1. Your undying love for Mexican food.
Sounds about right, doesn’t it?
From Elote to El Rio Verde to Elote, you’ll find very few Tulsans that will put up a fuss about a good Mexican meal.
Tulsans also know the difference between “Tex Mex” and “Mexican”. Ricardo’s is not the same style as Calaveras.
And — for what it’s worth — if there’s one Mexican fast food joint that Tulsans can eat at multiple days in a row, it’s Taco Bueno.
2. You never miss MayFest — rain or shine.
Drawing tens of thousands of visitors every spring, you can bet your last dollar that at least one day of Mayfest will be a rainy one.
That doesn’t matter to many Tulsans, though — they’ll still be there.
3. You think the Tulsa State Fair should be a state recognized holiday.
Okay, that might be a little bit of a stretch, but if you’ve ever been to the Tulsa State Fair, you know how big of a deal it is around town.
21st and Yale becomes a warzone, the parking lots become battlefields, yet we wouldn’t change a thing about it.
4. You know how to dress for a 35 degree fluctuation in temperature.
During spring and fall, I can guarantee you’ll see big swings in temperature from morning to night, but a savvy Tulsan knows how to dress for either extreme.
It’s not unusual for a 30 degree day to turn into a 73 degree afternoon in early spring in Tulsa, so it doesn’t take long for locals to figure out how to dress to accommodate both ends of the day’s temperature range.
5. You know Cry Baby Hill is the highlight of the local cycling phenomenon known as Tulsa Tough.
You don’t want to miss the races on Main or in the Blue Dome District, but everyone knows that Crybaby Hill is the highlight of Tulsa’s premier cycling event.
13th and Jackson becomes a singular pulsating party (perhaps you already made arrangements for the following morning’s recovery) and professional and amateur cyclists come from all over the US to ride this increasingly famous race.
6. Names like “The Golden Driller”, “The Blue Dome”, and “The Praying Hands” mean something to you.
Our famous buildings and landmarks are unmistakeable to Tulsans, but these three represent the fusion of a few distinct significant aspects of T-town: the oil industry, relics of old Tulsa’s prominence, and the ever-present religious tones of life in Tulsa.
These landmarks (and many more) make Tulsa visually appealing and they do mean something to Tulsans.
7. You know better than to attempt to drive on 71st street between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
71st Street traffic (between 169 and Sheridan) is always crappy — the fourth quarter is a mere multiplier for how truly bad this traffic is.
For that reason, you do your Christmas shopping in midtown or on Amazon. Who needs Woodland Hills, anyway?
8. You know the exact difference between a “Tornado Watch” and a “Tornado Warning.”
If you’ve been around this part of the state long enough, you’ve probably become acquainted with what severe weather means in Oklahoma.
So what is the difference between the two? One means you’re standing on the porch looking at a boiling sky and the other means you’re laying in a bathtub frantically scanning a live feed of one of the news stations’ weather sections. Either way: “it ain’t your first rodeo.”
9. When you were a kid, “Branson” was your “Disney Land.”
Whether you were on a family trip to Silver Dollar City or hopping from go-cart track to go-cart track, Branson was the place to go for summer vacation.
Often half-joked about as some sort of mecca for American septuagenarians, we still think Branson is fun (and we’d probably still ride Fire In The Hole at Silver Dollar City, too.)
10. Your liquor purchases have to be planned around the calendar.
Not only do our liquor stores close at 9pm (per state laws), but at no time do we feel the brunt of our state’s archaic liquor laws more than on Superbowl Sunday. Thus, the Saturday before the Superbowl is a big volume day at liquor stores all around the state.
11. You remember when you had to drive to Arkansas to get a tattoo.
Speaking of archaic state laws, we should mention one that was succesfully wiped off the books.
Back in the day, Tulsa “tattoo parlors” would design your tattoo, then you’d drive to Siloam Springs or Ft. Smith to get the ink.
