Last week was a busy week for many Allenites. It was the alumni week here in Allen and many former Allen grads were all about town for the big celebrations. Then last Saturday night I drove over to my old hometown of Stonewall for the alumni meeting over there. A good meal was had in their great cafeteria and much to my surprise, not one of my classmates of 1952 showed up. But, nevertheless, Pat and I had a good time and a good lot of visiting with other old friends that made up the crowd. Saw some old acquaintances from out of state too that I hadn’t seen in many years. Ann Brooks, Pat Toney and Billie Miller to just name three of them. Had a good time reminiscing about old times in old Stonewall.

Last week I had company kin from Alabama. My cousin Jimmy Bullard and his grandson Andrew Bullard from Sylvan Springs and his son David from Gadsden, Alabama. I took them on some good tours of Allen, Stonewall, Centrahoma and Coalgate. We lunched at Coalgate and had a good time just touring some of my old haunts. We also made a day touring old stomping grounds down around Wister and ended that day down at Pete’s Place in Krebs. We spend another day in Oklahoma City where we did the Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Murrah Building Memorial Complex. My Alabama kin all returned home Friday. Sure, did get quiet around my house after that.

During my visit to the Alumni meeting in Stonewall Saturday night we got to talking about a peace officer, Tommy Crow. Tommy served Stonewall as Police Chief many years and was of the old school. Tommy didn’t have much use for crime, drunks, juveniles who like to hang out all night in town, and high school girls and young women who wore their shorts too short. Curfew was when he said it was and he had no tolerance for young people who didn’t find their way home pretty soon after the movies at the Main Theatre turned out.

Tommy was a good man, and his old Ford was like a fixture around town. It was a 1941 Ford, shiny black with a light on its top as I remember. Tommy was proud of his car and kept it spotless and shiny. I always thought Tommy was universally loved by all, but something happened one night that proved me wrong. Tommy had movie passes and when he wished he brought Mae and the kids (all his family) to the Main Theatre to enjoy an evening out. He always parked his police car right next to the west side of the theatre. One night he came out after the movie and the car was gone. Stolen. As he pondered this, he saw the fire truck come out of its station and head north toward Owl Creek. It was not good. Some hoodlums had

Some hoodlums had taken the patrol car and driven it up on a stack of railroad ties over at the Lula train depot and burned it. The ties had been drenched in a flammable liquid and soon the famous police car was just a molten shadow of itself. This was all planned out carefully. Time passed and the malefactors never were caught. But between insurance and whatever, Tommy got himself another patrol car. But I always thought it was a mean deliberate act against an underpaid dedicated peace officer and hated what it said against the good town of Stonewall. Tommy had carefully ushered the somewhat rambunctious little boom town through some rough times and did so with few thanks and low pay. But now he is just another memory.

I suppose there were many others who also served that little town in so many ways whose only reward may well have been like Tommy’s, just the satisfaction of a job well done. But I remember many of those leaders, teachers and good citizens. So now all I can do is say to them is “Thanks.”

I hope your week was good too and I do appreciate hearing from so many of you lately. And let me know where you read this. Be sure and go to church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com