At the end of June I accepted a job in Olney, TX. Where is Olney you say? Go Google it, I’ll give you a minute…

Yep, you found it. Kind of in the middle of nowhere. And in this middle of nowhere is a great community with very nice, friendly people. In this whole region there isn’t much open on Sunday. Businesses here were way ahead of Chick-Fil-A on that. Check your restaurants in advance too because many are just breakfast and/or lunch only. That’s not to say you can’t eat out on Sunday. It just means your options are limited. Or you “go to town” for more restaurant options. And don’t forget to hit Walmart while you are there because there isn’t one in Olney.

Now lets talk available tech. Every home in Olney has fiber available. Yep, way out here I can get fiber. I lived near Memphis for most of my life and never had it available on my street. And the local high school has an award winning Robotics team – https://www.facebook.com/ohsrobotics. So don’t look down your big city tech noses at us!

Now I haven’t traveled all over this country but I will tell you I’ve never seen a scheduled “One Arm Dove Hunt”. The website for it, OADH (olneyamputeedovehunt.com), is more inclusive but the history and signs on the road still bear the original name.

There are two large businesses here, Tower Extrusions and Air Tractor. Everyone in town either works at one of the two or knows dozens of people that do. I work at Air Tractor, manufacturer of Agricultural Airplanes, aka Crop Dusters. My first job out of college was at Warner Robins Air Force Base. There I saw F-15s flying all the time. I always stopped and watched the jets fly. Now I see airplanes being built and flown daily. I still stop and watch these planes fly, too. I really hope this is my last industry job. I think it fitting to start my career in aviation and end it there as well.

I’m still learning the history of this area. It is obvious driving in any direction that oil historically played a big part around here. There are active and inactive oil wells everywhere. And the towns around have felt the affect of the drop in the oil industry over the years. People have moved and businesses have diminished. Many storefronts along Main St. sit empty. But along the same street you see new businesses and entrepreneurs starting new businesses alongside the 100+ year old hardware store. They are taking advantage of online sales as well so doing whatever it takes to keep their local business alive.

We’ve been in our home here for 3 months. I grew up in a community smaller than Olney so I’m relearning many aspects of small rural town life. One that we laugh about all the time is everybody knows everybody. While the locals don’t all know us yet they do know the folks we bought our house from. And they know where our house is as well. So we find that we are referred to as the folks from out of town that bought the Johnson’s house.

We lived in Wichita Falls for a few months in a rental. During our move from there to Olney I rented a U-Haul trailer from the rental place in Archer City that is also a liquor store. The lady working there and I were chatting so I told her our story of the job, the rental and buying our house. She told me how it all worked out must have been divine providence.

So divine providence or coincidence or dumb luck, I’m not sure. Depending on your theology they could be one in the same I guess. But all I know for sure is I am glad we moved to Olney. It just feels like home.