[Jammie]

Thank you, Ponderosa, it sounds like you really like the Tahlequah area. Bet you'll relocate there some day???

We are so interested in Tulsa because it appears to have so much beauty, but the size really scares us. The largest city in our state has about 135,000 people so we aren't used to a huge population or the traffic it brings. Tahlequah sounds like it's the perfect size since it's the same size as the town we live in.

We love plush greenery and flowery parks, and the rolling hills will just add to it. We're seriously considering going with our alternative vacation rather then Tulsa itself. We're hoping to relocate to a warmer climate in the future and are beginning to think that we want a town with a population between 5,000 and 50,000. We just don't want to suffer from culture shock. Does anyone know if there are condos in Tahlequah or is it mainly houses and apartments? We'd be more interested in a town that size and a small condo. Also, what is the job situation like in Tahlequah? My husband would be semi-retired, but I'd need to work full time. Is there anything along the lines of the service industry there? (desk clerk, convenience store, etc) OR does the casino offer jobs? I can't seem to find much internet info about those things on the internet for the smaller towns in OK.

Also, one of the guys here lives in Ponca City. (Can't remember if it's Griff or Sooner) What is the countryside like around PC?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by Jammie

. Also, what is the job situation like in Tahlequah? My husband would be semi-retired, but I'd need to work full time. Is there anything along the lines of the service industry there? (desk clerk, convenience store, etc) OR does the casino offer jobs?

I get the paper from there - Tahlequah Daily Press. They have a website by the same name. It doesn't seem like there are a lot of jobs advertised - at least not compared to around here. The ones that are are the usual small town stuff - C-stores, truck drivers, construction workers and, of course, health workers. They do have some industry - American Woodmark that makes cabinets is located there, Dollar Car Rental reservation center is there and Greenleaf Nurseries - plants too. There's some touristy stuff but it's not Branson. Cherokee Nation has a lot of employees but has preference for Cherokee tribe members. The university is a big employer. Official unemployment rate is only 3-4%, though, so maybe there are jobs around. Muskogee is within commuting distance and looks like a much better potential job market.

[Mattie Jo]

Ponderosa, I started a letter to you and then it disappeared.

We are moving to Tahlequah November 15th. We just bought a house in the city limits on 1/2 acre.

I don't know why I like Tahlequah, but the minute we drove through town I felt at home and wanted to move there. I like the college there. I loved the country side, the rivers, etc. The town wasn't a tourist town that you drive into and say, "I can't wait to go shopping," but that is also a good part about it.

Racism, I didn't notice it. The Indians were very friendly, the one black family that we met at the motel were really nice and had white friends. His wife had lived there before, and he was from Stockton, CA. They found a home to rent within two weeks. In the south they may not have even found a motel room. There are 5 East Indian families in the area. I know they had a hard time around 9-11, but they seem to be okay there now. I loved the mixed races too.

Tenkiller is beautiful. We found a home in Tenkiller but decided due to our age that we wanted to live in town.

We came into East OK by way of 82 and drove into Vian and asked about a map in the local store. Two guys were buying something, you know, those redneck types? Ha. They were so friendly and funny. Said that we didn't need a map and laughed. Told us how to find a house in Vian that was for sale but telling us to turn at the blue tanks onto Moonshine Road, but we decided to check out other areas first. I would have loved to have told my friends that we lived on Chicken Creek Road or Moonshine.

The Realtors were wonderful as were the merchants. They tell you their life history in minutes. I have never met friendlier people in my life. We drove around the country looking for a house in the country, and people stopped to ask us if we were lost or needed help. One guy on a road paver stopped to talk to us for a while and then decided that he would fix the road the next day. An American Indian couple were at the motel, and so we got to know them. It was a relief to find that the Indians there were friendly and not on reservations. Those in NM that were clerks and even on reservations were not friendly, and so I was worried about this.

Religious fanatics. Maybe. No one preached to me but one guy who had been on drugs wanted to tell us how Christ saved him. Worred about this? Yes, since I am Buddhist. I went into the health food store, which in CA is a place where you find New Age groups as well as yoga and Buddhist groups. The woman said that there were no Buddhist groups in town, and the look on her face was one of horror. Now that is a big exaggeration, but I hope she has forgotten my face in a month. There is a Buddhist group at the Unitarian Church in town, and that is a relief. Will I tell people that I am Buddhist? No.
What will I say when they want me to go to their church? I don't know.

"Genuinely nice." That is an understatement. I have lived in CA most of my life, Texas 2 years, Florida 1 year, MS 2 years, and I have never met friendlier people. And if you were black in MS you had better go to Memphis or a big city to find a place to buy or rent.

I think you will be happy there.

Say, my husband brought a ball cap in Tahlequah at the store with the horse and I bought some thermos. And at the Indian museum I bought an Indian flute and hope to learn to play it. You will be glad that you live in Tenkiller and not next door to me.

[Jammie]

Jessaka, I've been waiting for your opinion about the area. I'm so glad you liked it there and are moving. We're leaving in one week so we'll hopefully love it there, too.

[Ponderosa]

Jessaka,
Your post was great! Your search caught my eye when I first started on the forum. I'm glad you found something that you like. You know, I had that same feeling as you did about the place when I first drove into town. Got a big smile on my face. I felt like Goldilocks. It seemed so "just right". I had looked at so many disappointments in the past and Tahlequah actually was way more than I had been expecting. And my experiences with everyone where the same as yours. I know history of a couple real estate agents and some construction guys too (LOL). The unguarded openness of people does amaze someone from the big city. I was working on plans for a garage on my property and one fellow I met insisted I go to his house to look at what he had done with his shop.

