Several years ago I researched my picture sales and found that 89 % were shot within a 5-mile radius of my home. Today while walking to the bus stop which is .3 of a mile from my front door,well within that radius, a construction project to repair a condo building from last winter's storm, there was a young man sporting a replica of that rockin' Mullet cut that topped the list of "most popular' hair styles of 2021. I walked over to him and said to him that he had just caused me to have flashbacks of my younger days. I told him that it really looked good and that he should continue to wear the do!
After leaving him and his co-workers, I made my way to the bus station to go to the main post office in Garland. Not thinking that today was MLK Day and federal offices being closed, I soon found out when I hit the parking lot and saw a single car. Right away it hit me that the Post Office was closed because of MLK Day. It's not that I totally forgot about MLK Day. In my own defense, I had been in the house buttoned up for the past two days. I recalled seeing all the parades on the news and those that were cancelled and even the exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Center. Created by an attorney/artist. He had created and collected images over the past 13 years. It was an amazing collection from what was seen on TV. His father was being interview by one of the local news channels. Then the standoff and hostage situation in nearby Colleyville,Texas, took the news cycle beyond the MLK Day cycle with it being declared an act of terror. So when I got the the bus this morning it just didn't occur to me about it being a legal holiday let alone that it was Dr. King's Day. I also have a family member who celebrates a birthday tomorrow and I was going to the post office to mail a gift to a long time friend of mine at the same time. The town square in downtown Garland is being redone. Since my surgeries, walking is the one thing that has helped me get back on my 'feet', pardon the pun. The last time I was at the downtown square was a few weeks ago and the fence was going up around the square. Today, as I came to the point were I could see the downtown square, I was stunned. All the beautiful trees had been bulldozed away and much of the area that had been upgraded was now rubble. My first thoughts were that those trees probably took a third of a life time to grow. Now, even if they do replant a tree or two, it will be another third of a life time just to get back to what was there. It just does not make sense in a time of climate change to bulldoze mature trees, period. These contractors today have no use for trees in the way of them making money. That's one of my pet peeves and I am not a so called "tree huger" by any stretch of the imagination but over the past twenty years of photographing the Metroplex and watching all the development explode, trees are the first thing to go any more. That isn't counting the 700 mature old growth trees lost at White Rock Lake from storms or the several hundred lost to the North Dallas tornado just a couple of years ago.
After the storm passed and I was able to get out (still driving then). I went back to the old neighborhood where my mom had lived and where my son KP has spent some time with her one summer before he passed. A flood of memories came back to me. The old neihgborhood was in shambles. Walking to the train station today, in downtown Garland, I made my way to the FedEx store at Forest and North Central Expressway. Finally shipping my package, I waited for the next bus to take me back to the train station to catch my bus home. All-in-all, making it home was about the same time I come in when the weather is good. As I walked past the construction site again, I spotted the young Mullet wearing man again. Not only did this mullet wearing young man bring back more memories of my own hairdos from a more youthful time, he also reminded me of my son, KP, who died unexpectedly at age 27. This young man, though he may not have know at the time how much he made me happy, I thank him more than he will ever know for brightening my day. Wear that Mullet proud young man. Wear it Proud!
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