May 1960

Memphis, Tennessee

“Scoot over, butthead!”

“No, you scoot over! You’re the one taking up all the room,” said Bryan Griggsby while he pushed the bigger Glen Miller from the window.

They both had their own pair binoculars in their hands and were spying out of Bryan’s window into the neighbor’s house. Glen’s enormous size for the age of ten was overwhelming, and his friends, including his best friend Bryan Griggsby, felt a bit annoyed by it at times.

Bryan was shorter with dark straight hair kept in a bowl cut. Bryan wasn’t exactly as photogenic as Glen was, but at that age popularity and looks hadn’t come into their social consciousness.

“Ooooohhhh…” exclaimed Glen as he watched the enticing blonde woman begin to change from her towel into a new set of clothes. Neither of them really knew anything about women, but it didn’t matter because Mrs. Zurkowski was all they needed see.

For the last couple of months or so, Mrs. Zurkowski had been their obsession, and trips to the Zurkowski house to offer yardwork wasn’t uncommon on the weekends.

Mrs. Zurkowski was a lovely lady of around the age of 30, always adorned in classic 1950s housewife attire. Her blonde hair always flowed, nearly flirting with the adolescents, which made them offer to do more and more chores out of “good will.”

She always humored the kids’ young crush with playful winks, but she had never foreseen it spiraling into full-on voyeurism.

Across the gap between the second stories of the two houses, Mrs. Zurkowski had finished dressing and left her bedroom. Bryan and Glen put the binoculars down on his dresser drawer and began to think about what could be done with the rest of their Saturday afternoon.

“Do you want to go see if Mrs. Zurkowski needs help with anything?” Glen asked quite seriously. “Mr. Zurkowski is out on a business trip, so she might need a couple of men to help around the house.”

“Nah, we did that yesterday, and I don’t think we should bug her too much.” Bryan said pessimistically. “If she catches on, she’ll talk to my mom, and you know what that means.”

“Hmmm…then what should we do?” Glen asked.

An idea popped into Bryan’s ten-year-old mind, “Why don’t we ride our bikes up to the radio tower and see if anyone else is up there?”

“I can’t go that far; I have to be at football practice a little later. But afterward I can do something till six.” Glen said, somewhat saddened.

“Okay, well, we could go down to McGrady’s and get a milkshake or a Coca-a-Cola,” Bryan suggested hopefully.

Glen thought for a minute. “No, my dad would get mad if I had a milkshake or a Coca-a-Cola before football.”

Bryan gave up trying to think of anything, feeling as if Glen was too devoted to his football practice today to do anything else. “Well, I’m going to get Mikey and we’ll go up to the radio tower.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll see you later then,” Glen said sadly.

Football, wrestling, and other sports seemed to be taking over his life.

Because he was larger than any other kid his age, coaches were hounding his parents, and they certainly obliged the potential. This time of year, football camps were starting, and Glen was on the best Pop-Warner team in Memphis.

Conversely, Bryan wasn’t as physically strong or nearly as big, so sports didn’t come as easily and weren’t a part of his life yet.

The two boys said goodbye to each other, and then Glen left the room to head outside. He climbed onto his red and white bike and headed down the street, but not before noticing Mrs. Zurkowski working in her front yard flowerbed.

“Hi Mrs. Zurkowski,” said Glen as he rode past, extra slow.

“Hi Glen,” the woman waved back with a smile.

Football practice was soon, and Glen didn’t realize that high school coaches were already planning on attending his practice to see the 5’2”, blonde-haired, 10-year-old.