In honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to make a list of things unique to Tulsa that I feel thankful for. Not a "Chamber of Commerce" sort of list...but a list of all the little things that make me happy to live in Tulsa. Please help me add to this list, b/c I know I'm not capturing even a fraction of the singularly terrific things to be thankful for in Tulsa.
Mulligatawny and/or Tortilla soup at Impressions
The Thomas Moran paintings at Gilcrease
The Gargoyles on the Philtower
The Sausage Cheeseburger at Ron's
Metro Diner Shakes (while they last)
Steve's Sundries & Books
Swinney's Hardware Store
April in Tulsa (when the entire city is blossoming)
October in Tulsa (when the sweet gum trees compete with the sugar maples)
Everyone who plants flowers and trees
People who get out and walk
Anyone who plays music outdoors
Sledding at Harwelden
The river trails (for walking and biking and daydreaming)
The Warsteiner Dunkle (my favorite beer) at McNellies
The Badwich at Elmers
The owl I sometimes see in Maple Ridge
Every mockingbird in town
The foxes and beavers that hang out by the river
Imperial Rolls at Binh Le's and/or Ri Le's
Architectural detail on old buildings
The Circle Cinema
Martinis at Eight One Eight
Chicken Tawook at Halim and Mimi's
Art Deco Architecture (all over town, from Rogers High School to Phoenix Dry Cleaners)
Horse shows every weekend at the fairgrounds
Zingo
The River's Edge on gorgeous nights
Chicken Saagwala at India Palace
The Downtown Tunnel System (on rainy days)
Fireworks by the river on the Fourth of July
All the funky folks who live in Brookside
Everyone who has ever taken a chance on downtown, Brady, Blue Dome, the Pearl District, South Boston, Cherry St, 11th Street, etc, etc, etc
Mark Bruner and Shelby Eicher
Rebecca Ungerman
Reservoir Hill
A kick donkey Mayor
The BTW marching band
Ribs at the Knotty Pine
KWGS (Tulsa's NPR affiliate)
Woodward Park/Rose Garden/Linneas Garden
Chandler Park
Plays at Heller Theatre
All the kind, smart, funny, thoughtful, interesting folks in town
Add to that the architecture of TU,
Quick Trip (hey, you've got to admit that they're nice to have),
All the marching band competitions,
the statues along Riverside,
Philbrook and its gardens
Cascia Hall
Utica Square
Woodward Park's Azaleas
iidentity in Brookside
The Pie Hole on 15th St.
Having the possibility of 4 distinct seasons...in just one day.
Thunderstorms
Sunrises and sunsets
Sunsets at a TU Football Game
Tabouli's and Billy's in downtown
Lou's Deli in downtown
...
I would like to make a subtraction:
-"A kick donkey Mayor"
Why? You liked Bill LaFortune better?
You can have him.
Philbrook
quote:
Originally posted by rwarn17588
Why? You liked Bill LaFortune better?
You can have him.
I'd take netiher. "Krazy" Kathy will end up being no better than Misfortune. Tulsa needs to go to city manager government and let the mayor be a figurehead. Krazy Kathy hasnt been around enough here lately to even call herself a mayor. Too busy hobnobbing in New York with the gun control lobby. Then she has the nerve to come back here and announce a crackdown at 71st/memorial. Not on murders and rapists, but holiday shoppers! ****ing grumble.
Take it to another thread, youse guys...everything doesn't have to degrade into talking about politicians.
I think Eisenhower International School is unique to Tulsa. It is a public school that is half french and half spanish.
I also like the 320 south Boston building (NBT) is very one of a kind. I don't know of any other buildings with a dirigible landing pad built in.
You mentioned the Moran paintings at Gilcrease, but I would also add the entire collection. I love taking the kids or visitors there. They always have some sort of deep reflective experience looking at all the western art.
My last thing unique to Tulsa on my list is the Golden Driller. I have always wanted to build a big broom for him to hold to kickoff a citywide spring cleaning of streets and parks.
quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael
My last thing unique to Tulsa on my list is the Golden Driller. I have always wanted to build a big broom for him to hold to kickoff a citywide spring cleaning of streets and parks.
You HAVE to do that!!! If KMOD can put a t-shirt on him, why not?
