Is it True that Tulsa OK. is Poor and Backward (Tahlequah: houses, schools)

[Honeybee]

I was told this by someone else on a diff. forum I checked out by I might add a very Rude Man ! He told me they lived in Tulsa for 8 mo. and HATED IT! so bad that is Backward and Poor and that it all gets to you after awhile Then he said why do you think the houses are so cheap there because they have more people moving out! then in! Please tell me is this true . Thanks Honeybee~~~~~~~~

[Synopsis]

I wouldn't think Tulsa is any more poor and backward than any other city. Of course, any area has it's share of poor and as for backward, those kinds of people are everywhere too. The only way to find out for sure is to check it out yourself Honeybee. I've been ALL OVER the world, and have found Tulsa to be a very progressive city with great people. There are always a few sour apples out there who won't like a certain area and it sounds like you hit upon one of them, or they may have hit upon you. Have you gone to the TulsaNow forum and sought any answers?

[Honeybee]

Yes that is where I was told that .I got that link from a post here Tulsanow. so I went there and this rude man made in fun of me because I was from Ca. wanting to move to Tulsa .He told me to move to AK. where all the other Ca,people were moving to he said there are more illegals there and I would feel right at home. Then he made in fun of me because of my spelling words and told if my Hubby had the same IQ we would fit right in in OK. and how OK. was a joke and he hated it there he told me he lived there 8mo. and left to Houston TX. and I had to me out of my mind to want to live there .Can you imagine this Man talking to me like this .I was shocked because no one from OK. has acted like that to me .Then One of the other forum memebrs told me he has been posting under sevral diff. names for awhile and he hates Tulsa and left but he stays on the forum he may be here to for all I know .He is he is very Rude I am not use to even getting on a forum so I guess this is how it is there are nice people willing to help and the ugly people that are mean and rude to you . Anyway Thank you I will listen to you since you have traveled all over and you are not Rude :O) Geeeze I am to old for this kind of nonsence!!! I am 44 and Grandma I only wanted to meet some nice people and find out about Tulsa OK. that's all .

[Jammie]

Honeybee, I'm not from Tulsa, but went there this autumn. It's a very nice, neat, friendly city. I know exactly who you're talking about from that forum. He is rude to everyone and that's how his new I.D. is always discovered. He gets booted out of the forum and a few weeks later gets back in under a new name. He's from Texas and constantly bashes OK. He also sends people private messages and tells them to stay away from Tulsa and come to Texas. He's just one of those oddballs so ignore him as best you can. He really does hit below the belt though. He's SO rude.

[Synopsis]

Honeybee, I now realize who it is you are talking about. I haven't been that active on the TulsaNow forum for over a year, but there was this guy that was well-known on the forum even then. As Jammie said, he hangs around on the forum under a lot of different guises, and goes on and on about how Tulsa, even all of Oklahoma are so backward. I'm a product of Oklahoma, Oklahoma schools, and what I consider to be a fine Oklahoma upraising by a father and mother that scraped out a living during the great depression. I don't consider myself backward, nor am I an exception to the rule, and certainly no more intelligent than the average Oklahoman. Under scrutiny his real reasons for not liking Oklahoma are generally related to money and material matters. Apparently this person doesn't think Oklahoma provided him enough opportunity during his brief stay there.

This person currently lives in Texas, the state in which I live, but claims to have lived in Tulsa for a few months or a year before he had to get out because of this proclaimed "backwardness." If I recall, whenever he was reproached with statistics to illustrate his claims were lies, he could only respond with more venom and attacks and other statistics of his own choosing.

If he is sending you hate mail and attacking you publicly, while many of the good folks from Tulsa you say are supportive, who would you believe? A negative, apparently hateful troll that only sees the bad side of things or those that would like to help and welcome you with open arms? If you allow someone like this to influence your heart, he has achieved his goal. You should judge the people of Tulsa and Oklahoma by what you've seen and heard; from the people you meet and from your interactions with them, and not from what this person wants you to believe.

As for me, I will gladly move back to Oklahoma one day and look forward to that day with great zeal. I am biased because I was born and raised there, but I've been all over and it truly has some of the nicest, warmest, most respectful people you'll ever meet. The term "giving someone the clothes off their back" seems to genuinely mean something in Oklahoma. A good example of their (our) warmness is when driving the rurual roads of Oklahoma you'll often have complete strangers wave at you as they pass going the opposite direction. No, it's not the middle finger as you'll get in other places, it's just an acknowledgement that they recognize you as a fellow traveler and are wishing you well. Most Oklahomans are just hard-working, honest folks that want to live their lives with ethics and values, while respecting others in the process. It's one of the least "racial" states you'll ever run across, probably because so many Oklahomans went to school with and have had at one time or another a very good friend of American Indian descent. They tend to judge people on the character of their heart rather than the clothes they wear, the car that they drive, or the color of their skin.

