Wednesday, March 25, 2009

My love/hate relationship with this town-Part XI

Bethany is a strange place. Sometimes in the evening when Mark and I are out walking, it takes on a sweet glow, where all the houses are well painted, the yards are lovingly tended, the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

Then there are other times when it scares the crap out of me because of all the absentee landlords, the hand lettered signs tacked to telephone poles advertising pit bull pups for sale, and the random furniture and appliances gracing the curbless streets. I want to run screaming to the far northwest corner of Oklahoma City, or to north Edmond, where everything is new and shiny and, well, without character.

Because if Bethany has one thing, it's character. At least that's what people say about places and things that have seen a lot of life, are weathered and beat up from the experience, but still possessed of some beauty and worth.

A few fun facts about this town where I was born and to where I have returned (stats from www.epodunk.com):

  • The latitude of Bethany is 35.518N. The longitude is -97.631W.
  • Elevation is 1,309 feet.
  • The estimated population, in 2003, was 20,009.
  • Square miles: 5.21
  • During the heydays of Route 66, Bethany was known as the stretch where you couldn't buy gas or cigarettes on Sundays.

Do you feel enlightened? It was the excellent school system that led us to choose this corner of the city, and hopefully it will be that same school system that will sell our house some day when we are ready to move into a shinier, scrubbed-clean kind of neighborhood. But for now, we're loving the low-pressure, low-expectation feel of the place. There is something to be said, after all, about lowered expectations in life.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would totally tear down all the "pit bulls for sale" signs and not feel one ounce of guilt.

But that's just me. ;)

ReRe said...

but you guys have low sales tax -- or so the sign says!

Cari said...

Tootie-hadn't thought of that, but I think I will make the pit bull signs magically disappear.

ReRe-I think that's neighboring Warr Acres with the low sales tax signs, but I've noticed they've changed them lately, so maybe they don't have the lowest sales tax anymore. Hard to keep track!

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

Great post, Cari. Well said.