Enjoy a fun tour of my small hometown, Pawhuska, Oklahoma! A charming town in the heart of Oklahoma. Home to The Pioneer Woman and the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
*This was written about Pawhuska many years before The Pioneer Woman Mercantile and the closing of Sally’s Cafe. Enjoy!
In October of 2008, I went back to my small hometown in Oklahoma, where many generations of my family have grown up. We go way back in this little town on the prairie!
For those who may not know, Pawhuska is where Ree, the The Pioneer Woman, goes when she heads to “town”. You’ve seen her photos of the prairie, so I thought it would be fun to show you a bit of the city life. So put on your boots and let’s go to town ya’ll!
With a total of about 3,500 people, you can see how bad the traffic jams can get. I did get stuck behind a blue haired lady who kept stopping and going again. This caused my trip to town to take an entire five minutes instead of two!! The nerve of some people! hee:-)
My friend, Pete Lacker, shot this photo for a musician’s CD cover. You can see how wild it gets a night.
One thing for sure about a small town is you usually know everyone and some are even related. Meet one of my cousins, Phillip. Don’t you just love his style?
We saw Cousin Phillip on our trip to the best hamburger joint in town, Sally’s Cafe.
Sally’s has been around forever and my hometown favorite!
It’s hard to find places like this anymore, so when going home to Pawhuska, we make a point to visit as much as we can!
There is not much room inside of Sally’s, but my kids got the best spot… right in front of the grill! They had a ball sitting at the bar. Very different from the bars in Dallas! I think the five customers enjoyed having them there too:-)
This is what I miss most about small towns…
Oh yeah, look at that homemade chocolate pie! yum!
Of course my mom had to show off her cute grandkids at work.
My son had fun playing mayor and eating M & M’s from the candy machine.
Here’s the house where I grew up and where mom still lives. See the tree in the top right corner? I have a photo of all the neighborhood girls wearing prom dresses next to that tree and it was shorter than us. Wish I had that photo, but it’s in this house you’re looking at now.
The kids got to pick veggies in Grandma’s garden.
Then it was time to get in our costumes and go to Halloween night at the Kiddie Park!
The Kiddie Park is in a nearby town and has probably been around as long as I have!
All rides are only $.25 each!
Lots of really old rides that go VERY fast. My kids love it!
One of the man clowns made my 80 year old Grandma a balloon way too nasty to put on my blog. Can you guess what it was? I don’t think I’ve seen her blush like that in a long time! ha. Here’s a hint, it looked like a mini sword. I really couldn’t look at my son’s sword the same way all night:-)
This is my son’s attempt at taking the four generations of women photo. See what happens when you’re five year’s old and have been eating sweets at Grandma’s house all weekend!
I took advantage of the letting Grandma babysit and escaped to my alma matter, Oklahoma State University, for some homecoming fun. It was great to be without children for a day and see old girlfriends!
Hope you enjoyed a quick tour of Pawhuska!
Thanks mom, Aunt Tricia and Grandma for making our trip so much fun. We hope to come back again real soon.
I grew up in Blackwell, which isn’t too far from Pawhuska. Now there’s no family left there, but I still have great friends from school years who are email pals. OSU is also my alma mater, where I was elected Flying Aggie Queen, but I won’t say in what year, and yes, I did earn my pilot’s license there! I love my hometown, but now there are mostly only family graves to visit as there are few still alive who would remember those wonderful days.
I’m stalking your blog today…which I love btw and came across your Pawhuska tour! I love it and I miss Sally’s hamburgers! I just had to tell you that my dad, Matt Free is in the back of your Sally’s pic in his white shirt! I totally had to make fun of him because he still eats there everyday and now we have proof! haha!
Umm, you must be really near where I am from. I have been wondering about the Pioneer Woman and her relationship to the statue. I grew up in the City, but was born near Kingfisher and Cashion. Spent my “leisure time” with family in GUthrie. Met my husband at OSU.
And to think I just stumbled over here from “the imperfect poppy” because she downloaded your valentine!
I am wondering exactly which small town this is. I am thinking it is probably somewhere near Stillwater, but I’m not sure. I would love to take my nieces to the kiddie park. I am from Washington, OK, which at the time I grew up (outside of town) was really small. In the 1920’s, they actually had a movie theater and a bank, but those burned down and were never rebuilt. When I grew up, we had a drug store (my grandparents owned it), a hardware store, two cafes, a gas station, and a feed store. There were 151 kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade when I was a Senior in 1979. Now the school is much bigger, as is the town, but there is only a convenience store and a bakery/cafe. They did score a four-way stop, though. 😉
My family hails from Sapulpa OK and so seeing your cousin with the Route 66 vest brought back memories. I think I’d actually buy that vest if I saw it in a shop somewhere!
