Oil Rules

Growing up in Oklahoma, life is simple. When you get A’s on your report card, you are rewarded with an ice cream sundae from the local Braum’s. Instead of shopping at the Galleria, you shop at Dollar General and realize that really almost anything can be purchased for a dollar.

I grew up in Tulsa, where oil production is confined to the outskirts of town. However, when I was 17, my family moved to Oklahoma City, where oil wells decorate the landscape along inner-city highways and even show up within parking lots. One of my favorite wells (because it’s so urban and unexpected) is inside a Dollar General parking lot off of NW 122nd st. The well below is actually located in the Crossroads Mall parking lot of the south side of the city.

Growing up in close proximity to oil wells, I never really felt the impact of high gas prices. Even if most of the country was at $1.00/gallon, we in Oklahoma were at $.88/gallon. Life was good. My first job when I was 15 at Chick-Fil-A was plenty to cover my gas prices, as well as the obligatory mall expenses of a 15-year-old girl.

Oil set another new record this morning, climbing over $127 a barrel. It’s interesting to see how the economy is responding — food pricing are starting to go up and people are spending less on entertainment, though the summer blockbusters lure crowds in. And with the government-issued stimulus checks expected to land in bank accounts any day, we should see at least a temporary economic perk.

For those of us in the oil business, life is good. But when my little car racks up $40, I have to shake my head and miss growing up in Oklahoma in the ’90s.

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