Obscenely ostentatious Christmas light displays—no other city tops Tulsa when it comes to lights. To heck with junior's college fund, we have to pay January's electric bill.
Red Dirt Rangers
Reasor's at 21st & Yale, and Petty's when I can afford it. Most cities no longer have decent locally owner grocery stores.
Every young person in Tulsa who knows he or she can make a difference.
Anyone who has ever selfishly tried to make a difference—from Cary Dickerson to my next door neighbor who spent all morning trying to track down the owner of a lost item.
Water in the Arkansas River—Yea!!!—now please wash away that smell.
Every person who has left Tulsa, only to come back—we knew what we were missing.
Everyone who has had a new idea, and the guts to make it come to fruition—LaDonna's Fancy Foods, Shades of Brown, Kokoa, etc... Everyone who takes risks.
Fall.
Cherry Street Farmer's Market, and all the wonderful local producers whom I am missing right now.
Ferrel's bread.
People who reminisce about Tulsa, and the things we have lost.
People who recycle--my grandmother, who recycled bread twisties & saran wrap, those who recylcle old buildings, and everyone in between.
Halim and Mimi's
Stonehorse Cafe
Bodeans
Thai Siam
Fuji
BeLe
El Rio Verde
Wilson's
Ron's
Big Al's
La Roma
all the hard working locals!
Happy Thanksgiving....eat it!
quote:
People who recycle--my grandmother, who recycled bread twisties & saran wrap, those who recylcle old buildings, and everyone in between.
Bless them, everyone!
quote:
Originally posted by pmcalk
Reasor's at 21st & Yale, and Petty's when I can afford it. Most cities no longer have decent locally owner grocery stores.
Pettys is a joke.
Go to Central Market in Dallas or Houston ... or Whole Foods in Houston or Austin ... or Trader Joes in Phoenix or LA and you will see what a joke it is.
Am thankfull for:
The New Hong Kong on 11th
(also all the happier ho's on 11th)
A completely deserted DT on Thanksgiving Day so I can slowly putt around with my cat on the gas tank. (he gets nerveous in even lite traffic)
The perfect weather day for napping on the roof after stuffing my face.
And that a certain dickbump, with a grudge against Petty's, no longer lives in Tulsa.
Yeah, jdb
quote:
Originally posted by tulitlikeitis
quote:
Originally posted by pmcalk
Reasor's at 21st & Yale, and Petty's when I can afford it. Most cities no longer have decent locally owner grocery stores.
Pettys is a joke.
Go to Central Market in Dallas or Houston ... or Whole Foods in Houston or Austin ... or Trader Joes in Phoenix or LA and you will see what a joke it is.
Want these chains here? Call your state senators and representatives and tell them to quit being beholden to the Liquor Wholesalers and retailers! Change our laws!
quote:
Originally posted by tulitlikeitis
quote:
Originally posted by pmcalk
Reasor's at 21st & Yale, and Petty's when I can afford it. Most cities no longer have decent locally owner grocery stores.
Pettys is a joke.
Go to Central Market in Dallas or Houston ... or Whole Foods in Houston or Austin ... or Trader Joes in Phoenix or LA and you will see what a joke it is.
You kinda missed the point, didn't you? Are you really that dense, or do you just like plugging Texas, whether its on topic or not? I was talking about
locally owned grocery stores. You listed chains. If you are into whatever is the latest trendy mass marketed chain, Texas definitely is the place for you.
By the way, I never cared for Whole Foods. They bought out Fresh Fields--a great locally owned, health food store in Virginia. Quality went way down hill after they took over.
I forgot to mention Nam-Hai and Bodean's fish market (in addition to their restaurant), and White River.
Right now, I mainly am just thankful I have 3 more days to recuperate from Thanksgiving.
It's Friday. We were going to have turkey yesterday, but for some reason we simply could not find that turkey. [8D]
(http://geocities.com/tulsadavid2006/turkeyshade.jpg)
quote:
Originally posted by jdb
Am thankfull for:
The New Hong Kong on 11th
(also all the happier ho's on 11th)
A completely deserted DT on Thanksgiving Day so I can slowly putt around with my cat on the gas tank. (he gets nerveous in even lite traffic)
The perfect weather day for napping on the roof after stuffing my face.
