[nevadamamabear1972]

Originally Posted by CaliGrown85

Thank you all for your responses. To give you a little more information we are young conservative family who does not look conservative. We really don't care about moving to a place where we'll find people like us because we have friends and family from all backgrounds, we just would like to find a place where people are welcoming and less "up-ity".

We are looking for a town that is more laid back. We like animals, fishing, hunting and being outdoors. We really like alot of the areas mentioned above, i.e. Piedmont, Guthrie, Arcadia, Kingfisher, Cresent, Luther, Cashion. The area between Edmond and Guthrie is beautiful, all the way from Portland to the 35. The issue I've been coming into lately though is that there aren't alot of rentals in these areas and we are not ready to buy because we are not set on a location.

Goodpasture, at this point we are looking for a rental on a few acres (or less if the area is rural) but in a town that has community events or at least an active community. It does not have to be in the OKC area as we are considering the entire state.
Regarding the "accepting" part, as stated above we have friends and family from all backgrounds. I have found this area to be very prejudging overall, for instance, homeowners do not associate with "renters" in my area. We are very private people and we stick to ourselves but there is a big difference between that and excluding someone just because they are not from where you're from or because you consider yourself to be higher in society. It's almost like they are so afraid that I'm going to bring some new "belief" or "idea" into their community that they don't even get the chance to find out that I actually have the same beliefs and values they do, except I'm about 10 years younger.

I really think this is a suburb thing though because we have visited so many smaller towns and we have a totally different experience. Thus the reason for ditching the suburbs

Your descriptions of your family sounds EXACTLY like ours, camping is the extent of our family vacations and we refer to our menagerie of animals as the Zoo. We are from the West Coast Cali born and raised (although I WON'T be leading with that when we move to OK) Been in Reno, NV the past 20 years and decided we need a change for our family, a smaller laid back place with good schools and nice kids.

After reading your description of Edmond it scares me to death to be a renter until we decide on which area to buy a house. Based solely on internet searches, school info and what the good folks here are saying, I'm in LOVE with Guthrie and also looking at Luther, Piedmont outskirts and anywhere south of Coyle, where we have family.
Hubby will be working at Will Rogers and we want to stay north of okc so I thought I'd drop you a little note and see what you could suggest since our situations seem pretty similar.

I hope you've found something that works well for your family and I look forward to hearing what advice you may have.

Sincerley,
Kristen

[nevadamamabear1972]

Originally Posted by CaliGrown85

Thank you all for your responses. To give you a little more information we are young conservative family who does not look conservative. We really don't care about moving to a place where we'll find people like us because we have friends and family from all backgrounds, we just would like to find a place where people are welcoming and less "up-ity".

We are looking for a town that is more laid back. We like animals, fishing, hunting and being outdoors. We really like alot of the areas mentioned above, i.e. Piedmont, Guthrie, Arcadia, Kingfisher, Cresent, Luther, Cashion. The area between Edmond and Guthrie is beautiful, all the way from Portland to the 35. The issue I've been coming into lately though is that there aren't alot of rentals in these areas and we are not ready to buy because we are not set on a location.

Goodpasture, at this point we are looking for a rental on a few acres (or less if the area is rural) but in a town that has community events or at least an active community. It does not have to be in the OKC area as we are considering the entire state.
Regarding the "accepting" part, as stated above we have friends and family from all backgrounds. I have found this area to be very prejudging overall, for instance, homeowners do not associate with "renters" in my area. We are very private people and we stick to ourselves but there is a big difference between that and excluding someone just because they are not from where you're from or because you consider yourself to be higher in society. It's almost like they are so afraid that I'm going to bring some new "belief" or "idea" into their community that they don't even get the chance to find out that I actually have the same beliefs and values they do, except I'm about 10 years younger.

