Union Street Peeping Toms

This is a continuing episode of Ron and my Union Street Chronicles from the 1960s. 

As you recall from my introduction article, Union Street Beat, Ron and I spent an enormous amount of time on Union Street, Circleville, Ohio.  One main reason was because Ron's girlfriend, Susie, lived on that street and you could say I was the third wheel.  At that time I didn't have what you would call a steady girlfriend and I guess Ron needed support from his buddy, because of Susie's dad's attitude about boys dating his daughter.  From now on I will refer to Susie's dad as B.S. (hey wait; not what you are thinking of, that was his initials).

Susie and Ron would sneak around most of the time.  She was allowed to date him but they couldn't be together all the time so they sneaked around.  LS (little store just down the street) and the library were the common meeting places.

I recall one episode when Susie was forbidden to go out and couldn't meet Ron after we had made the trip to Union Street.  That is the night Ron and I became the youngest Peeping Toms in Circleville.

When Susie hadn't arrived at the store, we walked over to the house next door (Cathy's house) and laid down in the damp grass in the backyard where we could see the kitchen.  It was the evening hours and a little dark outside so we had no problem peeking into the kitchen because the light was on and we knew they couldn't see us.  Ron and I could observe Susie from our vantage point sitting at the kitchen table doing homework with B.S. walking in and out of the kitchen like a general checking on his troops.  B.S. was a little gruff looking, average height, thin, many times unshaven and mean looking. (At least to us) To those that knew him, I guess he was a great guy.  When Susie talked about her dad to us she referred to him as B.  Now Susie's mom was a sweetheart, real nice and hospitable.  While at her house we were always offered kool-aid, ice tea or something when we were there and B.S. was not.  Susie's mom even talked to us.  Can you imagine?

On this particular night as we continued our Peeping Tom ways, we watched B.S. and Susie laughing and for what we could see cutting up. This is not the guy we know and who Susie describes so well.  Were they laughing at us because they knew we were lying in the cold grass watching them or was it because we had made a trip to the famous Union Street for nothing?  We had never seen B.S. laugh.  He was always mean and ready to kick butt all the other times we ran into him, although we tried to avoid him at all costs.  This was a side of him that we have never seen before.  And then it happened; he opened the refrigerator pulled out the jug of kool-aid and put the pitcher up to his mouth and took a big drink.  Ron and I looked at each other in disgust.  This was the same pitcher we got our drinks from.  After drinking his share, B.S. wiped his mouth and unshaven face on his shirt sleeve and left the kitchen.

Later that week while at Susie's house, Susie's mom told her to offer us some refreshments. We followed her to the kitchen, thinking of hostess cupcakes, cookies, Dean's Potato Chips,  a coke or something.  She opened the refrigerator and as she pulled out the same pitcher and we kindly but very quickly turned down her offer.  Speaking for myself, I can honestly say I never drank another glass of kool-aid or ice tea at Susie's house.   

Click Here to play music that I remember from Union Street.