Quote:
Originally Posted by Brasidas
As a teenager, I moved from a mid-size city to a rural Oklahoma town, Actually it wasn't even the town, it was within the town school district.
I'd visited SoCal every summer ever since I was 12 though, and would continue to until I joined the military.
In small OK communities, you will be viewed as outsiders initially. I was, because everybody in my HS class knew each other as kids in elementary school almost. Exceptions were close school aged relatives (cousins, aunts, uncles) that had moved from local communities.
That image also persists in the community at large for some years. However, if you have children and they attend school, being from a state like California can be a net good. They will likely have an easy time making new friends due to interest in their state of origin. They'll be interesting.
The best way to allay this effect, is to do your best to just be "one of the boys" and "one of the girls". Attend the local highschool football games, cheer like crazy and just see the small town atmosphere for what it is. Always remember small towns in Oklahoma will always be a little clannish and small minded. Gossip will fly and is a very important social medium in these towns. Reputation is very important. Religion is a key foundation of the society. I don't believe in it much myself, and never did. I was largely an outcast however, and I didn't mind too much as I left for the military for two weeks after my HS graduation.
As for the other posts I've read in this thread. A couple things people should be aware of.
Lakes are dirtier than the sea water you are used to because the garbage that gets dumped in the ocean disperses quite a bit more before it comes back to shore, if it ever does. The lakes in Oklahoma are usually dammed rivers, and the rivers are collectors of trash that then get brought into the lakes. That's not an absolute of course, there are rednecks who litter like there is no tomorrow as if they have no care about the impact they are having, but then again, they're rednecks after all.
Also the amount of litter is usually from interstate travellers in my experience. This is compounded in the flatter part of the state where the trash blows around for weeks depending on the prevalent direction.
I know people in California, or just on either coast are big believers in recycling, green living, and sustainable lifestyle propoganda. There isn't one program of recycling on record that has shown it has saved more energy than it has consumed. The same goes with almost all sustainable living measures. Exceptions would be in modern solar cells which give a decent lifetime yield on investment and septic tanks. My friendly advice is if you want to be more accepted and neighborly in Oklahoma than in California I wouldn't be inclined to look down on locals because of their inclinations to avoid social fads like recycling.
The reason I post this, is because I recently became an expatriate Okie. I intend to move back someday in the not too far future, and I don't want my state embroiled in a social war with overly conservative curmudgeons trying to protect the old ways, and out of state people who fell in love with Oklahoma who move in and try and make it a slightly better version of California.
To the thread initiator, $2500 a month shouldn't be a problem for the near term, but since so many SoCal people are moving to the less populated states like Oklahoma, this is about to change IMO. If you are truly living on a fixed income, be prepared to do some work to make ends meet at some point.
Number one thing about Oklahoma I miss besides my family, is the spring storms and tornadoes.
My little brother is trapped in SoCal, and he wants to return here as well. Problem is he married a Los Angelina and she loves SoCal (which he and I both loathe).
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After living in SoCal for over 30 years, I have to disagree with you on a couple of things.
(1) Other then the "man made" mountain lakes in SoCal, many of the "gound" lake are contaminated and closed to swimming and fishing. The most obviuos one to me was down by Temecula called "Lake Skinner". the name fits it because just looking at the lake it looked there was a thin skin covering the water. There are many more like that.
Also, much of the drinking water is contaminated with "perculate" which comes from several things, one thing is "Jet and Airplane fuel". Along side of the RR track close to where I lived there was a pipe line carrying jet fuel to Norton Air Force Base and other AFB's in SoCal.
In "89" just behind my place was a train derailment and when they where cleaning up the wreck they punctures the pipeline and cause an explosion, ( this was national news and was on "Discovery",
"Disaster on Duffy St."). After that they couldn't stop it from leaking.
Further east of me, in WWI there use to be an Army Camp called "Camp Ono". After the war a huge crater was dug and all of the army's equipment including thousands of barrel of oil was pushed into this crater and buried. This caused an oil plume that has contaminated drinking water and lakes as well.
Trash, have you actually seen the streets and back roads, fields and freeways in SoCal? People dump trash, furniture, stripped cars and old appliances anywhere and everywhere possible and don't hide it.
I'm sorry, but compared to Ca...Ok. is clean. I'm not saying that your wrong about the discriptions, only the comparison.
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01-06-2008, 02:51 PM
Well, I live in Oklahoma,
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