Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamTheArtist
Perhaps I am biased as a 4th generation Tulsan whose grandparents told stories of coming to Tulsa in a covered wagon, who has streets in nearby towns named after past relatives, who was told stories of "over there was the first this and that" "we used to do this and that and Tulsa used to be…" .
To be a "local" here I would say you should be at least be a second or third generation Tulsan. Part of that is history, or having lived through some of the things, and been handed down some stories, that has made the city what it is today. Your not a Tulsan unless you have felt the glory of an oil boom and the sting of a bust for instance. Though thats not something that will likely ever happen again, those repeated boom and bust cycles around oil deeply shaped our cities built character and the psyche of many who live here. You have to know something of what was "there before" what is there now, and "how things used to be". There are so many new people here who seem to know nothing about Tulsa and what Tulsa is. I often run into people who live mostly out in the suburban/mall type areas and think that is Tulsa, and have little knowledge about the core or even some of the Treasures of historic Tulsa. Ran into someone who had lived here most of their lives the other day who didn't even know what Villa Philbrook was or where it was or it's history and the history of it's part of town. I was shocked, part of me still thinks they were actually pulling my leg a bit. Definitely not a local.
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yeah sounds a little like metro st louis. theres areas where being a transplant is much easier and you dont have to worry about fitting in with the "locals." I was born in St Louis County (and my family has been in the region since the 1850s at least) and have been (jokingly) considered an outsider in the City (although the City is much more accomodating to regional transplants). There are generations of suburbanites raised 40 miles west of the city that don't know the urban core and come in like tourists on the weekend. unlike some of the city-born guys, haha, i have sympathy for them and will make them pro-tip lists on bar napkins, etc.