[StillwaterTownie]

One way to deal with Wal-Mart being in town is to open a store that sells what Wal-Mart doesn't, such as used books. In Stillwater, I think the Wal-Marts only replace batteries in watches they sell, and that has helped a few small businesses that offer battery replacement for watches.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

One way to deal with Wal-Mart being in town is to open a store that sells what Wal-Mart doesn't, such as used books. In Stillwater, I think the Wal-Marts only replace batteries in watches they sell, and that has helped a few small businesses that offer battery replacement for watches.

That's long been true of used book stores. Even the chains offer mostly books published in the last year. Want to read the first of the series? They could order it for you, maybe. Out of print, your out of luck.

And you can't beat the atmosphere where people who like books and reading go, and the people who work there know what they sell. A friend of mine had a comics store, and he got lots of business from the closest competition. They had plastic over the books, and you couldn't look at one, and they didn't like you to 'loiter' and talk to friends (comics community tended to know each other) He had a copy of each for perusing. People who came to chat with others about comics stuck around for hours and encouraged others to come in. He sold more than the other store and was a 'friendly' place to go.

That is something a small business which serves a nitch can do that NO big store can come close to.

[Goodpasture]

Two things will always succeed in the shadow of a big box store:
1) Service: Try getting one of those clerks at Wal-mart to tell you how to fix that chain saw they sell.

2) Selection: Go to Wal-mart and try to get some orthopedic shoes sometime.

And Wal-mart is not always the lowest priced. I was hungry for some butternut squash a couple of weeks ago. Wal-mart was $1.19 a pound.......stopped off at Reasors and got better looking stuff for $.69 a pound. I never buy meat at Wal-mart.......I don't want to pay $9.97 a pound for 20% water/solution........(ask the meat manager what is in the solution sometime.....he won't know.)

[Oleg Bach]

If you can...walk away and be where you belong...at least you understand and are aware that your envrion was a hell...some don't and except it as normal..those are the lost souls..If you have the intelligence to realize that life was not life in that town - then you are capable of having a good life..those left behind are who they are and will die their without ever knowing what civilization is..what the beauty of nature is - what a gentle hand and touch is..hell does exist on earth ...and as Winston Churchill said and to quote "When you are walking through hell...keep moving" - in other words don't stop untill you are free and clear - besides...as they say "you can never go home again" - seeing it was not much of a home - you seem to now have a home - congrats...you made it out.

[Rubi3]

Originally Posted by chad.roper

A lot of little towns in Oklahoma are ultra redneck. I went to visit my grandparents in OKlahoma I flew to love field in Dallas from Houston (if I drive my supra or prelude through Calera the police will impound it, write me a ticket, and I will spend 3 days in the Bryan county jail). I was pulled over in Calera and 2 bubbas got out of the cop car. They insisted that I was a drug trafficker they brought a drug dog that did not find anything. One of the cops called me a "******* beaner drywalling gangbanger hood rat" I told him it won't hold up in court. He said "when you go to court, bring all your wit-ness-sesss" and he made this sweeping gesture at the cows on the side of the road. I got on my cellphone and called the highway patrol trooper that my grandmother knows that lives next door to her. The calera cop put handcuffs on me and said "we know you have stuff you look like one of them there they are uh, gang members" Then he started talking to the other cop and he said "I wonder if we can arrest him for being under the influence of something". I told him that its a wrongful arrest because I didn't do anything illegal. They called a tow truck to impound the rental car. The highway patrol got there before the tow truck and the calera cops took the handcuffs off me and started changing their story they said the stopped me because the rental car had a burned out headlight. The state trooper looked at the lights and none of them were burned out. Then one of the cops said "But he might be a gang member look how he dresses." The highway patrol said "you have do not have any legal reason to stop him, my authority supercedes city police" Then he said "you have exactly 30 seconds to get out of here and the state will hear about this". They got back in their cop cars and got the hell out of there. I remember reading a few weeks later that calera got in trouble for that and could not write any more tickets for the rest of the year. So I guess I got saved by the highway patrol. I have a feeling the Calera police are extremely corrupt they always pull over cars that just happen to always have 1 lb of marijuana in the trunk. It seems odd they always have the same amount in the same spot.

