Our Town: It Just Keeps Gettin' Better! - Time Out #256

As time rolls forward, life just keeps getting better, in this magical place we live called Our Town.

This spot was quite lovely, and the right spot in the summer of 1953, when your humble scribe moved here with my family from the populous northeast. Our Town has done nothing but improve its appeal 67 summers later. Today, I am going to list several notable changes/additions to our little secret in north central OK.

Transportation. This variable is easy. For starters, we have 4-lane roads leading into/out of our city. Believe me, it always hasn't been like this. I vividly remember when we had NO divided roads, and the ones we did have were narrow, without paved shoulders. The roads then also produced consistent bumpy rides!

Now, we only have to drive a brief 13 miles west, to hook up with the extensive interstate highway system, and possibly taking expansive I-35 south to Oklahoma City, or on to Dallas. Or, we may head to the northern edge of Our Town, and possibly take the fast Cimmarron Turnpike east to Tulsa, or on to St. Louis.

However, the greatest item in this category, in my humble opinion ,is our scheduled commercial American Airline (AA) service, begun in August, 2016. I again recall us having several commercial single air carriers over the past many years, but it seems like forever in the no-service time gap, before we had AA set up their operation at Stillwater Regional Airport. Any local air traveler now has 2 or 3 choices each day, to fly away to massive Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) Airport from Our Town, experiencing only about 40 actual minutes of jet aircraft flying time! From DFW, the final destination choices are almost limitless, via a plethora of other air carriers, in addition to AA. My bride, Lady Debbie, and I have utilized our local air service 14 times, and absolutely love it for the convenience, and almost no hassle factor.

Health Care. Here's an area that is also head and shoulders above where it was not long ago. Heck, I began my medical career in 1970, by working as the 3 pm-11 pm emergency room orderly in the former Our Town hospital. For those who wonder just where that structure was located, the answer is between West 8th & 9th Avenues, and between South Pine and Walnut Streets. It occupied a square city block, including the south side main entrance. So, not only do we enjoy two large health campuses currently (West 6th and West 12th Avenues), we also have an active medical staff of well over 100 providers, in almost every medical specialty. In addition, we have a modern out-patient surgery center on the far western edge of our city, 4 urgent/routine care clinics, several rehabilitation units (including two indoor therapy pools), and about a dozen pharmacies. Also, we have a strong dental community, with several dental specialties represented. We have truly evolved into the regional health care center for a large patient population in north central Oklahoma, and far beyond.

Shopping and Dining. Of course, when I was growing up in Our Town in the 1950's/60's, almost every organization associated with these two business types were so-called Mom & Pop operations. There were very few national, regional or "chain" types of local businesses. Today, we have many big players in both situations, retail shopping and restaurants. Yes, we still have some locally-owned enterprises, but our shoppers and eaters have many more choices in these areas, and almost every month, a new establishment opens its front door, attracting local customers.

This brief installment sounds like I am pitching Our Town as a spokesperson for our local Chamber of Commerce. The simple fact is, folks, this is MY HOME!!