I Happen To Like This One Horse Town...
This post is for you, Brian !
Some facts about my rural Oklahoma town. It was once, many years ago, a big booming oil town with 2 banks and a railroad. But that all is gone now. Just the old, falling down brick buildings with ghosts haunting them from the past are left. The railroad is now a dirt and grass covered walking path, the railroad ties long ago stolen. It is a quiet town. A town where not one person can remain anonymous.
My little community has:
NO STOPLIGHT
a US Post Office
a city hall/police cubicle for the town cop
a small volunteer fire department
4 churches (Im in the South, remember?)
1 gas station/mini grocery
2 parks
1 baseball field
a school: grades headstart-12th
1 bar
1 small cafe(the food is nasty & so is the sleazy owner, we all wonder how she stays in business)
1 roping arena with actual stands and lights
The poplulation, I think this is a high guess.....531
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 531 people, 221 households, and 150 families residing in the town.
There were 246 housing units.
The racial makeup of the town was 76.65% White, 0.00% African American, 14.69% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.56% from other races, and 8.10% from two or more races. 2.82% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 221 households out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.1% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the town the population was spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 105.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.0 males.
My husband is from this tiny town, all of his family lives here, or just a few miles from town, with the exception of his older sister who lives in Texas, did I mention most of his extended family lives in the area too? We send our oldest son to school to the next big town North of us, that town has a stoplight and excellent academic and sports programs, something I am sad to say our tiny town's school does not offer. Hubby graduated valedictorian from it too...
It is very normal to see my tiny town's citizens riding thier horses about, to the Post Office, cafe, bar, or just out 'cruising'. It is common for the average person to be wearing a pistol on thier hip or in a shoulder holster, it is legal and the Ole West attitude prevails here. Livestock rustlers can legally be hung by the person they stole from, this is still in the law books up at the Courthouse. For the most part, the people who live here are good people, our town cop looks out for the communities children-doesnt make trouble for anyone, takes care of things in general. My tiny town is not without the usual flavors...you know the town crazy(she really is a nice gal when she is on her schizophrenic meds), town drunks(a lot of them for only having 1 bar), town dopers(the usual losers scattered about), town whores(no explaination needed there!), town religious fanatics(with 4 churches what did you expect!?), town wannabe gangstas(these usually dont hang around too long - our town cop is about 70 years old and wears a cowboy hat, he has no mercy for those kinds)...Thankfully, these characters are all on a very small, easily, managed scale. The residents here might bicker amongst themselves, gossip, or nit-pick but look out if someone from OUTSIDE of my rural community should act badly upon one of us, we are known to circle our wagons and take care of our own.
I do not enjoy driving 30 minutes one way to Wal-Mart or fairly decent shopping, I have to drive 15 minutes one way to the only real grocer in my area, and even that small IGA leaves a lot to be desired. We just do a quite a bit of shopping online, the hottie UPS guy knows our road very well. I can live without high speed internet, I am used to this slower than molassas in January dial-up. I just bought a faster computer to make up for it! I cannot imagine raising my boys anywhere else other than this community that embraces them and looks out for thier safety.
Some facts about my rural Oklahoma town. It was once, many years ago, a big booming oil town with 2 banks and a railroad. But that all is gone now. Just the old, falling down brick buildings with ghosts haunting them from the past are left. The railroad is now a dirt and grass covered walking path, the railroad ties long ago stolen. It is a quiet town. A town where not one person can remain anonymous.
My little community has:
NO STOPLIGHT
a US Post Office
a city hall/police cubicle for the town cop
a small volunteer fire department
4 churches (Im in the South, remember?)
1 gas station/mini grocery
2 parks
1 baseball field
a school: grades headstart-12th
1 bar
1 small cafe(the food is nasty & so is the sleazy owner, we all wonder how she stays in business)
1 roping arena with actual stands and lights
The poplulation, I think this is a high guess.....531
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 531 people, 221 households, and 150 families residing in the town.
There were 246 housing units.
