The good, the bad, and the okie...

[cecelia]

Besides the roads, I have noticed there is a lot of people my age that are sitting around "hanging out" either working odd jobs or living at their parents while going out to the bars every weekend.

I think this is on target. This is what I was doing before I left Tulsa, and this is what my younger relatives are doing now.

And I remember very clearly how difficult it was to break out of that because of an intense focus on celebrity. And I remember feeling as if the world had opened up to me when I broke out of it. But I had to leave Tulsa to get exposure to things like higher education as a viable choice, accomplishment beyond the stylish as significant, etc.

I also believe this is one of the reasons there is such a split between the haves and have-nots. Not sure how to exlain it, but it's as if many of the things (attitudes, accomplishments, careers) which are the backbone of the middle class are lacking here. Instead, I remember (and see continuing to this day) an intense focus on celebrity and a fierce pride in good ole boyness. And it's not that's there's necessarily anything wrong with good ole boyness - but there are other ways to lead your life, but the culture of Tulsa doesn't make it very easy to go those routes.

[TheArtist]

quote:Originally posted by cecelia

Besides the roads, I have noticed there is a lot of people my age that are sitting around "hanging out" either working odd jobs or living at their parents while going out to the bars every weekend.

I think this is on target. This is what I was doing before I left Tulsa, and this is what my younger relatives are doing now.

And I remember very clearly how difficult it was to break out of that because of an intense focus on celebrity. And I remember feeling as if the world had opened up to me when I broke out of it. But I had to leave Tulsa to get exposure to things like higher education as a viable choice, accomplishment beyond the stylish as significant, etc.

I also believe this is one of the reasons there is such a split between the haves and have-nots. Not sure how to exlain it, but it's as if many of the things (attitudes, accomplishments, careers) which are the backbone of the middle class are lacking here. Instead, I remember (and see continuing to this day) an intense focus on celebrity and a fierce pride in good ole boyness. And it's not that's there's necessarily anything wrong with good ole boyness - but there are other ways to lead your life, but the culture of Tulsa doesn't make it very easy to go those routes.

Still have no idea what your talking about with this "focus on celebrity" thing? I have never heard of it, nor experienced it my whole life here. Perhaps its something you ran into with your circle of friends and are projecting onto everyone else?

Is what your talking about like what people often say of Dallas and how people there focus a lot on money, want to be around people who have money, flaunt it, be with the "in" crowd, etc.? That could be said of a lot of places for that matter. There is always a crowd like that to some extent or another.