Where I Come From

Where I Come From...this is the question or statement from RHOK this week and I gladly love to share as I am very proud of where I grew up, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma!  According to Wikipedia the name Broken Arrow, comes from an old Creek community in Alabama.[4] When they moved to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, they started a new community named after the original settlement in Alabama. The town's Creek name was Rekackv (pronounced thlee-Kawtch-kuh), meaning broken arrow.  The city boasts the famous  Rooster Days and the Miss Chick Contest of which I spent many a Friday and Saturday's walking up and down Main street hoping to see a guy who would like me (my main mission in life then.)  According to the 2008 census BA had approximately 93,000 people and as of now are closer to 100,000 and is the largest surburb of Tulsa.  I always new that Tulsa and Broken Arrow would someday merge into one and that has happened.  My little hometown was quaint and quiet when I was a girl.  My Daddy graduated from BA High in 1955 and I in 1974 as have my nieces and many cousins.  We, my families are truly long time citizens of that town.  Alas, though, when I married I became a non-citizen, for 34 years now.

My little hometown was safe for my brother, sis and I to ride our bikes all over the place and walk everywhere.  We played softball in our large backyard and every kid in the neighborhood would come over to be a part of the teams with the sweet gum tree as first base, the maple as second and the elm as third.  I never wore shoes, except in our front yard which was a mecca for broken bottles as the teenagers would drag main and toss their bottles, beer or pop.  I soon became on of those teens but never, never threw trash out a window, still don't.  My granddaddy had the Purina Feed store in town and when he closed that down sold used cars and eventually real estate.  My other grandfather made his money in the machine shop biz, my father too.  After that he had a black angus cattle ranch in Coweta, just outside of BA. 

I guess you would classify me as a city girl, within the standards of that small town attitude.  I lived right on Main Street as my father still does.  When I go to the class reunions most of the kids (kids...that's funny I still think of them that way), talk about the parties and happenings that I never had a part of and most of them were country kids.  They will ask if I remember the party at so-and-so's out on County Line Road and I look wide-eyed and shake my head no.  I really had not much concept of the "outside" world except for the heart of Broken Arrow.  I wasn't a country girl but The Hubby considers me sort of one because he grew up in the "Big City" of Tulsa.  It's just all a bit strange really.  We didn't even go to Tulsa but a couple of times a year, mainly to Sears for our school clothes and a winter coat or to Southland or Southroads Mall for a special time and lunch at Big Mikes or Borden's Cafeteria.  When I married I was terrifed of the big city of Tulsa as I didn't venture too far from my stomping grounds. 

Movies for me were to go to the 51 Drive-In on 71st (the old Highway 51).  I think I only went to an indoor theatre not more than 10 times in my youth.  We always had family nights at the drive-in.  It was great fun to play at the playground and then lay on a blanket and watch the big screen under the stars and slap mosquitos.  My father worked there when he was in high school. 

Broken Arrow, my hometown is nothing like when I grew up.  There are buildings, traffic lights where there were none and traffic, traffic, traffic.  More housing additions that I could imagine where there used to be horse and cattle pastures.  I used to go "parking" alongside those roads where there could be a Quik-Trip or Walgreens store.  It is not the small town where I grew up and I truly miss it.