Of Hippies, A Supposed Body, An Owl and Other

Of Hippies, A Supposed Body, An Owl and Other Dastardly Things!

A true story about late night happenings on a lovers' lane


Sometimes when you see things you know that something is not quite right.
In the early seventies, when we moved into this house we had no idea that nearby was an area that had been forever known as "Lover's Lane." We soon learned about it, as weekends were downright wild. Tons of cars came and went and others stayed for long periods of times.
On one particular warm summer Sunday I had been out in the yard doing something when I noticed a Volkswagen speeding past with two hippie type guys in the front seat. Being the nosey type, I watched them get out of the car and take a huge thing wrapped in a sheet out of the back seat. The hippies then proceed to throw it over the hill. To me this thing wrapped up in a sheet looked just like a body.
But things didn't stop then. One hippie went over the hill where the wrapped up thing was, while the other backed out the VW and parked down the hill, got out and switched license plates and walked up a ton of steps that was parallel to the end of my street.
Frantically, I ran into the house and proceeded to inform my husband about the entire scenario. He, our sons and I walked out to the end of the street to see what else was going on: The hippie was nowhere in sight but soon he came walking up out of the woods at the end of the street. Looking at us he said "I live up here but got lost." He did not live up here and he was not lost either---maybe intelligence-wise but not area-wise.
As all of us were standing there, a big expensive Cadillac came roaring straight to us; out jumped a well-dressed man and woman.
Oh it gets much more interesting!
The hippie said to the couple "I found it over the hill!" And I was thinking why would he say he found a dead body? Plus he was the one who threw it over the hill at the start with his now gone friend. Forever the Nancy Drew woman, I ran home and called the police and attempted to explain the above situation: It was extremely hard to describe it all.
Meanwhile, my then husband was still out at the end of the street with my sons, the couple and the hippie. Approaching them, I saw the hippie drag up the thing wrapped in a sheet and show it to the couple. "You found it!" screamed the man. "Yes, I did" said the hippie. "I found it right over the hill." As the hippie pulled off the sheet, I was preparing to see a corpse; instead I saw a huge life-size bronze owl.
The man turned to me and said: "He found my owl! I had put an ad in the paper and offered $200 and no questions asked. I just can't believe that he found it!" He then handed the hippie the envelope which when opened exposed two one hundred dollar bills. Of course these two hippies had set up this couple for they were the ones who stole the owl to begin with-it was obvious to me but as to the couple, I think that they were more in shock of finding their treasured owl.
The couple put the giant bronze owl in the back seat of their Cadillac and backed out with glaringly happy faces and went off the hill.
The hippie, richer with his two hundred dollars, walked down the hill and got in the VW with his friend and the different license plate and they, too left.
Just when you think things are ended you are proved wrong.
A van came flying down the street and stopped at the end of the street where the "owl incident" had occurred.
The driver opened up the doors and out came about ten very old senior citizens wanting to see the view. Seems as if they had no sooner gotten their feet on the cement then two police cars came zooming down to the same area hoping to catch the hippies. The senior citizens started grabbing their chests like Fred Sanford did in the tv show "Sanford and Son."
Not a one of them wanted to stay so the driver got them safely back in and the van backed up and left. The police cars were still there.
My husband and I had to explain what had transpired with the hippie, the money and the older couple in the Cadillac who now had the owl. And the VW's switched license plates. The police left in search of the hippies.
As this was back in the age of CB radios, we came home and my then husband got on his radio and found out that the police caught a car on the South Side Bridge. But it wasn't the hippies but the older couple who had just retrieved their prized bronze owl. I don't think I would have wanted to have known what the couple said at all.
After that I never learned what else happened----except that the owl was once again stolen.
Who knows? Maybe the hippies stole it again.

Sharon Reed Hill