Tulsa, OK

Creek Stickball Park of the midtown Tulsa Riverview Neighborhood Association

My neighborhood, the Riverview Neighborhood Association, is home to a recent Oklahoma Centennial project, a sculpture in Creek Stickball Park. Located at 18th & Cheyenne in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the sculpture features three Native American youths playing stickball – a traditional game with ceremonial significance in the Native American Culture.

The statue in Creek Stickball Park was made possible through a $250,000 donation from the Oklahoma Centennial Commemoration Commission. Besides the sculpture, this provided park amenities including wrought iron fencing, new sidewalks, landscaping, irrigation and benches.

Dedicated in December 2008, the park is located directly across the street from the Creek Council Oak Park. The sculpture in the Stickball Park was created by Talala-based sculptor Sandra Van Zandt. Her work is detailed and magnificent – please drop by to enjoy our new beautiful park.

Creek Stickball Park of the midtown Tulsa Riverview Neighborhood Association

A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a Creek game played around a
single 5-10 meter pole, topped with a
brightly painted animal skull, and a blue painted ring 60 cm toward the top. Points are scored by hitting the pole
above the blue ring, or better yet, hitting the skull atop the pole with a small ball. The players use sticks
that resemble a smaller version of ones used in LaCrosse. Games are played to four points.

Visit Lori's blog for more information about the Riverview Neighborhood and its many parks, mansion & hidden treasures.

About the author: Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors, serving the greater Tulsa area, including midtown Tulsa, Owasso, Jenks, Sand Springs and Broken Arrow. Please visit Lori’s web site, www.LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

Visit Lori's blog to learn more about Tulsa's neighborhoods, community, events and real estate!

Our Alley Herb Garden in the Riverview Association, midtown Tulsa

Our home is in the Riverview Neighborhood association, right next to the beautiful Arkansas River in Tulsa and just slightly south of downtown. My 55 year-old husband has lived in this home his entire life, and we couldn’t imagine living anywhere else!

Our beautiful Spanish-style home at 19th & Cheyenne was built in 1915, and is within half a block of Riverside Drive and less than a block from Veteran’s Park. We are within walking distance of many restaurants, our organic grocer, Grindstaff Cleaners and Mrs. DeHaven’s flower shop – all much older than my husband.

We proudly display a bronze plaque on our front porch pillars stating that we are in the Historic Beuna Vista Park district of Riverview and have been place on the national register of historic places by the United States Department of the Interior – platted 1908.

There is always much hustle and bustle around our home. Veteran’s Park is a wonderful spot for concerts and community events. Many 5K runs begin literally in our front or back yard, winding down Riverside Drive and ending at Veteran’s Park. Sometimes, we just need to open the windows to enjoy concert music, and we often see friends walking their dogs or riding their bikes down the river trails.

Rich in history and architecture, our neighborhood is very tight knit. Thankfully, our neighborhood association is active and vibrant. It’s not quiet here. We are at the cross-roads of the 21st Street Bridge and Riverside Drive, so during 5:00 traffic, there may be fire engines blaring, going both directions.

We have many historical parks and mansions within our neighborhood, but our best kept secret is our alley herb garden.

Our Alley Herb Garden in the Riverview Association, midtown Tulsa

Behind our house are several office buildings . . . the Mental Health Association, an apartment building, and a building that houses attorneys and architects. And by one of those buildings in our alley is the most amazing herb garden – filled with rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme and lavender.

I took these photos today (November), so all you can really see are the impressive rosemary bushes. One of the building tenants started the herb garden years ago, and he’s particular about sharing his basil in the summer months. But everything else is free to anyone who makes the discovery and wants to clip some herbs.

I love urban living and I love that we HAVE an alley. Who would have thought to garden in the alley?

Read more about our amazing neighborhood and do bring your clippers to get your own rosemary, should you come to visit!

About the author: Lori Cain is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors, serving the greater Tulsa area and specializing in historic neighborhoods in midtown Tulsa.

Visit Lori’s web site or call 918-852-5036.

This picture hangs in the lobby of my closing company. Everytime I am there I read it and laugh. I decided this was too good to keep to myself, so I'm sharing it with you. I love the part about the preacher especially! Enjoy!

For complete market reports or for information on buying or selling your next home in the Greater Tulsa and Owasso, Oklahoma area, contact Bob Haywood at 918-272-7272 or visit www.BobHaywood.com

Owasso is an Indiana word that means, "end of the trail"

Was there life b4 Google? Google's 411 Service

Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone or your home phone speed dial:

1-800-goog411

aka 1-800-466-4411

This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free -- great when you are driving on the road with no pen, pencil or paper handy. Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number.

I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course and I don't know the number. I hit the speed dial for information that I have programmed. 1-800-goog411 (aka 1-800-466-4411)

The voice at the other end says, "City & State."

I say, "Garland, Texas."

He says, "Business, Name or Type of Service."

I say, "Firewheel Golf Course."

He says, "Connecting" and Firewheel answers the phone.

How great is that?

This is nationwide and it is absolutely free!

Watch the cool video below.

Free text options and mapping also available.

About the author: Lori is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors, serving the greater Tulsa area, including midtown Tulsa, downtown Tulsa, Owasso, Jenks, Broken Arrow and Sand Springs. Visit her web site, www.LoriCain.com or call 918-852-5036.

Ever call up a real estate agent to find out information about a property only to get their voice mail and then never to hear from them again?

Of course you have. We all have!

Even we real estate people sometimes have problems getting hold of each other. We'll call to get feedback on a property that they showed. We leave a message when they don't answer their phone and then never hear from them again. Some of us who are persistent will even call back several times, never getting through to a real live person. It's like the agent vanished from the face of the earth.

Well, fear not! Today, I'm going to reveal to you the secret you must know in order to get a real estate person to call you back. Are you ready?

Here it is...Never, ever tell them why you are calling.

If you are calling to find out about a house or for some other reason, just leave a message with your name and number and ask the agent to call you back. Don't tell them you want to know about the property. Don't tell them you drove by and thought the house was cute and how much is it. Don't tell them anything about why you are calling.

Unless the agent is a "short timer" in real estate, you should get a call back, usually pretty quickly.

I use this technique whenever I need to get feedback on a home I have listed. I just started trying it out because I couldn't ever get agents to call me back when I left them messages asking for feedback. Now I just ask them to call me, give them my name and number and hang up. Almost every time, the phone will ring pretty quickly.

Want to know why this works?

Because real estate agents are paranoid by nature. If someone calls us up and we don't know exactly why, our brain goes into automatic question mode. We start thinking thoughts like,

"Could be a buyer! I'd better call them up and fast!"
"Might be something important. I wonder what's up? I'd better find out"
"Who is that? What do they want? Maybe it's someone NOT working with another agent! Oh yeah!"

See, what happens is you tweak our client filter. Withholding information causes us to want to return the call. When you give us all the information up front, we automatically put you into our mental file system. If your call isn't all that important (translation: you aren't a hot buyer or seller who wants to write a contract right now)...then you have to get in line and wait. And sometimes what happens is we forget to call you back.

Blame it on busyness. Blame it on disorganization. Blame it on being too high on ourselves. Blame it one whatever you want. I call it being human. The nature of our business is that we are firemen (and women). We go around usually putting out fires everyday or taking care of the latest crisis or whatever may pop up. I don't think most of us don't care about your call. I just think we often are on overload.

So there you go. You might try this with your insurance agent or other service provider too. Unfortunately, I don't think it will work with doctors, lawyers or the government.

Oh well.