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August 15, 2009

Life in a small town

Kevin Hook

DUNCAN — One year ago this weekend, my family and I made our first trip to Duncan. It was an informal visit to “get a feel for things.” After all, we would be moving from Broken Arrow, and I’ll admit, making the adjustment to living in a much smaller community was a concern.

After the kids were asleep that first night in town, I remember my wife, Linda, and me talking about whether we could make that adjustment. We finally decided that it wasn’t a matter of whether we could make the adjustment, but whether we were willing to do so.

We’ve all heard the expression about living in a small town — “You can’t do anything without everyone else in town knowing about it!” Well, maybe that’s true, but it’s really not a problem unless you are doing something you shouldn’t be doing anyway. And, if that’s the case, shame on you! If you are doing good things, and “everyone else knows about it,” isn’t that OK?

In the short 11 months we’ve been in Duncan, we’ve met some incredible people. I’m hopeful that, regardless of what the future holds, they will be lifelong friends. It’s the quality of people that give the town its personality and Duncan is fortunate in that regard at both a civic and personal level.

I could go on and on as to why I think the quality of life in a small town has its advantages, but I’ll share only the most recent example with you.

Thursday morning, my wife and I, along with our 2-year-old daughter, attended a function at Arvest Bank with about 20 others also in attendance. It was a fun event, recognizing a special event in a person’s life with balloons and laughter. I had been back in my office for about an hour when our receptionist walked into my office carrying my daughter’s sippy cup. My first thought was that my wife and daughter came to visit me, but that wasn’t the case at all. Daphne informed me that someone from Arvest found the sippy cup in their lobby and thought it belonged to my daughter, and thought she might be missing it.

You know how kids are. They have their special blanket, their special toy and their special sippy cup. As I wrote this, my daughter was probably looking for her cup, and because someone was nice enough to return it to me, I was able to surprise her with it when I got home that day.

Now that, my friends, is life in a small town!



— Kevin Hook is the publisher of The Duncan Banner. Contact him at 580-255-5354, Ext. 130 or at khook@duncanbanner.com.

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