Oklahoma

I’ve heard many people ask why anyone could ever stand to live in Oklahoma. Looking at the history of this great state of ours it isn’t hard to see why they could wonder. And sometimes when you’ve been face to face with some of the dangers that this state has presented its residents you begin to question it yourself. The road to where we are now hasn’t been an easy one, far from it. Looking back over the years of hardships that founded this state is humbling to say the very least.

How could anyone that faced the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl ever manage to stay and feel optimistic is almost beyond comprehension, but they did. There was just something in them that kept them going and kept them looking forward. And more recently with the devastating tornadoes that have ripped through our state you hear the wondering again…why stay? Yet stay they will. Already families are picking up the pieces and rebuilding, looking forward. Great fools someone called them. Perhaps. 

Perhaps we are all great fools for staying and believing in a state that could at any moment turn the tide back towards those harder times or be leveled again by fierce winds. But perhaps there is more to it than that. When you take that moment to stop and really look around you…that is when you no longer wonder. That moment is when it is easy to see why we stay, and why this state of ours has taken such a strong hold on our hearts. We are Okies, it is in our blood and we are proud.