The racial makeup of the town was 76.65% White, 0.00% African American, 14.69% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.56% from other races, and 8.10% from two or more races. 2.82% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 221 households out of which 29.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.1% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.96.
In the town the population was spread out with 25.0% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 105.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.0 males.
My husband is from this tiny town, all of his family lives here, or just a few miles from town, with the exception of his older sister who lives in Texas, did I mention most of his extended family lives in the area too? We send our oldest son to school to the next big town North of us, that town has a stoplight and excellent academic and sports programs, something I am sad to say our tiny town's school does not offer. Hubby graduated valedictorian from it too...
It is very normal to see my tiny town's citizens riding thier horses about, to the Post Office, cafe, bar, or just out 'cruising'. It is common for the average person to be wearing a pistol on thier hip or in a shoulder holster, it is legal and the Ole West attitude prevails here. Livestock rustlers can legally be hung by the person they stole from, this is still in the law books up at the Courthouse. For the most part, the people who live here are good people, our town cop looks out for the communities children-doesnt make trouble for anyone, takes care of things in general. My tiny town is not without the usual flavors...you know the town crazy(she really is a nice gal when she is on her schizophrenic meds), town drunks(a lot of them for only having 1 bar), town dopers(the usual losers scattered about), town whores(no explaination needed there!), town religious fanatics(with 4 churches what did you expect!?), town wannabe gangstas(these usually dont hang around too long - our town cop is about 70 years old and wears a cowboy hat, he has no mercy for those kinds)...Thankfully, these characters are all on a very small, easily, managed scale. The residents here might bicker amongst themselves, gossip, or nit-pick but look out if someone from OUTSIDE of my rural community should act badly upon one of us, we are known to circle our wagons and take care of our own.
I do not enjoy driving 30 minutes one way to Wal-Mart or fairly decent shopping, I have to drive 15 minutes one way to the only real grocer in my area, and even that small IGA leaves a lot to be desired. We just do a quite a bit of shopping online, the hottie UPS guy knows our road very well. I can live without high speed internet, I am used to this slower than molassas in January dial-up. I just bought a faster computer to make up for it! I cannot imagine raising my boys anywhere else other than this community that embraces them and looks out for thier safety.
posted by BarnGoddess_01 at 6/13/2006
8 Comments:
bri-awesome! I am on my way over to check it out!
I know you luv me, I am only second to your lovely diane, right! hugs!!
ya cowgirl-only one bar but I am GOOD friends w/ the bootlegger, met him thru a deputy friend...he gives me a deal and the bar here, well...its an anything goes kinda place, LOTS of fun when it gets jumping. Our town cop goes home at dark, usually.
you could ride your horse in about a 100mi radius here and people wouldnt think anything of it, you could probly even ride your horse in downtown Tulsa and people wouldnt think anything of it, REALLY!
butterflychic-you might! email me and Ill tell ya if your close, but its a secret........
Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting. How did you find me?
Reading your profile, I found one more thing we have in common besides living in MI. I love Steve Earle too!
naive-I followed you from 'keep yer hat on jenny'. What is it about summer that takes us back so many years?
Even my 12 yo rocks to Steve Earle! My 2 yo is just now learing to appreciate good music.
I miss MI in the summer, Okla is hotter than hades without the fresh clear water of MI..but Ill be visitng soon!
You two have another thing in common, you both write really well.
I'm a small town girl myself, although I have never lived in one quite as small as yours. A month ago we moved to a suburb of Ft. Worth and it's so BUSY. Luckily we live sort of out in the country so it's not so bad as long as I stay at home.
Hey, I love Steve Earle too!
unackowledgedgenius-THNX for the compliment!I like the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, people are nice there, kinda like Okla. Steve Earle rocks, even the horses like him.
kari-those are the BEST kinds of towns......when I have to drive anywhere other than my little neck of the woods, I cant wait to get back to my no-stoplight town.
I know what you mean about:
"I'd feel like I couldn't breath."
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