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Small towns are great!! My favorite was the swinging bridge! Janet
Your hometown seems very quintessential of a sleepy little town that you just want to go to and take a nap in…lol…
But then it sounds a lot more interesting than just that…
You have beautiful children, btw!
xoxo,
C
p.s. sorry this visit is so late! 🙂
Small town living is the best kind of living. 🙂
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wow, it looks like you had a fantastic visit back home. thanks for sharing with BATW!!
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I was drooling over that chocolate pie! Yummy!!!
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Its nice to know places like this still exist. That was a fun tour with just the right mix of pictures and words. And yes, I do love your cousins style!
Found you on BATW.
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I really enjoyed your tour, the photos were quite amusing. There definitely is something to be said about small town living, and a good thing at that!
I’m moving there tomorrow. Thanks.
I love smalltown diners! They serve the best food. No fair showing a pic of that chocolate pie! Now I’m hungry…
Hello!
Coming over from BATW.
What a great post. I hope someday I can have more of an appreciation for the small town I grew up in. The town my grandmother still lives in. The town my dad, aunts and uncles grew up in. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and come to the city and even now, I don’t care much for visiting. Your post gives me hope!
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I lived in Edmond, OK in the early ’80s while attending Oklahoma Christian College and loved it. I loved the surroundings and I loved the people. I’d love to go back, but alas that was a lifetime ago and I’m all nestled in Sugar Grove now.
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What a great little town!
Thanks for sharing it and hosting the BATW tour today!
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Loved the tour! We lived in a small town for 14 years so this made me a bit homesick.
Nothing beats the desserts made by the women of small towns. 😉
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It looks like such a cute little town. you don’t get to see much of that in Southern California.
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What a great tour! Thanks for giving us a taste of what it is like to live in a small town. How charming!!! (visiting from Los Angeles, CA)
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I loved seeing your home town. We lived in Pleasonton Texas for a year, and my mother grew up there, brings back memories. Thanks for sharing.
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Over from BATW.
Adorable. The town is so precious, it looks like it came from a Hollywood set.
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What a great hometown! This looks like so much fun…. for a small town!
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Sounds like a fun trip! I’ve always loved small towns–I’ve live in one for the past 10 (almost 11) years. Lots of fun memories. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
–Abigail
What a great tour. I’d love to spend more time in a place like that. I’m in Houston btw. Lots of Oklahoma folks down here too.
Your post about the traffic reminded me of the very small town my grandparents lived in in South Georgia.
There were only probably a few stop lights in the whole town back then (thirty something years ago). But she would get so mad if she had to stop at a redlight. When she would come home from shopping at Piggly Wiggly that was part of the report. How many redlights she had to stop at. I’m thinking…What else do you have to do???
Thanks for sharing your hometown.
?
Joy
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Fun tour! Thanks for taking us to Smalltown, America! I love it! Either I’ve been to your little town before or it looks just like another. Those streets look awfully familiar!
Enjoy your BATW day!
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What a very charming tour of your hometown! I enjoyed every minute spent there. :o)
Stopping from BATW.
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I want to go there! What a wonderful town, with so much personality!
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Thanks for leaving this link on my blog. I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia but am now living in a town smaller than your home town (just over 2,000 people – and that is probably including the prison population – yikes). It has been quite the culture shock for me; however, I love how family oriented everything tends to be. It is a great place to raise the kiddos. I just miss all the conveniences of big-city-life : )
lovely trip to your hometown!!
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I’m from Kansas, which is almost like Oklahoma. 🙂 I enjoyed the tour – thanks for sharing your home town with us!
Lynnette
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I dream of moving to a small town. But maybe I’ve been watching too much Gilmore Girls. I love your photo tour!! And that pie, oh my, so decadent.
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that is fabulous! i want to know what small town you grew up in . i’ve been in small town oklahoma and LOVE it. i spent some time in claremore and even smaller cleveland. those towns have their own kind of excitment —like draggin main street on a friday night. or the cattle run right down mainstreet….those are serious memories for me! thanks for helping me 🙂
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Hey thanks everyone for stopping by today! This is so much fun. I forget that not everyone is from a small town. We also have street dances, parades with cattle and people riding horses, rodeos and Indian dances. It really is a whole other world!! ha.
There is also a small lake surrounded by hills, so the water is like glass. We had a boat dock and I went skiing just about every weekend. Nothing else to do since there was no mall or movies. We used to have a drive-in movie theater, but was only open on certain nights.
That looks like such a cool town! I may have to visit just for the pie! Yum!
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I’m a Big City girl, but, it’s always fun to visit a small town. Thanks for the tour. How much fun.
Oh man, that pie! I swear that’s the kind my mom makes. A pudding type chocolate pie with merengue? I’ve NEVER seen anyone else make it. Now I’m craving some badly. I’m going to have to come visit this adorable small town!
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What a great tour, and what a great town!
Happy BATW day!
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Looks like a fun town to me! Thanks for sharing that, it was really interesting.