And that a certain dickbump, with a grudge against Petty's, no longer lives in Tulsa.
Yeah, jdb
Priceless...
Mayor Kathy! [:)]
quote:
Originally posted by Cubs
I would like to make a subtraction:
-"A kick donkey Mayor"
quote:
Originally posted by tulitlikeitis
Pettys is a joke.
Go to Central Market in Dallas or Houston ... or Whole Foods in Houston or Austin ... or Trader Joes in Phoenix or LA and you will see what a joke it is.
Leave it to the village trolls to try to hijack what started out to be a nice thread. What a coupla losers you two are.
quote:
Originally posted by Cubs
I would like to make a subtraction:
-"A kick donkey Mayor"
Hey, we could have Richard "I'll tear up the airport because I can" Daly...
quote:
Originally posted by PonderInc
The owl I sometimes see in Maple Ridge
Wonder if it's the same owl(s) that come through our neighborhood southeast of Monte Casino.
You can usually hear them, but I rarely see them except in sihlouette at night when they fly over. They come to hunt mice and rats, but when the neighbors have light shining up in the trees they cant and move on.[V] Quite a wingspan on these guys when they come to look you over.
Adding to the list:
Cains Ballroom
The Old Lady on Brady
Those who help direct holliday traffic
The zoo next to the international airport
The yellow
900' Jesus X-ing road caution signs that someone put up on Lewis near ORU a while back.
quote:
Originally posted by patric
Cains Ballroom
Now THAT takes me back! [^]
quote:
Originally posted by pmcalk
QuoteOriginally posted by tulitlikeitis
QuoteOriginally posted by pmcalk
You kinda missed the point, didn\'t you? Are you really that dense, or do you just like plugging Texas, whether its on topic or not? I was talking about locally owned grocery stores. You listed chains. If you are into whatever is the latest trendy mass marketed chain, Texas definitely is the place for you.
Local, schmocal ... I did not miss the point at all. What we are talking about here is great food not whether it is locally owned. Pettys only seems OK because the rest of the Tulsa food scene is so bad by comparison.
Ask someone who has lived in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Scottsdale or LA what they think of Trader Joes and Central Market vs Pettys. It is like comparing something to nothing.
Usual situation ... defending a second rate product in Tulsa just because it is local. This one will not wash.
quote:
Originally posted by patric
quote:
Originally posted by PonderInc
The owl I sometimes see in Maple Ridge
The zoo next to the international airport
International airport ... international flights to where?
quote:
Originally posted by tulitlikeitis
quote:
Originally posted by pmcalk
QuoteOriginally posted by tulitlikeitis
QuoteOriginally posted by pmcalk
You kinda missed the point, didn\'t you? Are you really that dense, or do you just like plugging Texas, whether its on topic or not? I was talking about locally owned grocery stores. You listed chains. If you are into whatever is the latest trendy mass marketed chain, Texas definitely is the place for you.
Local, schmocal ... I did not miss the point at all. What we are talking about here is great food not whether it is locally owned. Pettys only seems OK because the rest of the Tulsa food scene is so bad by comparison.
Ask someone who has lived in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Scottsdale or LA what they think of Trader Joes and Central Market vs Pettys. It is like comparing something to nothing.
Usual situation ... defending a second rate product in Tulsa just because it is local. This one will not wash.
Hmmm, guess the whole "buy local, buy fresh" campaign has passed you over, Davas. Some of us like to look at the big picture. Do Super-Walmarts impress you as well?
I have lived in Dallas, as well as New York, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and Tulsa. Dallas, by far, was the absolute worst city I have ever spent any time in. Big box chain stores are about the best thing it's got going for it.
I have done quite a bit of cooking in my time, and have spent much time in grocery stores. Balducci's is much better than Whole Foods, but neither beat the wonderful small stores you find in Greenwich Village--local fishmongers, bakers, cheese merchants, etc.... Still, in all my years of cooking in Tulsa, I have never been unable to find an ingredient, save fresh truffles, which I don't really like anyway.
My house. I am thankful that it is here and not anywhere in Texas. [:D]
quote:
Originally posted by tulitlikeitis
International airport ... international flights to where?
