Fall is Here

The Fall Equinox finally made its annual touchdown this past Monday in Allen. And I might add, it’s about time. Summertime has just about worn out its welcome -- at least with me. I think we all feel the same with each season change, forgetting that the past season wasn’t so bad after all. Yep, I’m tired of the long lazy hot days. I always forget just how hot summertime can be in southeastern Oklahoma.

Fall season means football season and it’s going full blast. Weather prognosticators say we will have a nice warm fall which is alright with me. I just noted my OU Sooners will kick off at noon this coming Saturday and having to sit out in the sunshine all afternoon isn’t exactly what I wanted to do but what can one do? On the other hand, a little bit of fall rain didn’t completely spoil Allen’s Homecoming this year. The Parade downtown was well attended by an enthusiastic crowd. The Queens and their escorts looked their best and later that evening football fans saw Kinsey Nix be crowned Queen at the game. I noticed that in addition to the large crowd at the parade that the floats and displays looked real good this year. Congratulations to the kids (and their teachers) who worked hard to produce these fl oats.

Later Friday night, the Dibble Demons proved to be too much for the Mustangs, defeating them 61-14. I’ll not go into a blow by blow except to say the hardworking home boys played them a good game before our quarterback got injured and went out. Then the Demons went to work on us, taking no prisoners leaving town with Allen holding a 2-1 season so far. High school football is a lot of fun for the community as well as the participants and I appreciate the efforts by our coaches and players help our kids compete. Hang in there, Mustangs.

A few of us were able to “sneak” a peek into the new gym Friday after the parade. The 1,200 seat gymnasium was very impressive. Over the coming years will see it serving thousands of locals in basketball, graduations and other local events. The single fold down seats will for sure be welcomed by the fans and especially the older fans. But basketball will be here soon and you can see for yourself. In fact, I hear the school will try to have an open house so we can see this and the other new classrooms built over the summer for our kids. I appreciate the board of education and school administration providing our community with quality and adequate buildings to educate our offspring in. Even more, I appreciate the quality of teachers we attract to Allen Schools. Thanks to all for their hard work.

Just another word about hard work. First thing I noticed about Allen when I moved here back in the 1960’s was that Allen was a working town. It still is. Every morning hundreds in and around town get up and go to work every morning. Sure, Allen is a good place to retire and we have many retirees living here but keeping Allen cleaned up, maintaining its schools and parks helps keep Allen a good place to live.

I walked into the Allen Food Center last week and noted Eric Pierce really had the place lit up. Yep, LED lighting really gave the place a bright new look. Also noticed former Allen student Leon Moore climbing up high wiring up some new cooler boxes. They too looked nice and add another dimension to our local Food market. Thanks, Eric, for all you do for our community and making sure we have an up to date market to do our shopping in.

I hope all of you have a good week and are able to attend our school’s sporting events as well as make it to Church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

waynebullard@sbcglobal.net