Happy BATW day today!
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Hi Amy! Thanks for putting up the BATW greeting…I knew that everyone would love this post…it is fabulous! Thanks again for letting me use it today!
Love it! There’s no place I’d rather be than in small town USA…
Oh Amy!
What a sweet post. Even tho I’m CA-suburbia born and bred, I swear I was really meant to be a small-Southern-town girl – the kind of “town” that’s in all my favorite Southern novels. ;-P
Thanks for the delightful tour!
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Great town – thanks for sharing this with us. Reminds me of some of the small coastal towns here in SA.
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What a lovely little town! Wish we only had a population of 3500 …. life would be a lot simpler.
Thanks for sharing the pcitures of your hometown. Makes me realize that i’ve been in sin city way too long! It looks so quiet and peaceful there.
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Woot Woot for OSU! Go Pokes!!! I’m from Oklahoma…a town of about 1200 people – Geary!! Hooray for the small town gals! I loved the Eskimo Joes sweatshirt in the pic…Those pictures made me a bit homesick – it was so nice to get some Oklahoma today. I’m in DC now, and I sure do miss the small town sometimes!!! 🙂
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Coming from BATW … reading a post like this makes me want to pack up all our stuff and move to where it’s quieter and slower and friendlier.
Love how you described your town!
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Wonderful post! I’ve really enjoyed the tour – thank you so much for sharing those moments from your trip back home.
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I loved your tour! I am sure it was a great place to grow up in. Thanks for such a great post.
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Love your tour. I just love small towns. Looks like ya’ll had a great time. Oh I hopped over from BATW and glad that I did.
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That was great! I love small towns like that. My dad grew up in one even smaller – Watson, Arkansas. Population: 425 or something. They lived right across the street from the Baptist Church and two house down from the Methodist Church. 😀
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I luv’ your house!
Your town seems such a pretty nice place to grow up in:)
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I just loved this tour! Thanks for sharing – and what gorgeous kids you have.
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That chocolate pie looks yummy! I love small twon diners. I love small towns. Thanks for sharing.
Oh my goodness! this was so much fun.
I loved the part of the tree and prom dresses. I would love see that picture.
Thanks for the tour!
Darcy
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Oh my. What a delightful place! I love that quaint street – looks like something out of a movie. And Phillip’s vest? I soooo want one of those!
What a great tour! I loved it! I would love to call that town home.
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Thanks for the tour. Small towns have such great charm.
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it’s still downloading….still, still, still, but the ones I have seen (down to the choc pie.mmmmm)…are great! Like Donna, I love that “pie shaped” building. Good to see you my friend!
Reminds me of my own small town (though mine is slightly larger). I always run into someone I know there, but here in the city I live in virtual anonymity. Of course each has its pros and cons, but I’m always a bit homesick when in my hometown.
How far a drive is it for you to head home? I love small towns. I grew up on a ranch outside of Kerrville, Texas, which is small but not as small as yours.
Very cool it’s the same town PW features. I love her blog. I’m obsessed with it! Great photos! Love the history. and the kiddie park. Your kids are so cute.
Absolutely beautiful! I miss the small town I come from! This reminded me of being back home.
I LOVE LOVE these pictures! I just love small towns and all the charm they hold.
I love that little town! Especially the diner, who doesn’t love a diner? Fun tour and photos, your kids are so cute and I really enjoyed my visit!
Bella 🙂
Like Julia, part of my family is from broom-corn country in Illinois. Looks just like this. Visited as part of a family reunion, checked out the old homestead(s) ate some local grub.
I couldn’t get over how flat it was!
I love small towns! I live in a very small town and we really enjoy it. 2A school and knowing everyone here does have some perks! Your pics are great, what a fun visit!
Looks like so much fun! I love visiting small towns, but I’m a little too city to live in one that doesn’t have a decent size city nearby.
That kiddie park is SO cool! Wish we had one nearby!! And you and and your kids are gorgeous!
Cute pics! That kid’s park is great.
I enjoyed the small-town tour! I spent all of my summers and holidays in a small town in Southern Illinois where my parents grew up (we went back to visit family a lot). It looked a lot like this! We even had a very similar hamburger joint where we’d go and I’d always order a slice of homemade chocolate pie with meringue on top. Yum. 🙂
Thank you for the great tour. Your mother’s house is charming. I like that porch very much. And I think that downtown picture with the pie building is really cool.
It just feeds your soul to go home doesn’t it?
That is how I feel about Chicago.
Your hometown is so cute! Our small town consists of a post office and an antique store…I wish we had the cute “downtown” atmosphere that your town has (now isn’t that funny…saying that your small town has a “downtown.”) Hee!
That picture of your little gal in her costume looking up is GORGEOUS. What a doll!
Angie
Looks like you and the kids at a great time “back home”. ! They look like they were having a ball on the old rides. Reminds me of our famous Fair here. Have a good day.