[TimC2462]

Howdy folks. I've been lurking here the past several weeks, browsing through the Oklahoma forum. So far, I like what I'm hearing about Oklahoma; affordable cost of living, friendly state, and low unemployment.

A little background about myself. I'm a 27 year old male who have always lived in California. I was born and raised in Monterey, California for 21 years before relocating to Bakersfield, California back in 2001. I'm currently pursuing my undergraduate studies in Business Administration with a concentration on Marketing at Cal State Bakersfield, hoping to obtain my degree next year! Aside from studying, I'm also general manager for a franchise hotel.

My plan for the next two years is to move out of California due to high cost of living, and settle in a state where it is great to start a career and a family. So far, Oklahoma seems like the best possible match, but it's too early to tell.

I'm looking forward to learning more about Oklahoma.

Tim C.

[colleeng47]

Welcome to the forum. You'll get a lot of good info from the folks here.

[mkfarnam]

Welcome to the OK forum!

I lived in SoCal from 1973 to 2007. The cost of lived got so high I closed my shop and moved to OK.
The cost of living in OK is less than 1/2 of what it is in CA. Housing is even lower than that in some parts.

[Jammie]

Welcome to the forum, Tim. From everything I've read, Cali isn't the desirable place to live that it was years ago. You just may be searching in the right place if you're looking at Ok.

[mrs_moby73]

Hi TimC,
We live just about an hour up the road from you. If you like the people in Bakersfield better than those up in Monterey, then you will be even more pleased with Oklahomans. I am from Oklahoma originally, so I can honestly say the people in the central valley are *almost* as nice as those in Oklahoma, not quite but almost.

While the cost of living is cheaper in Oklahoma, it seems salaries are also "cheaper". For some people it's kind of a wash--get paid less to work, but pay less to live. You will just have to cruch the numbers yourself and see if it will work for you.

[Cali_Okie_Girl]

welcome to the forum!! you will get alot good info here!

colleen your quote under your name thing is from back to the future right!?!?!??!!

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by Cali_Okie_Girl

welcome to the forum!! you will get alot good info here!

colleen your quote under your name thing is from back to the future right!?!?!??!!

Yes, it is. I always loved that line. Kind of says a lot about life.

[TimC2462]

Thanks to all for the welcome. I am looking forward to chatting with folks to learn more about Oklahoma.

Mrs Moby, I definitely prefer the Bakersfield life to Monterey. While it was a huge change, things are quieter here for the most part and the weather isn't that bad (except for the summer heat). Life is nice here, but I am looking for a completely new life and I'm leaning towards Oklahoma at the moment. Low cost of living, friendly community, low unemployment, and religion are the main factors for me.

Thanks!

Tim C.

[Cali_Okie_Girl]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

Yes, it is. I always loved that line. Kind of says a lot about life.

so true!! and its like the BEST movie EVER!!! haha

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by TimC2462

Thanks to all for the welcome. I am looking forward to chatting with folks to learn more about Oklahoma.


Thanks!

Tim C.

Possibly the biggest downside to life in Oklahoma is the bad weather and how extreme it can get. The tornado scares, such as when a tornado warning is issued for your county creates stress. Thank God, almost all the time a tornado never passes through but until the storm itself passes over you never know until then.

There has been drought and lots of brush fires one year and next year the whole year is very rainy with lots of flash flooding. For all of last year much of central and eastern Oklahoma got over 60 inches of rain for all time records.

The windy periods, most likely in the spring, where the winds blow like crazy night and day for up to a week are unpleasant, too. And the hail storms are awful. Here, we had several hail storms a couple months ago. One of them came in the middle of the night and pounded the ground with pea sized to quarter sized hail for 20 minutes straight. At least, it wasn't real heavy since the ground didn't look like snow after it let up.

However, at the end of that unbelievably solid week of high winds a couple of shingles blew off my roof, possibly indicating damage from the previous hail storms. A roofer is supposed to come by to see if he thinks my roof needs all new shingles. They were put on just 4 years ago. He said he has already re-shingled two roofs on my street, due to hail damage.