Living my whole life in Oklahoma means that I’ve heard some really weird things about our fair state, so let me address some common misconceptions about Oklahoma.
Hey I’m Marcie Billen and I’m a real estate agent here in Norman, Oklahoma. I work with my husband, Hansom, and we have a small team and we help people buy and sell real estate in the Oklahoma City metro. I’ve lived my whole life in Oklahoma, besides for one year, where I lived in the Middle East. We hear a lot of different things about Oklahoma from people who are not U.S. citizens. I also talked to several of you who watch our YouTube channel about different misconceptions, or different things that you’ve heard about Oklahoma, so I want to address some of those in this video. I have nine misconceptions to address about Oklahoma.
1. We’re All Farmers & Ranchers
The first one is that everyone lives on a farm or a ranch. That’s a common misconception. Now I know a lot of people, including myself, who actually did grow up on a farm or a ranch. Is this very common? Yeah, it’s really common. Is it very uncommon? Yes, it’s also uncommon. Remember we have big cities here in Oklahoma – we have Tulsa and Oklahoma City, which together equal more than a million people in population. There’s also a bunch of other smaller cities like Jenx and Edmond and Norman and Muskogee and Tahlequah. All these places may not have people who actually grew up on farms or ranches.
Where this misconception comes from, I think is because we’re a really young state. Oklahoma became a state in 1907, so a lot of people who may have roots here, in Oklahoma especially, like myself, we have our parents who own farms or ranches or you know, our grandparents owned farms or ranches (and both of mine did as well), so that’s probably where that misconception comes from.
2. Tornado Season is the Only Season
Another misconception is that tornadoes happen every single day. I actually made an entire video about the weather in Oklahoma. Surprisingly, I’ve actually heard this from a lot of different people that they think that we have tornadoes every single day in Oklahoma and this is absolutely not true. Our tornado season is actually from about March to about May.
To have a tornado, you actually need both a cold weather system and a hot weather system because it’s a pressurized situation to have a tornado. I’ve actually never been directly in a tornado; my husband’s been directly in a tornado. I’ve only actually taken cover twice in my life due to a tornado, meaning that I’ve gone down into a basement or shelter.
3. The Oklahoma Plains, or Plain Nothing?
The third misconception about Oklahoma is that it’s a bunch of nothing. I hear this one quite a bit, and I actually hear from Oklahomans and it’s something that I actually echo a lot too. Some parts of Oklahoma are really, really empty and it’s just open land or open forest. I think this is a really good thing because it means we have something for everyone, like culturally, if you love small towns, then you can live out in the middle of nowhere and have your own place or live in a small town. Or, if you like cities you can live in Oklahoma City or Tulsa and have a great city life.
4. No Such Thing as Houses!
The fourth misconception that I’ve heard is that we have teepees everywhere and people live in them. So, I’m guessing that this misconception came because we do have a lot of Native American tribes in our state and perhaps back in the day you know, I know they did you know, some of them lived in teepees. That is not the case anymore. I don’t know anyone, personally, who lives in a teepee and it probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable thing in the world. If you are Native American most likely you live in a house like the rest of us. Now you will see like Western shows and stuff where you know, they may have a teepee out on the grounds, like the Wild Buffalo Bill Show or something like that, which of course, I’ve been to. And then you have rodeos and things like that, but it doesn’t mean that people live in teepees because they don’t.
5. Hey, Y’all
All right number five: everyone says “y’all”. A lot of people here do say y’all. I say it sometimes and not others. Y’all is like the plural of “you”. If you have studied languages, you know that English actually has only one word for “you” like a singular and “you” a plural. Other languages, they actually have different words for “you” singular and “you” plural, right? In my mind, Oklahomans are just being cool like the rest of the languages out there. We have a singular “you”, which is “you” and then a plural “you,” which is “y’all.”
6. They can’t be from Oklahoma…
The sixth misconception is that Oklahomans aren’t famous and we actually have some really well-known Oklahomans. Probably the best well-known Oklahoman is Garth Brooks. Garth Brooks is from Yukon – he actually lives in my hometown of Claremore. So, Garth is known worldwide, and if you don’t know who he is then you better go watch that Netflix special about him because it’s really good and it’ll give you some good insight. We also have Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, the band Kings of Leon, the band The All-American Rejects – one of my favorites, Hanson not to be confused with Hansom, my husband, is also from Tulsa – they’re a boy band, and then Kristin Chenoweth is also from Oklahoma. There are several others and I could go on.
7. Okie Dokie!
Number seven the word “Okie” that sometimes is only used for Oklahomans, even though it’s not meant for only Oklahomans. I don’t actually hear this word a ton anymore, but the word “Okie” is something that you may hear some; it’s in some songs that we have. The word “Okie” actually refers to people who’ve left Oklahoma as migrant farmers during the Dust Bowl, but it’s not just Oklahoma; the Dust Bowl wasn’t just about Oklahoma, it also included parts of Colorado, Texas, and Kansas. Those people also would have been called “Okies” and the ones who left and went to California. That’s who that word is referring to.
8. The Same…But Different
The eighth misconception is that Oklahoma is just like Texas. Well, that’s definitely not true and if you talk to Oklahomans and try to compare them to Texans, they will definitely correct you. My husband and I, we travel a lot overseas, like I said, and we meet some really cool people and they’ll ask us where we’re from. And we’ll say “Oklahoma, it’s near Texas,” so that we give them an idea, because everyone knows what Texas is – this giant, almost country-like state in America, right? Is Oklahoma like Texas? Yeah, maybe some parts, but it’s very different too.
In my mind, it’s very different because the government’s very different in the way they do taxes and real estate is very different from Oklahoma. And you’ve got to understand that there’s a big rivalry sometimes between Oklahomans and Texans. And what I mean, sometimes it kind of depends on where you’re from, what school you went to, whether or not there’s going to be a rivalry or not. To me, about Texas, there’s no reason to stereotype the entire state. There’s lots of different kinds of cities, and lots of different types of people who live there.
If you’re thinking about moving to Oklahoma, I have some really great FREE Relocation Guides that might be helpful to you, especially if you’re thinking of moving to the Oklahoma City area or to Norman.
9. Listen Closely
All right number nine, the last on our list of common Oklahoma misconceptions. We have a misconception that we have weird accents. There are some different accents in Oklahoma. A lot of people tell me that they can’t tell that I have an accent or they think that I’m not from Oklahoma because of the way that I speak. And just know, that when I get really tired, I have a pretty strong accent and I’ve definitely been knocked a time or two for my accent, but I’m from northeastern Oklahoma we do have a very different accent than people from let’s say southwestern Oklahoma. It’s not the same across the entire state.
If you live in Oklahoma, or have visited, do you think these misconceptions ring true? Reach out and let me know!
