Being a Hermit is your Retirement Dream? Read This.

Rosa Hayes is promoting her former hometown as a great place to retire. My reactions are italicized. Everything I added is from Wikipedia and rounded off.

I lived in Vian, Oklahoma, which was by Lake Tenkiller. I actually lived a few miles from the lake. My grandmother decided to retire there but later moved to her home town to be closer to the family. She said that if she had to do it all over again, she wouldn’t have sold her house and would still be walking by the lake’s shore during the summer months.

Vian has 500 households settled in an area of 8/10 of a square mile. Love thy neighbor.

Your housing costs would be cheap since the median income is $18,000 for a family. Probably lots of nice mobile homes from which to choose. Oklahoma in the summer in a trailer, just what FEMA loves.

I stayed with my grandmother one summer and it was then, that I understood why she liked it so much. There are trees all around by the Lake and the rangers go through there often to make sure that there is no trash or any type of bad conduct on the property.

I’m sure the meth labs are doing a good job of keeping their property clean and attractive. Forest rangers are highly trained to keep citizens and squirrels secure.

Vian is a small town that is located by Talequah, (sic) Oklahoma and it is perfect for people who want to settle down into retirement. The Vian community, even went out of their way to establish a time and place for senior citizens to meet and become friends and discuss their living arrangements so that they could become financially stable. I thought that this was a good idea and so I took my grandmother to one. She enjoyed it and learned a lot about different places that she could go. She made a lot of friends who later became more like family.

35% of Vian is below the poverty level. So those social security checks probably provided a lot of employment in the way of mowing yards, raking leaves, etc. The meeting might have been to identify the target market for these services.

The people in Vian, are friendly and very considerate of the elderly people who are living there.
If the man of the house likes to fish, then he would be thrilled to live by the lake and be able to fish all of the time. What’s more, is that they often have community events to where they invite the entire town to fish frys. (sic) I used to love going down there in the summer, just so that I could go to all of the events that where (sic) held in Vian.

Now there’s something you don’t hear of often for retirement – fishing! I would love to know what events they have in Vian. Church suppers and the annual biggest fish contest?

If you like being farther away from all of the crowds and traffic, then this is the perfect place for you. The houses aren’t too close together, especially if you live by the lake. Most of the houses, have been there for years and have often been redone so that they are more modern with an older look.

The toilets have been moved inside.

The woods there, are covered with dear (sic) during hunting season which is perfect for the dear (sic) hunter. You don’t have to travel very far to go hunting and most of the areas around there, will let you hunt the land for free or for a portion of the meat that you get from the dears. (sic)

I hope “dear” were typos. Maybe not. Maybe one of their summer events is the running of the dears.

Wal-Mart and the malls are only about thirty minutes from there, which is located in Talequah (sic) Oklahoma, this is a great town to go shopping in but it isn’t so great for people who no longer want to be in the fast life.

Ya boy, I hate those crowds at the Wal-mart. I’m ready to get away from the fast life. I want to stock my freezer with dear meat and fish. Talhlequah is the capital of the Cherokee nation. If you like history you will appreciate in 1872 it was the scene of what was dubbed the Going Snake Massacre, where eight US Marshals and fourteen Cherokee men were killed.

Vian, on the other hand, is a great place for adventure even at an older age. The people there, will welcome you with open arms in hopes that you will enjoy your stay for however long it may be.

It probably won’t be long because if the Wal-mart is thirty minutes away, it’s probably safe to say the hospital is at least that far. Think a ride in an ambulance is adventure?

You’re probably wondering at this point what I have against Vian. Nothing really except the premise that it would be a great place to retire. I grew up in a village of 300, so small towns are in my heritage and I have a lot of fond memories. But I sure wouldn’t tout them as a place to retire.

Here are some more of Rosa’s articles: