When the first Rudy’s Market, on the north side of 5 S. Main Street, burned down in 1941, Tom Bullen of Independence Township was there.
The building was occupied by Walter’s Dry Goods at the time. The flames spared the brick building, but left a blank wall facing Washington Street, said the retired accountant and lawyer, and 1953 graduate of Clarkston High School.
Now owned by Jim Sherman Sr., retired publisher of The Clarkston News, and home to the community newsapaper, Bullen said he is inclined to be more patient about its outcome than others, having ‘gazed at it these 67 years.? Reflecting that sentiment he writes:
‘Ode To A Mural’
How to magnify a wall so blank?
While bearing impertinence, impatience so rank.
Enduring small brushes for an expanse so great,
With rickety scaffolding and funding so slight.
The Sistine Chapel was not done in a day,
Michelangelo’s inspiration ignoring delay,
The art of Van Gogh never quite understood,
Even by harpies or other dark sisterhood.
So be patient art lovers and others of cheer,
While a mural’s completion may be far from near,
There’s fun in the waiting, the struggle, the pain,
The squabble by rabble for us to entertain.
? Thomas K. Bullen