Over five years ago, when we first drove through 30 miles of cotton and wheat fields on our way out to the western prairie to check out our new small town, I wondered where in the world we were going. We drove pretty far out in the middle of nowhere, when all of a sudden we came upon this quaint little southwestern town that looked like it was straight out of the movies. Later, when the movie Cars came out, we thought maybe they had fashioned Radiator Springs after it. If you haven’t seen Cars, go watch it, and you’ll see how we live–almost.
There’s not much to do here. The small movie theater only gets low-end movies, the restaurants are mostly family-owned joints, and the shopping is, well, nonexistent. We do have a bowling alley, racing arena, and a bingo hall, but you can imagine the excitement that brings. Most of the town’s activities basically center around the family; little league sports, dance and gymnastics, and high school football games are what fill most people’s evenings and weekends. If you want to do anything else, you pretty much have to leave town.
When we go to a medical specialist, we have to drive anywhere between one to two and half hours to get there. We do that a lot, as you might imagine. It makes a simple checkup a whole day affair.
When we want to go shopping for office or arts and crafts supplies, we drive an hour and cross our fingers they’ll have what we need. Sometimes, they do, but yesterday we had to settle for less.
When it’s time to buy clothes for the kids, we have no choice but to do it online and return the stuff that doesn’t fit, or haul them both two and half hours away, where they are already exhausted and cranky before the shopping begins. It’s not a nice situation.
Most of the time that we have to make a day trip to do one of the aforementioned things, we have to scour the house looking for stuff that needs to be returned while we’re there, because we always end up with something that doesn’t work out, and it’s too far to drive just for a return. Then it stresses us out on the trip, because we have to work in that return on the other side of town before or after the appointment, and still leave in time to pick up a child back in town.
My opinion of Oklahoma can easily be skewed by the hardship imposed by living in a small, dusty, very remote town. But despite the inadequecies of living this far away from the rest of civilization, not to mention family, I really do love it here. You know why? It draws my focus to the stuff in life that really matters. God. My family. Friends. Church. I have more time for enjoying home life, since there’s no where to go and nothing to do. I have always loved being at home. Now that I have two small children, I love being at home even more. And the town I live in seems to celebrate that.
People here still have family ideals. They treasure the moments spent together with family and community. When we have big festivals and parades, the whole town shows up for the festivities. When someone is sick and needs help caring for their family or paying their bills, the town surrounds them and provides food, money, and help. When the kids have a big tournament of some sort, every sign in town wishes them luck. We’re a close-knit community that loves to support each other and journey through life together.
My favorite things to do here are the simple things I get to do all the time–dropping the kids off at school (I get my social fix for the day in the preschool drive-thru); making a deposit at the bank (those gals are so sweet); going to the doctor (I can even call him at home if I need to); taking the kids in to the pharmacy to pick out candy while I pick up prescriptions and chat about our current ailments; visiting with the neighbors while the kids ride their bikes in the cul-de-sac. These seem like simple things, but they are so much fun when surrounded by people you know at every turn. We may be far away from our families out here, but somehow the town seems to surround us to be our family far from home.
If you want to have stars and lights, high-end shopping and grandiose entertainment, this probably isn’t the place for you. But if you’re like me, and you love the simple things in life, come on out for a visit. You might just want to stay.
