Yes, there are people who live on this earth who see to it. One such individual was a “faithful” customer of mine way back in the 1970s. He was a chronic complainer who was forever being shorted on his medicine, by me. The city overcharged him on his water and the butcher over at Allen Food Center always weighed his meat orders heavy. He had a rough life. He had one prescription for 30 pills. Cheap. So cheap that I only charged him a buck a month for his 30 pills. But of course, he said I always cheated him anyway so I just made it a point to give him an extra pill or two. This gift was never acknowledged.

Back then Allen had no garbage pickup. You had to do it yourself or hire someone. Most of us had a burn barrel and burned what we could and hauled off the rest. One dreary winter night I noticed Welton Priest out in my alley. His patrol car lights were flashing. I went out to see what was going on. Sure enough, my neighbor, the one I “cheated” all the time had tried to file charges on me for making smoke. My son had taken the trash out and stuck a match to it, as usual. The smoke was straying over to his house.

I was still sort of “sad” later that week when my best friend Virgil Guy came in. He was sort of “sad” too. “Oh, I just got chewed out again this morning,” he said. Naturally it was our mutual gripper who had done all the chewing. I think the complainer had found a flaw in the newspaper. As the day went on a freezing rain started and it covered the snow and sleet that already lay on the streets and porches around town. It was miserable and it seemed nearly everyone was sick with some kind of flu.

We were very busy in the drug store when Doctor Soper called. I asked what I could do for him. “I want you to get the ambulance and pick up Mr. ***. He is very sick, unconscious and needs transporting to Holdenville Hospital.” I tried to explain that I was “snowed” under and didn’t drive the ambulance. Of course the old man who was sick was my worse critic and chronic complainer. I called Virgil and explained it to him. He groaned as he explained how little he wanted to do this good deed. But I told him we had to do it.

We went up to the man’s home, backed the ambulance up to his slick porch and found his doors were as narrow as his mind. The gurney wouldn’t fit. So we dragged and carried the feverish overweight man out to the porch and finally slid him in the back of the ambulance. Well, not until after Virgil slid and fell hard, injuring his hip. But we hurriedly made the icy trip to Holdenville, came back and collected the gurney and parked the ambulance. Virgil had to go to the doctor and get something done about his hip and back. I went back to the pharmacy where I was chewed out for making an ambulance run and leaving these sick folk behind. Boy, was I depressed.

The next day I got a call from Hughes County. “I have a charge of kidnapping against you,” the sheriff said. He mainly just wanted to know how come and I told him the story. Yes, the old gent had woke up and called his lawyer and the sheriff. Already. Virgil and I were being accused of breaking and entering and stealing him away from his house while he was unconscious. Well, we finally got it all straightened out and when it was over you can be sure the City of Allen didn’t even mail that $25.00 statement he owed them for ambulance service. I never did know what it cost Virgil to get his back and hip fixed but we didn’t talk much about it. His wife thought it wise for me not to call him anymore for this volunteer ambulance work.

The guy we hauled to the hospital wandered in the drug store about then. He wanted his pill bottle filled again. I did another good deed. I just quietly filled it. Gave him 1 extra.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com