Small Town Life

There is a magical quality about my hometown that is hard to describe.  To an outsider it may seem just a sleepy college town with nothing particularly noteworthy about it.  After all, it does not have a mall, there is one bowling alley, and only one movie theater with subpar seating and surround sound to see the latest films.  It does not show the latest in fashion trends or have 5 star restaurants, but it has character and charm that cannot be found in a big city.

I think it is a lack of things to do there that made it such a special place to grow up.  I learned to appreciate everything that little town life had to offer.  I can’t tell you how many nights of my youth were spent in my grandmother’s yard with my brothers and cousins playing tag and hide-and-seek or trying to catch lightning bugs in the summer.  We would play until it got too dark and then retire into the house for delicious food and some TV.  Of course the candy dish was raided each time we went inside. 

Countless evenings were also spent walking around the neighborhood with my mother and brothers, down streets full of shady trees and colorful flowers, past parks and creeks that were always at a different water level, and often stopping to talk with someone we knew from around the neighborhood that happened to be out enjoying the evening as well.

Our university’s cross country course offered countless trails and hidden paths to play in at all times of the day and night.  It is a gem that few people know about or appreciate.  It is a place where nature abounds and you can go for peace and fresh air.  The fields are covered in wildflowers of all colors that dance and sway with the grass as the wind blows, and it being Oklahoma, they are always putting on a good show.  Birds and other critters chirp and chatter happily from unseen places off the side of the trail.  From time to time people can be seen out there hitting golf balls or flying their model airplanes.  It really is a marvelous place.   Even up into college I would take my books out there, sneak off the trail, and study hidden away by trees where I could focus and enjoy nature at the same time.

I really don’t think there is anything more wonderful than being out for a walk in a small town in the fall when the leaves begin to change and the smell of a woodsmoke fire fills the air. When you have nothing to do but enjoy your walk and look forward to a birthday dinner with family at the end of the day.   Nothing is better, unless, say, it is a spring day where the weather is nice and warm with a promise of an Oklahoma thunderstorm in the evening.  It might seem strange to an outsider, but I think most Oklahomans enjoy the excitement and energy of a spring storm.  We get a thrill of checking our intuition about the weather with the latest reports of the state famous meteorologists.

Downtown gives off a feeling of times gone by and lazy days spent out with family and friends.  Old downtowns like ours are a glimpse back to a different time in America. A time free of Wal Marts and chain restaurants. In our town you can still find the American Legion, an old barbershop, furniture stores, cafes, jewelry stores, thrift shops, and restaurants of all sorts.   I can spend hours just wandering the alleys of downtown and stopping in for a drink at the café where I almost always see someone I know.  I have wonderful memories of having a good drink or two at the pub with my brothers or friends, and then riding bikes around until dark without a care in the world.

The university has always been a very special place to me.  It is a timeless place where you can feel the years of accumulated knowledge and dreams in the trees, grass, and buildings.  I have grown up hearing the library’s bell ring daily, in a way acting as the soundtrack of my life.  I used to roam the campus as a child, fishing in the pond and feeding ducks that call it home.  I have never stopped appreciating the university and all that is has done for my family and I. 

I now live in a big city across the world from my hometown, but I often find myself still daydreaming about the walking the streets I used to roam and thinking back to simple nights spent with family and friends just enjoying each other’s company.  I don’t know where my fiancée and I will end up living after we get married, but I hope that at some point I can give her the chance to experience life outside of a big city, even if it just for a few years.  Big cities may offer more in the way of shopping and things to do, but I think that small towns can make us more appreciative for the small things in life.