Lawhoma Hills: Places Around Town
Take a Stroll Down Main Street: An Introduction to the Businesses of Lawhoma Hills
It's just past seven on West Sycamore Street, and the smell of coffee is already drifting out of the Running Waters Cafe, where Tally Sweetstripe has the griddle going. Down the block, Stewart is misting the morning's roses at Sweetstripe Floral, Eugene Goldberg is propping open the door at Red Foods, and over on East Maple, Larry Brewster flips the sign at Larry's Cuts from CLOSED to COME ON IN.
That's how every day starts in Lawhoma Hills, and it's exactly the town readers step into on page one of A Year Behind the Pink Door.
Why the Town Is a Character
Plenty of stories have a setting. Lawhoma Hills has a cast of places. The shops and stops below aren't backdrops; they're where friendships form, secrets slip, and half the town's news travels before the Gazette can print it. Know the businesses, and you know the town.
Getting Your Bearings
The town unfolds along a handful of streets you'll come to know by heart: East Maple, East Oak, and East Willow on one side; West Sycamore, West Chestnut, West Birch, and West Pine on the other; South Spruce for fun after school; the bustling Town Center; and Southeast County Road 40, where the gravel gives way to farmland and to Yaya's Camp Run Amuck.
Shops and Eats
Larry's Cuts, on East Maple Street, is the barber shop where Larry Brewster trades trims for town talk. If it happened in Lawhoma Hills, Larry heard about it first.
Running Waters Cafe, on West Sycamore, is where chef Tally Sweetstripe of the Sac and Fox Nation serves the food this town lines up for. The cafe's name honors Chief Running Waters, and the menu honors everything else.
Red Foods Grocery is run by retired Army Ranger Eugene Goldberg, with son Shia sacking groceries and DJing in his head the whole time.
Gingersnaps Department Store is Ginger Everett's pride and joy, where designer Caitlyn Quinn's fashions hang two aisles from the fishing tackle. Small towns contain multitudes.
Sweetstripe Floral is Stewart Sweetstripe's flower shop, and the reason every celebration in town smells wonderful.
Spruce Street Books belongs to Manuel and Rosemary Rodriguez. It hosts the town's book clubs and is home base for the kids' Banned Book Club, with Bootsie Howard running the events calendar.
Pumpkin Lane Shoppes and Entertainment Theater is the Town Center complex where the whole town shows up on Friday nights.
Wiggle Worm Dance Studio is Kelly Chen's studio, where half the town's kids learn to two-step, tap, and tumble.
Whippoorwill Wheels is the skate rink on South Spruce, staffed by the Simmons twins, Wes and Whip. It is the birthday party capital of the county.
Community Cornerstones
Beyond the storefronts, these are the institutions that keep Lawhoma Hills running and keep turning up in the stories: MONA, the Museum of Natural Arts, curated by Ophelia Goldberg with artist Reed Chapman. Lawhoma Regional Medical Center, where Dr. Bridget Sinclair sees the whole town, and Willow Creek Assisted Living, where Casey Jo Brewster directs nursing and Tata holds court with her stories. The K-12 school on East Willow, the Nature Research Center on West Birch, the Post Office where Daphne Chapman sorts more than mail, and out past it all, Camp Run Amuck and the Goat Yoga Pavilion on County Road 40.
Visit the Whole Town
The best way to walk these streets is the way the locals do, one season at a time. A Year Behind the Pink Door takes you behind every one of these doors across a full year in town, and the Camp Run Amuck middle grade books let younger readers explore from the skate rink to the lake. Come on in. The porch light's on.
Lawhoma Hills, Oklahoma
