methodists, my paternal relatives both Episcopalian and Roman Catholic. I was baptized at St. Andrew’s Mission on Bay Avenue by Fritz Leiber. His father was a Shakespearean actor with a traveling company. Leiber later left his call to ministry and became a well-known science fiction writer.

As a boy, I attended St. Andrew’s Mission and became one of only two acolytes during my years in that church. My father was Episcopal, and when I was confirmed at the age of twelve, my mother was confirmed with me. It was a struggling church that set a subtle tone within me. The various visiting priests each made their impression upon me. The Carlton Theater in Red Bank intrigued me with midnight stage shows such as Dr. Neff’s Madhouse of Mystery, and even the Magician John Calvert with his Magic and Models Show.Highlands was a Mecca for summer visitors from Jersey City and New York. The great Twin Lights stood on the hill and still remain. Asbury Park was always an interesting place to go. It was a charming resort with all kinds of fascinating boardwalk attractions. Long Branch Stadium, just below Sea Bright, offered various summer attractions, such as Joey Chitwood’s Auto Daredevils in displays of Auto Polo, Lucky Teeter who crashed cars, and Benny the Human Bomb. The Carlton Theater in Red Bank intrigued me with midnight stage shows such as Dr. Neff’s Madhouse of Mystery, and even the Magician John Calvert with his Magic and Models Show. Keansburg was ten miles to the north with its old time flair of everything from boardwalk mind readers, astrology pitchmen to Jerry Sheen’s dance hall, where my Aunt Lillian’s husband was a singing waiter. During my high school days I spent many summer nights in Asbury Park standing outside the Casino Pavilion listening to the big bands, wandering over to Ocean Grove and hearing the giant pipe organ and shouts of the evangelists at the great auditorium. There were many walks along the rocks that kept the ocean at bay on the stretch called Sea Bright. There are memories of many storms, floods, and Highlands being once the victim of a tidal wave that almost destroyed the Prospect Market, but the business lasted for some forty years. My mother’s sister, Aunt Helen, and her husband, Uncle Tom, lived in Atlantic Highlands, and I would ride the bus to see them. The wooded hills of Highlands provided a place where a boy could walk and explore, and where at intervals somehow lost crosses, small ones, about five in number would be found. There were always feelings of purposeful coincidence.

CONTINUE TO PART II