Most places in the world you travel, despite its beauty, you know you have
checked it off your list and won't return. Oklahoma is not one of them. When
you drive into a town, you fill your truck at the station, you load yourself
with coffee at a nice coffee house, you stop and have lunch in eateries, use
the bathrooms at rest stops and get your kids ice cream at parlors like braums.
In Okhlahoma, each one of these mundane activities becomes an experience; a
treat. Why ? because the Okies are happy people. They all smile and actually
take an interest in you. They all ask simple friendly questions like how are
you enjoying the perfect weather? what are you planning to do today? Is there
any ways they can make your kids meal better for your tired children? They even
go out of the way to help you pick up that piece of trash you tossed and
missed, happily and then make a joke to start a conversation. The store helper at braums happily drop whatever she was doing
and start making some ice to sell you just because you need them for your
travel cooler. And did I tell you all of the restrooms in all the gas stations
we stopped were unbelievably clean. So what is it about Oklahoma that makes
people relaxed? Is it the breath taking rolling prairies? Or the long history
of ye old grounded agrarian mindset? Or perhaps the brutal and unpredictable
weather that can wipe out one's property even lives in a blink. It would take
me more than a visit to know. And more than a visit to what feels like an old
friend, it would be. From red dirt chronicles, I found this paragraph that best
describes the Oklahoma Culture :
“something any long time okie will tell you is simply irreplaceable. From the beautiful lakes and mountains of the east-southeast border, to the wide open prairies of the Black Mesa, Oklahoma’s beauty and the people who live here are truly something special. Attend pow-wows, watch races across the Salt Plains, attend professional sports, go to rodeos or experience the weather changing three times in the same day. These are just a few threads of the Oklahoma culture whose tapestry is as rich as the native grasses woven together with the crimson sunsets on our western horizon each night”.
“something any long time okie will tell you is simply irreplaceable. From the beautiful lakes and mountains of the east-southeast border, to the wide open prairies of the Black Mesa, Oklahoma’s beauty and the people who live here are truly something special. Attend pow-wows, watch races across the Salt Plains, attend professional sports, go to rodeos or experience the weather changing three times in the same day. These are just a few threads of the Oklahoma culture whose tapestry is as rich as the native grasses woven together with the crimson sunsets on our western horizon each night”.
"-so
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| All pictures courtesy of wikipedia |