You might find it uncommon to walk outside of your grandparents house and hear the latest Nicki Minaj song blaring outside.
If your grandparents are like Lois and Bob Whealey, of 14 Oak St., or Francine Childs, of 25 Elliott St., such tunes are no surprise.
Those three are some of the last remaining permanent residents living in homes off Mill Street, where most of Athens’ famed fests occur.
After residing on Stewart Street across from Jefferson Hall for the first three years Bob taught history at Ohio University, the couple moved into their Oak Street house in 1967.
They’ve lived there ever since.
“At the time there was only one house with students in it,” Bob said. “Now we’re the only (non-students) for blocks.”
Lois also taught at OU for a couple years during the late 1960s while Bob become a professor emeritus of history and even created a class titled “Hitler and his Nazis.”
When the parties start raging on the weekends, the Whealeys said student shenanigans don’t bug them.
“They have these big beer parties on Saturday, and I’m ready to go to bed anyways so they don’t bother me,” Bob said. “Now, once in a while, there are some close calls, real wild parties.”
His wife remembered a time when students burned a couch in the middle of the street.
“It was astounding how quickly that thing went up,” she said. “It was as high as these three-story houses in 30 seconds.”
Sometimes, Childs said she has to politely ask her student neighbors to turn down their music so she doesn’t have to resort to calling the cops. She said last year was the smoothest she had ever seen in terms of how respectful the students were.
“I think all it takes is someone talking to them,” Childs said. “I just want Ohio University to be known as a place where students have respect for themselves and others.”
Childs, who moved into her Elliott Street house in 1980, never considered leaving.
“It’s my home,” Childs said. “I bought the house. … I was here first, and you’re not going to run me out.”
Overall, both Childs and the Whealeys say they have good relations with their neighbors.
“It’s always been pleasant, but distant,” Lois said. “They have their lives, we have ours. Every once in a while, Bob will be coming home and someone will ask if he wants a bottle of beer. Sometimes he joins them.”
Bob cut in and added: “Well, I don’t want them to throw the bottles at me for not being neighborly.”
The only really negative incident the Whealeys recall happened 25 years ago after they had left their keys in the ignition of their car on a cold day.
“Somebody stole the car, drove out of town about four or five miles, and left the car in the middle of a frozen lake,” Bob said.
Of course, living among the college students isn’t all about problems that arise; sometimes, there’s fun to be had. For Bob, the most fun he had was for his 69th birthday.
“There were these girls right across the street who invited me over, I said I’d stop by later if they were still out on their porch. … When I returned, they say, ‘Hey, come here!’ So I told them it’s my birthday, I’ll accept,” Bob said. “Then they gave me a kiss. Then, there must have been a dozen girls in the house, they all said ‘I want a kiss too!’ I got, believe it or not, 69 kisses. They all thought it was a thrill.”
as299610@ohiou.edu
@akarl_smith