Many many small Texas towns are as ultra redneck as any small Oklahoma town, so the ratio of redneck to whatever else is a comparison is a moot point, imo. You say the Calera police ALWAYS pull over cars that just happen to always have 1 lb. of marijuana in the trunk. You can't possibly know that. You also can't possibly know they always have the same amount in the same spot. Total hogwash. For you to be so inaccurate in those statements cause whatever else you've written to be suspect as to believe-ability. People who call policemen, "Bubba," are likely to get what they ask for. Wouldn't be much out of your way to enter on I-35, if Calera is likely to nail you, or somewhere east.

[Rubi3]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Yeah, but the city data 2009 crime index for Cushing is only 228.3. This figure doesn't stick out much as Oklahoma towns go. It is only slightly above the figure for Stillwater. What's more crime in Cushing has had a tendency to go down since 2001. Maybe it can be said a lot of crime goes unreported in Cushing. But the meth problem in Cushing is worse than in Stillwater. In Cushing they're wanting the landlord to bear the expense for cleaning up a rental home that had a meth lab in it.

Look at Muskogee. It has a bad reputation for high crime and it is justified because the city data crime index for there is a high 575.7. The national average is 319.2.

One good thing about Muskogee's crime rate is it generally is limited to one area of town. Obviously, there are exceptions and crime can happen anywhere, but, when the address is given, it is usually within that area. I've lived here nearly 15 years and take the usual precautions I would take anywhere. Even in a quiet neighborhood in OKCity, I didn't want to be in the front yard at dusk and it's the same here. That's the time driveby shooting occur and who knows but, what some fool is shooting at anyone?

I've never been creeped out by a town, so, really not sure how it would feel. Sometimes a person creeps me out, but, not a town. I suppose it helps that I've not witnessed any horrors and didn't grow up abused, not that I thought it was so grand and wonderful. LOL My parents were way too strict.

Small town cops are often uneducated and not skilled, but, grew up in the town where they are employed. I was stopped once in OKCity and the policeman was cold as ice. I believe it all depends on the person, not the population of the town. Now highway patrolmen are dolls. I've been stopped a few times for the speeding I seem compelled to do and they never fail to be personality plus. I think most officers of the law respond to how the person in the car behaves.

[augiedogie]

Unfortunately, Rubi3, that isn't always the case. My son and his friend got pulled over on I-40 east of Amarillo, Tx. 2 college kids returning to OU from a ski trip. Nerdy clean cut types, an engineer and a computer programmer. They proceed to give them the third degree, separate the two to see if their stories match, then let them go. Why did they pull them over? 2 mph over the limit. AShhats.

[Rubi3]

Originally Posted by Prairieparson

Unfortunately, Rubi3, that isn't always the case. My son and his friend got pulled over on I-40 east of Amarillo, Tx. 2 college kids returning to OU from a ski trip. Nerdy clean cut types, an engineer and a computer programmer. They proceed to give them the third degree, separate the two to see if their stories match, then let them go. Why did they pull them over? 2 mph over the limit. AShhats.

Of course, there are exceptions, but, I'm reminded of a speeding ticket I received while traveling on I-35. The patrolman lowered the amount I was over the limit by 10 mph, rather than the correct 95, the speed he clocked. What do you think the likelihood the boys story would match the patrolmans version?

[bryan1987]

I lived in cushing Oklahoma for 3 years, I moved there from Vermont. And after having somebody try to break into my car twice, spotting Meth heads and other drug addicted people all over, or reading about people being murdered in this small town and bodies showing up in the main Parks artificial lake. Not to mention all the domestic violence and public drunkenness, which infests the town. Cushing does have a creepy aura about it, and I would not reccomend living there to anybody. I moved out of that town much quicker then I thought I would, and I am so glad I did. If I believed in the devil dwelling in one place, cushing would be that place, there is just something wrong with that town. Sorry for any bad spelling or sentence structure but I am on a crappy phone

[StillwaterTownie]

Well, you should have moved to Stillwater, instead of Cushing. I don't think it has to the same extent the unpleasant problems you describe, despite being a much bigger town. In Stillwater, it seems like it's been a long time since someone got killed at "Murder North." And unlike in Cushing, there doesn't seem to be much talk about making landlords bear the expense of cleaning up the mess meth labs leave behind.

That a town like Cushing so desperate for industry that it wanted to be a home for a new prison is a bit creepy to me. Even though they are unlikely to escape, why bring so many convicted criminals to town and the bad aura that comes with them? Prison jobs may not suit a lot of people. One of the Stillwater city council members worked for a while at the Cushing prison and later quit, deciding the job wasn't for him.