Anyway, best wishes to you and do keep posting your experiences for those of us who have to wait a little before we can make the jump.

[Mattie Jo]

Ponderosa,

When will you be moving to Tenkiller?

The woman at the bank where we opened an account told me the history of her daughter's life with her boyfriend. It was interesting. She said that some people look stange at her and others when they talk openingly or are friendly. Sometimes I felt that I wasn't friendly enough, and I have always been very friendly, well, become more so when I met my husband 17 years ago, who knows everyone in the town we once lived in.

Then another woman told me of her breakup with her husband, etc. Now I am not that open about my past and never plan to be. Years ago I was.

From Griffis' posts I expected Tahlequah to be a tourist town. I don't know what Griffis said to make me think this. Glad it isn't.

One thing for sure, I will not be lonely there.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by jessaka

Ponderosa,

When will you be moving to Tenkiller?

I don't know if I will ever get there. It's between 1 and 5 years until we both can retire depending on how much a hit we are willing to take. I have a young one at home too to think about. The thing that troubles me is that I may be in the same boat as many I see posting on the forum - running AWAY from something rather than TOWARD something. I think that is a recipe for just being disappointed and regretful in the new location. So we go around and around about it - turn the backyard into a resort, add a big deck to our house in the mountains - or just get the heck of here? For me it's the heat and humanity I am trying to escape. I came here after the Army as a college student in the 70's and it's about all I really know as an adult. Some of it is I am just afraid of what I don't know.

[Mattie Jo]

That was an interesting post Ponderosa.

I consider myself running away from traffic and not being able to afford a house in CA. I am thinking about what I am running towards, and that is a home and a garden that I have always dreamed about, actually, ever since living in a home in the country back in the mid-80s but just renting. I have dreamed of it. I have also always dreamed of a small town where you get to know a lot of people, and so always liked Andy Griffith of Mayberry and recently The Gilmore Girls who live in a small city or town.

I think that if a person finds regret in a new community, then it is within them. They will find regret anywhere, maybe. Actually, we lived in Fresno, CA and I hated it, so that wasn't really within me but in the crime rate of the area and the lack of beauty there. I recall when I moved away last time for N. CA we didn't get far because my husband's mother was ill and after 3 months of taking care of her we returned to San Diego area because I was homesick. Then my Buddhist teacher said, "Make the world your family, and you will never get homesick." I have thought about that a lot.

Even if I were rich I would not stay in CA. It is so congested. The moment we drove into the LA area the smog hit us, and my lungs began to hurt some. Then we get home and I notice the sky isn't really blue, it is always somewhat grey.

I noticed for the first time in my life how big the sky really was. We were 30 miles outside of Flaggstaff, AZ when I was just looking at the cloud formations, and then due to the area being flat I saw the big sky and was in awe. I won't have that in Tahlequah but that is okay. Then I joked to my husband that it really made me feel exposed, as if an alien space craft could find us and beam us up. Ha. He said that some people actually can't handle it.

My husband was a marine in 1969 and served in Vietnam. Then he went to college. I went to college in the 70s too.

You will escape the humanity of say, the over populated humanity that isn't in Cherokee CO, but you won't escape the heat.

I think we are all afraid of what we don't know.

[KellyD]

Well, I live in Tulsa now, but I grew up in Northern Minnesota on a farm, so it was a huge step for me to come down here. Tulsa is one of the nicest cities I've lived in. It's a mild population (less than 400,000) and very spread out in a basin area, surrounded by hills. Lots of trees here. Oklahoma City was the worst in my opinion. Just didn't suit me at all.

But yeah, the folks here don't know how to drive in snow and ice so it gets scary to be among them. Those of us who grew up in northern states have had lots and lots of practice. I know where I grew up, it was winter for at least 6 months, and not uncommon to hit 50 below zero ambient temperature. (Much much colder with wind chill.)

As a part-time photographer, I've been all over this state, and it has some very interesting features. The prettiest part by far are closest to Arkansas. I've been living here for over 20 years now and you do get acclimated. The severe weather still unsettles me as I've never encountered the types of angry weather they have here. Where I come from, all the weather is made somewhere else and came floating to us from the west, and could be predicted accurately a week in advance. Here, it's made literally on top of you and can turn ugly very quickly.

I don't fish down here and I used to fish a lot. Lakes in Minn. where I grew up are mostly crystal clear. Down here there like mud holes. Mostly from that nasty clay I suspect. Still though, it's not without it's charm.

[Jammie]

Hi Kelly, alright!! You're someone who I can ask comparisons of. Is the traffic in Tulsa worse then it is in the Twin Cities? How about compared to Sioux Falls? Did you suffer from culture shock when you moved down there? Are you glad you moved from up here? How do you compare their winter weather to ours? I realize that northern Minn. gets a bit cooler then it does in So. Dak., but what month up here could I compare their January to? Would it be our November? The people from down there seem to be very nice and friendly, at least on the internet. Do you see it that way in real life? We're leaving for Tulsa this weekend. It's a place I've always wanted to see. We won't be able to move for over a year, but we would like a milder climate then we have up here. By that, I'm referring to winter~the heat doesn't bother us.