I really think this is a suburb thing though because we have visited so many smaller towns and we have a totally different experience. Thus the reason for ditching the suburbs

Your descriptions of your family sounds EXACTLY like ours, camping is the extent of our family vacations and we refer to our menagerie of animals as the Zoo. We are from the West Coast Cali born and raised (although I WON'T be leading with that when we move to OK) Been in Reno, NV the past 20 years and decided we need a change for our family, a smaller laid back place with good schools and nice kids.

After reading your description of Edmond it scares me to death to be a renter until we decide on which area to buy a house. Based solely on internet searches, school info and what the good folks here are saying, I'm in LOVE with Guthrie and also looking at Luther, Piedmont outskirts and anywhere south of Coyle, where we have family.
Hubby will be working at Will Rogers and we want to stay north of okc so I thought I'd drop you a little note and see what you could suggest since our situations seem pretty similar.

I hope you've found something that works well for your family and I look forward to hearing what advice you may have.

Sincerley,
Kristen

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by nevadamamabear1972

Your descriptions of your family sounds EXACTLY like ours, camping is the extent of our family vacations and we refer to our menagerie of animals as the Zoo. We are from the West Coast Cali born and raised (although I WON'T be leading with that when we move to OK) Been in Reno, NV the past 20 years and decided we need a change for our family, a smaller laid back place with good schools and nice kids.

After reading your description of Edmond it scares me to death to be a renter until we decide on which area to buy a house. Based solely on internet searches, school info and what the good folks here are saying, I'm in LOVE with Guthrie and also looking at Luther, Piedmont outskirts and anywhere south of Coyle, where we have family.
Hubby will be working at Will Rogers and we want to stay north of okc so I thought I'd drop you a little note and see what you could suggest since our situations seem pretty similar.

I hope you've found something that works well for your family and I look forward to hearing what advice you may have.

Sincerley,
Kristen

I would stay away from Luther.....it is somewhat clannish and not a whole lot going at all. Also, for whatever reason the town leadership has not done a great job in keeping the town very clean. I'm over that way for work often and other than a new highschool there is little to no upkeep of the town.

Guthrie would be a better option, especially for transplants.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Bass&Catfish2008

I would stay away from Luther.....it is somewhat clannish and not a whole lot going at all. Also, for whatever reason the town leadership has not done a great job in keeping the town very clean. I'm over that way for work often and other than a new highschool there is little to no upkeep of the town.

Guthrie would be a better option, especially for transplants.

Luther is a strange place. Reminds me of SE Oklahoma. And if I were going to work at Will Rogers I don't know if I'd want to be that far away.

Anywhere north of OKC is a pretty good drive to Will Rogers.

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

Luther is a strange place. Reminds me of SE Oklahoma. And if I were going to work at Will Rogers I don't know if I'd want to be that far away.

Anywhere north of OKC is a pretty good drive to Will Rogers.

Absolutely. In some ways it feels even more frozen in time than Hugo, Antlers, Idabel, etc.

Makes me think of the ol' Stephen King movie...."Children of the Corn." Maybe it was filmed in Luther, OK.

[justinjj1]

Tahlequah is not what I think of when I think of a small Oklahoma farming town. Try Frederick, Waurika, or Temple.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by justinjj1

Tahlequah is not what I think of when I think of a small Oklahoma farming town. Try Frederick, Waurika, or Temple.

It's gets so hot and dry in Frederick while so remote from OKC, I wouldn't want to try to live there.

[linicx]

The trouble is in the Midwest (13 states including the Dakotas) most farming towns are predominately white. In NE Oklahoma which is in the foothills of the Ozark Mountain range you are hard pressed to find easy land to manage due to the cliffs, steep hills and heavily forested areas. It is not impossible to find 20 or 40 acres, but it is a challenge to find it. When I lived there no one groused about transplants as they were welcomed.

Originally Posted by CaliGrown85

After relocating to Edmond from the West Coast a little over 2 years ago, my family and I have decided that its just not the place for us as our permanent home.

I am looking for suggestions of farm towns in Oklahoma with a strong community. Nonjudgemental and welcoming to "transplants" and diversity would be nice also, as this is not something we have experienced here with the community or the school district.