Thanksgiving is a kickoff date for the holiday season. So much to be thankful for. God and country and pure clean cold water as near as our tap. Back in 1964 I moved to Allen. I had checked the town out fairly good, I thought. I even asked about the town’s water. “Lots of it, and it is cheap,” came the Chamber of Commerce reply. However, right after we moved from Ada customers down at the Pharmacy started bringing us empty 1-gallon jugs. “To haul water from the springs,” they told us. “You’ll need these jugs.”

They were right. The water was certified safe to use, even to drink—if you dared—but it turned the fresh brewed coffee into a slurry. Cooking red beans in it was a horror show. Wiggly things and small worms decorated the glass of water one might draw to drink. And the Allen Chamber of Commerce was suing the privately owned water company, Sooner Water Works, Inc. I asked a guy why did you say you had good water? “Well,” he replied, “we have lots of good water you just can’t cook with it.”

Boy was he right. Every night when we closed the store, we loaded up 5 or 6 gallon jugs and drove out to the wells out by the “busy” Francis Y just west of town to fill up the jugs. It was not a pretty picture and I was already giving thoughts as to where else we might move. I attended my first Chamber of Commerce meeting that January. As a member. It was well attended. About 25 or 30 people attended each of the bi-monthly meetings. Lawyers advised us on what we could do about our water. That was also my first time to hear of non-responsive Mr. Isodore Sheinbein. He owned the water works.

Why, I asked two of our city council members were we in this situation? Well one of them explained, you have to know the history of the water works. The water works were built by a privately owned electric company in 1913. They eventually sold it to Public Service which found itself owning the water too. They finally sold it to the town. But the city fathers used the system only for cash to operate the rest of the town. The works went without much maintenance for years. Numerous little leaks around town (often called springs) went untended except the warning signs, or poles the city stuck in the holes in these springs.

People got mad so the city fathers decided to sell it. Mr. Sheinbein of Oklahoma City owned other small utilities such as telephone companies etc. across Oklahoma and he bought The Allen Water Works for $25,000. It continued to be a “Cash Cow” and he ran it just like the city had. Hired someone to read the meters and collect the money. He did repair the hole (about the size of a dime) in the water tower and stopped the constant spray over the 3 churches in the area. But other problems had seeped in.

The oil field had contaminated the water with salt and other pollution. My shooting off my mouth and my constant complaining got me punished by being elected President of the local Chamber. Boy was I proud. Willie Lee, our outgoing president got promoted to Mayor. We won our court case in Ada. The town basically had to give Isodore his money ($25,000) back and he gave the system back over to a new something called “Allen Public Works Authority.” We made the citizens vote on a bond to rebuild the water system. Also, the Ada Evening News posed Mayor Lee and me out in the cemetery with the big leaky water tower in the back” in a picture and story of how we had beat the big business mogul Isodore Sheinbein.

My mama was glad to see her boy had made good by the picture. But I started getting calls about water bills, terrible tasting water, leaky pipes, and even foreign policy problems. And we were still drinking polluted water. All because of that big page one picture. We finally did get good water. Incredibly soft and clean. A completely new system of pipes and all new meter and 22 new fire plugs. Up to now we had about 4 fireplugs in the whole town. Time passed and I got off that president job. It was time for me to get on the school board. But that is another bunch of phone calls.

I hope your holiday is good. Let us continue to be thankful for all our blessings. Such as our families, our church, our town, school and yes, our good cool clear water.

Be sure to go to your church this Sunday if you are able. And pray for our country.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com