Walnut Street will always have a special place in my heart. This is the street I grew up on. It was a great neighborhood, a great mix of young families and retired couples.
I remember one guy down the street was in the home remodeling business, another guy worked at the ice cream plant, the retired guy down the street would occasionally give my brother and me a $2 bill if he saw us on the sidewalk.
One of the best things about growing up on Walnut Street was there were kids up and down the street and we were mostly boys and we loved riding our bikes, playing ball and just hanging out.
The nearest park was a few blocks away, but we had this field across the street from where I lived. I guess the field used to be an old industrial site. Nevertheless, the field became the home to many pickup baseball and football games.
The only problem with the field is that no one was responsible for it. Sure, there may have been some large corporation far away that owned the property, but they sure didn't keep it up. If that field was going to be used for anything purposeful (like playing baseball and football!) it was up to the neighborhood to have that happen.
And that's exactly what happened.
As a kid my job was to mow the lawn every week. And when I was done mowing the lawn, many times I would haul the 26" Murray push mower across the street and mow the field. Often friends would come over and take over pushing the mower. During football season, we would pool our money together and buy field chalk and try to make a gridiron we could play on (our field was only 50 yards long and our lines were never straight).
That is the way we did things on South Walnut Street; we worked together and we played together. Little did I know that those values of hard work, responsibility and togetherness were being instilled in me. Looking back, it's easy to see how that came together.
It's those values of hard work, responsibility and togetherness that I am bringing to this campaign. Our residents, our neighborhoods and our community have always been up to the task. I am up to the task of being our community's next mayor. Will you join me in this campa
