Roo-shee Girls
During the spring of my junior year in high school, we got knocked out of the tournament early because our team was not very good. For a reason I don’t recall, all the seniors on the team quit early in the season, so that left me and four sophomores elevated from JV as starters. To keep the scores close, our primary tactic was a stall coupled with a full court press, which worked ok during the season in the cracker-box gyms we played back then. But in Sidney High’s huge gym where the tournament was played, that strategy was dealt a fatal blow, so we lost big time.
On the following Sunday afternoon, I was riding around with some of my high school buddies, when we heard through the grapevine (predecessor to the internet) that there was a party at a farm house near Russia, so off we went, having no idea where the party was being held. So we drove up and down the various roads around Russia, finally finding a farm with a bunch of cars in the driveway north of town that we hoped was the party place. For some reason, I remember the farm also had a bunch of antique stuff around the yard somewhat like the photo below. The mailbox indicated the name of the family that lived there, and we knew there was a Russia cheerleader with that same last name. So we drove in and indeed found the party was going full blast! Apparently, the cheerleader’s parents were gone for the weekend, probably looking for more antiques!
Other than visiting my cousins in Russia, as documented in this previous blogpost, that memorable Sunday was my first exposure to the girls of Roo-shee! Wow, they were all knockouts and super friendly. Seems they were kind of intrigued by us out-of-towners almost as much as we were with them. No doubt the local guys were peeved, but who cared. We were in seventh heaven, partying to the max. It was a very fun and memorable afternoon, as from that moment on, Roo-shee girls were always on my radar screen.
Our favorite meeting place at the time is pictured above; Louie’s in Newport, now Scudzy’s, located on State Route 66 right along the old Miami-Erie canal. Louie Bruns was the proprietor, and because his bar was located about half way between Loramie and Russia, it became the place to connect up with Roo-shee girls.
The juke box was always rocking with the latest hit songs and the red booths were gigantic, so we’d all squeeze in together to share some food, drink and the latest scuttlebutt around our two neighboring towns.
Well, that connection to Roo-shee still exists to this day, as about 6 years after my initial encounter described above, I was fortunate to meet a very special Roo-shee girl who is now my wife of 46 years. Love those Roo-shee girls!
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