...mustn't feed the trolls... mustn't feed the trolls... but the cheese looks so good... and I like cheese! [:D]
"There's been a little problem in the cockpit, and I was . . ."
"The cockpit--what is it?"
"It's the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that's not important right now." Yeah, I always wondered why we still call it
Tulsa International Airport... and wonder why OKC is home of the
Will Rogers World Airport?... and while we're at it, why do we call it the
World Series?
And I love Trader Joe's... shopped at stores in Brookline, MA and Chicago. But TJ's is a discount chain... owned by... drumroll please...
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_17/b3880010.htm
quote:
Aldi now shows signs of stepping up the pace of its expansion on Wal-Mart's turf. Aldi opened its first U.S. store in Iowa in 1976 and has sales of $4.8 billion in North America, according to M+M. And Trader Joe's Co., a specialty grocer owned by a family trust that Aldi co-founder Theo Albrecht created for his sons, has become the hottest thing in U.S. retailing by extending the Aldi concept to upscale products like wine and cashew butter.
I think Trader Joe's could do very, very well in Tulsa... disappointed there are such massive aisles for 3.2 beer at Reasor's yet bottles of wine must be purchased at a liquor store. Also shopped alot at Aldi's... Aldi and Trader Joe's are very similar... very few name brands and TJ's is great for those of us who sometimes need to satisfy champaigne tastes on a beer budget...
Petty's goes back decades... nice to hear it's still in business. Also, good to see Reasor's. Funny that back when I was a kid, Reasor's was perceived as country-bumpkin and rural while McCartney's was the upscale supermarket. Come to think of it,
upscale supermarket probably qualifies as an oxymoron these days. The two big local grocers in Chicago, Jewel and Dominic's haven't been locally owned in years (bought out by Albertson's and Safeway, respectively).
Just moved to Tulsa end of October.
Thankful for...
1. Affordable housing...
2. Having this new thing in my kitchen... it has plenty of room to store dishes and then there's even a place to put in soap... and when you close the door really tight, there's this knob you can turn and it starts washing your dishes..................................................................... fascinating.
3. The minor leak in the shower and problem with the toilet running for 5 mins after every flush was fixed. I got a handwritten note from the guy doing maintenance personally apologizing that he'd been so busy and for how long it took him to fix the problem-- he listed exactly what he did and what parts had been replaced. Completely contrasted my multiple calls to my apt. landlord 2 years ago in Illinois begging him to have somebody fix my radiator-heat in the middle of winter forcing me to buy space heaters to compensate... no apologies, and when the landlord (after over a week) came into my apt. and said "wow, it really IS cold in here" I wanted to friggin' deck him...
4. Had an electrical problem that was draining my car battery. My twenty-something neighbor not only tried to help me jumpstart the car, but after the battery wouldn't charge, he called family/friends to tell them the year/make/model of my car to get advise on what the problem was... even offered to drive me to get a battery if that would fix the problem....
So, in the immortal words of The Who, "The (Tulsa) kids are alright."
I've lived in a lotta different places in my travels in the military and otherwise and I can say that Tulsa is a nice place to live. Anyone who can't find good food in Tulsa is either too stupid to find it or has never lived here. There's a lot of tradition here and the people are good people. You won't find that local snobbery toward newcomers that you sometimes find elsewhere. (I've never seen a bumper sticker that says "Native Oklahoman" and, as far as I can tell, even "yankees" are welcome to move here.) But the bottom line is that anywhere you live is no more and no less than what you make it.
I'm thankful for all the folks on this forum who took the time to make their own positive contributions to this thread.
I feel sort of sorry for the curmudgeons, who only know how to bite and stab...but that's their problem, not mine. (Note to the grumpy folks: When I started this thread, I was feeling sort of down and cranky. After thinking about things that make me happy and appreciative, my mood changed completely. Funny how that works.)
Cheers to all! And thanks!
Brian Parton
Pat Cook/Electric Rag Band
Cazs
Empire Bar (don't go there much anymore...but oh the memories)
I'm a runner...and it's a blessing to live in Tulsa. Amazing trails...great support...races almost every weekend (at least in the warm season)...and a fantastic new marathon. Congrats to those involved with the Route 66 Marathon.
Riverside Drive in the Fall.
Speaking of memories ... Jim Sweeney