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.
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