On Your Street: Generations of friends, families call Mustang Drive home

BY ANN MORT | LINK nky CONTRIBUTOR

On Your Street is a regular feature in which contributor Ann Mort takes readers on a tour of one street in Northern Kentucky to tell the story of the people who live there.

On the outside, those big suburban homes appear very quiet and serene. On the inside, some are a hotbed of family activities spanning three generations.

Mustang Drive in Walton is a part of the Heritage Trails subdivision known for the life-sized model of a horse at the entrance. Mustang Drive runs from Appaloosa, where one can see the traffic on Interstate 75, to a cul-de-sac about half a mile downhill. Some of the Mustang Drive homes back up to the Triple Crown area, and as Alain Tourikian explains, “The Triple Crown value seeps into the Mustang Drive area,” driving up the value of their homes too.

Sue and Alain Tourikian found their forever home 23 years ago when a house under construction became available. The Tourikians both grew up in the Cincinnati area, and both spent seven years prior in Charleston, West Virginia. They moved to the region from Alain’s job in banking.

Rick and Mary Jo Stiene were their neighbors in Erlanger before the Tourikians moved to West Virginia, and they encouraged them to join them on Mustang Drive where the Stienes had recently moved. Un- beknownst to the Tourikians, they would find another familiar face in their new neighborhood.

Sue Tourikian and Tom Hopkins had grown up on the same street. So there were immediately three family connections.

When the Hopkins discovered their old/ new neighbors had young girls, Tracy asked right away, “How old are you?” When she found the Tourikian daughter was indeed old enough, Tracy blurted out “Thank God, Do you babysit?”

Apparently both families had found what they were looking for.

“When we moved in, everybody had young kids, then they all grew up,” Alain said.

“Things got too quiet but in the last few years, more young kids are back in the neighborhood. Those grown-up kids now are bringing back their own kids.”

Sue, now retired, also worked in banking, and their daughter Nicole is carrying on the family business as a mortgage banker. Another daughter, Lisa, lives in Anderson Township, Ohio, and is an investment advisor.

Daughter Mollie, who lives in Cold Spring, is a college student currently a server at Smoke Justis in Covington.

Daughter Caitlin and son-in-law Patrick Behne were living temporarily with the Tourikians when another neighbor mentioned a house for sale across the street.

The house had been used as temporary housing for a local church.

Families would live in the home for extended periods of time until they found permanent housing in the area. One family came from the Czech Republic and demonstrated to their new neighbors their prowess on unicycles.

Another family came from California. The church was willing to sell the house at just the time the Behne’s wanted to buy a house. They did some repairs and upgrades and recently moved in just across the street. Caitlin is an Interior Designer with Best Furniture Gallery in Fort Thomas. Patrick does Signal Maintenance for CSX Railroad. They have two children, ages 2 and 5.

Nicole said she enjoys just hanging out with the family and going on group vacations, most recently to Disney World.

Sue and Alain both agree that “being grandparents” is a great way to spend their spare time. Their home seems to be a center for family activities with many passing through every day. With such a lively household, only Oliver the oversized cat seems oblivious to all the happenings.

Just up the street is the Hodge family home, the fourth home built on Mustang.

There are now four generations of the

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