Anyway, I've gone on for awhile. I truly wish you and yours the best of luck, and hope that wherever you end up it is a special place that makes you happy.

[Honeybee]

Yes Jammie , That is what he did how did you know .He sent me a private e-mail asking me if i was in- sane for wanting to move there and how it was a joke and I should move out to Dallas TX. I wrote he back telling him How I thought we would love it there and how Rude I thought he was to me. I ask him if he lived in Tulsa OK. and hated it to much then why was he on that forum to give people from Ca, a hard time like me . He has never responded back yet . Well it least now I know I am not the only person he is doing this to . Thank you Jammie:O) Honeybee~~~~~~~~~

[Honeybee]

Thank You Synopsis :O) I'm touched by your kindness (HUGS) I will not entertrain that troll I will not except his e-mails or even go there .I love OK it felt warm and like HOME to me and I have lived in Ca, my whole life was born here .OK. is special that is all I can say I felt nothing but Good Vibes when I was there the people were some of the kindess people I encountered there .I am not use to getting on forums :O) so I had a very Rude awaking on TulsaNow. but all the others on that forum were kind and one young man was very nice and e-mailed with tons of pics he had taken of OK. areas so I could see what is there :O) Thank you for your response and NO I am not going to listen to the negtive GARAGE MOUTH! TROLL he is very pathectic .I am a Grown Woman with Children and Grandchildren who has exp. some stuff in life and me and my Hubby know exactly what we want and so I am ok . Just wasn't ready for the Rude comments this Man dished out . I will dismiss him and all his comments . Again thank you for sharing with me about your up bringing there and how you feel about OK. Honeybee~~~~~~~~

[Synopsis]

Good for you; don't let one person's opinion sway your experience and beliefs in what you feel. If negativity were the bulk of your experience I would say that going to Tulsa would be the wrong idea. If I were to return there and encounter rudeness and negativity everywhere I would say something about it and leave as well. But, in my experience, that hasn't been the case. Be advised, you will occasionally encounter a person here and there that are rude, but that happens everywhere and you have to look at your total experience, and I think your experience will be a good one. Keep your chin up and take complete negativity like you got from that rude person in perspective, with a grain of salt. Best of luck and congratulations on making a life change that I believe will be for the best. Oklahoma and California have a lot of close ties because of the great depression and the swarms of people who left Oklahoma for better times in that era. Many, like my father and mother, went out to California and survived until they were able to return to Oklahoma, never looking back. California is a great place, but Oklahoma is home.

[Jammie]

Great post, Synopsis!

HoneyBee, I know he does that because I'm also a member in that forum. I don't post regularly or even go there too often, but I've encountered him every time I'm there. The last time I read there he had been booted 13 times and I'm sure that number has grown since then. He private messaged me about the same thing you just mentioned. He really had it in for me and a nice guy who lived in Texas and was waiting for his daughter to graduate so they could move to Tulsa. He makes fun of anyone who likes it there. He's just a jerk.

Tulsa is a very nice place and I agree with Synopsis about how genuinely friendly the people are there.

If you get the chance to go to Tulsa, be sure to go further east to Grove and to TAhlequah. We didn't make it to Tahlequah, but everyone raves about it. Grove is just such a cool place. We drove along the eastern border of OK and it is so pretty there. You can see part of the Quachita Forest and drive along the Ozarks. It's very pretty country. We wished we'd have had more time there, but we found so much to do in Tulsa that we stayed there longer then we had planned to. We really liked OK.

[Synopsis]

Thanks for the comment Jammie, and yours as well Honeybee. You know, the more I think about it I believe that people somehow equate a snobbish and rude attitude with education and intellect, while associating friendly, down home behavior with some sort of backwards mentality. The people of Oklahoma have often had judgement passed on them in this manner. As I have said, I have been around the world and lived in many states. Everywhere I went, as soon as I said I was from Oklahoma I generally got the same type of response; "Oh, you're from there." You can guess what followed, references to the dust bowl, "Okies" fleeing in droves, and country folk that didn't have an education nor the desire to do so. Steinbech didn't do the people from Oklahoma a favor in his book, however true it may have been at the time.
This, in my opinion, is the reason that this person probably didn't like Oklahoma and thought it was backward. In his own small mind, he saw friendly people that didn't judge others by material standards and felt, in his own small and selfish way, that he was superior. We all know that quite the opposite is true, it's the Honeybees and Jammies of this world that make it a better place.
Cheers