I was out mowing my front yard a few years back when my neighbor, the late David Jones, pulled his mower over to where I was. He did this sometimes when he wanted to talk. So, I pulled up and we began to chat about this and that. He glanced over at our neighbor’s yard that was in real need of a cleanup and mowing. “You know, he went on, this person probably can’t take care of her lawn and I think we ought to offer to help her out,” David said, “I will mow half that lawn if you would take over the other half.” I replied, “what about the limbs and trash strung around over there?” Well, David replied, “we would just have to clean it up a bit, but it wouldn’t be much trouble.” “Why don’t you go over there and ask her.”

So, I went. The lady wasn’t at all in favor of any sort of mowing help or lawn cleaning or anything else. “I don’t want my grass cut. My boy is allergic to grass.” Totally defeated, I shared the news with David. He was perplexed and after a long period of silence he gazed over at the property and said: “I just don’t understand why people don’t want to take care of what they got.” I quietly agreed with my friend David and restarted my mower.

Fast forward to now: I was reading The Daily Oklahoman (Saturday, April 20) and read an article by Steve Lackmeyer, a columnist who wrote a story that reminded me of David’s observation, “People need to take care of what they got.” Lackmeyer writes of Oklahoma City’s success in building up his town -- Reminding us of Bricktown and how the Thunder and many other attractions have come to town, The building of the “First American’s Museum” is nearby and he related so many other points of interest in his Downtown.

“Now we again have the Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs,” Lackmeyer said. This of course, will bring thousands of fans to OKC, and Steve Lackmeyer remembers remarks some of his friends made a few years ago when the Thunder first made the playoffs. Charles Barkley, a TNT sports commentator speaking about player Durant being in Oklahoma City said he (Durant) had chickens and cows in his yard and really painted an ugly picture of our rural-like capitol city. Just last week Lackmeyer took note of a Wall Street Journalist making fun of a plan to build a 134-story building in Oklahoma City. The journalist poked fun at the general idea and of the building’s observation platform on top: “What are they going to see up there, lots of prairie?” He thought the idea of such tall buildings in backward OKC stupid.

But Lackmeyer gets back to reality for Oklahoma City, admitting it is the nation’s 20th largest city and growing fast and is losing its old identity. But, he goes on, the city still has a lot of poorly maintained streets and a trashy look, brought about by — what else — trash littering the streets. Derelict and abandoned buildings in prominent view around OKC’s “precious” Scissortail Park, irks Steve. Steve goes on to provide simple remedies for all this but who wants to pick up trash?

Returning to our own little paradise, a place called Allen, our problems too, are numerous but much smaller compared to Oklahoma City. Allen’s downtown business area is changed forever and it’s hard to accept but our city fathers are doing the best they can. Our recently installed “gas” streetlights look pretty sharp and with the best-looking gymnasium in this part of Oklahoma anchoring down the East End of the business district, it looks pretty good.

Our parks are clean and are inviting to the public with big plans for their future. Broadway Boulevard remains a rough and tough problem but again, there are grand plans for it too. Broadway was built in 1910 and in fixing it’s pothole marked surface we have to preserve some history there. Stay tuned.

And yes, Pat and I still pick up trash where we find it and any of you are welcome to join in. Have a good week and go to church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail. com