Now, Tulsa is home to dozens of tattoo parlor and you have a tattoo of a miniature Golden Driller.
12. You’ve been the recipient of an atomic wedgie courtesy of The Silver Bullet.
Big Splash was always destination during the summer, but if the local water park was symbolized by one ride, it’s the Silver Bullet.
Yeah, I know — I preferred the Lazy River and the Master Blaster, too.
13. You’ve rooted for Jenks or Union during football season even though you didn’t go to either school.
Tulsa is a big high school football city, and the Jenks-Union rivalry is high profile enough to receive major coverage on channels like ESPN.
Let’s face it — if you have to pick one over the other, you already know which one it is.
14. When you gamble, you do it at your tribe’s casino.
I’m Cherokee so if I get the blackjack bug, I play at the Hard Rock. Don’t get me wrong, though — I’ve had a great time playing at the Million Dollar Elm and the River Spirit.
Many Tulsans stick to their tribe’s casinos. I guess if you’re going to be giving it all back, it might as well go to your tribe.
15. You’ve been to “see the Christmas lights at Rhema” with your significant other.
Topping the (imaginary) list of “things to do with your boyfriend or girlfriend this Christmas”, making the romantic trip to Rhema Bible College to look at their insanely large display of lights is something we’ve all done at some point.
Every year, more than 200,000 people visit the college campus to take the free tour.
16. You rode the Zingo at Bell’s Amusement Park.
Back before most of Bell’s Amusement Park’s rides lived inside barbed-wire fences in Gunboat Park, Bell’s was the place to go in Tulsa on a weekend night.
With rides like The Zingo and The Himalaya, Bell’s was really the top of entertainment in Tulsa (for younger folks, at least) for several decades.
17. You were sad when the Admiral Twin Drive-In caught on fire in 2010.
I can still remember driving by on I-244 that afternoon and seeing the enormous flames licking up from the screens.
Yes — the Admiral Twin was just a drive-in movie theatre, but it had some serious history in Tulsa.
Having been featured in a major scene of 1983’s Coppola-directed drama The Outsiders, the Admiral Twin had become one of the key Tulsa landmarks over the years.
When the drive-in was rebuilt and opened for business again in 2012, Tulsa — as a whole — was pretty darn happy.
18. You remember when Eastland Mall was… well, a mall.
What is now some corporate purgatory for call centers, the DMV, and a Subway used to be one of Tulsa’s best and busiest shopping malls.
Featuring a great food court and arcade (Hot Dog On A Stick, anyone?), Eastland Mall was an instant hit with the youth of the surrounding neighborhoods and apartment complexes.
When times got hard in the late 90s, shops closed up or moved south to Woodland Hills or west to Promenade.
19. You remember Uncle Zeb.
In 2009, we lost a local icon of Tulsa television.
Many Tulsans will remember KTUL’s Carl Bartholemew, who played zany children’s show host Uncle Zeb from 1991 to 1998.
Extra points if you were ever on Uncle Zeb’s show!
20. You’ll take Daylight Donuts over Krispy Kreme any day.
Hey — we’re not knocking the ultra sugary, warm goodness that is a Krispy Kreme glazed donut, but something about Daylight Donuts — from Owasso to Glenpool — is kind of special.
Most of us around here grew up going to Daylight Donuts for the occasional breakfast — chowing on them at church on Sundays or just making a quick drive-through pick-up for a sausage roll on the way to work on a weekday morning.
21. You’re tremendously proud to be from Tulsa.
If there is one common thread among Tulsans, it’s that an overwhelming majority of native Tulsans are extremely proud to be from Tulsa.
Whether it’s from an industrial link to the oil business, a musical link to the heart and soul of Tulsa’s music scene, or just a general sense of contentment with the beauty of this city and its people, it’s always personal and subjective, but it’s always deserved. And there’s always a good time to be had around Tulsa.