OWASSO, Okla. — You wouldn’t know by driving through, but Owasso residents said that back in the 1970s there were no businesses on the east side of U.S. Highway 169.

“There was nothing east of 169 but dairy farms and open land,” said longtime Owasso resident Marilyn Hinkle. “When you stop to think that the high school was out in the middle of nowhere … In fact when the school was first opened, they didn’t have the city water out to it yet. They had porta-pottys for the first month.”

That was 1975. Now the intersection of 86th Street North and 129th East Avenue is one of the busiest parts of Owasso.

A few weeks ago, FOX23 morning anchor Michelle Linn talked with the Owasso Chamber of Commerce about the business explosion happening now. She met up with longtime residents at the Owasso Community Center to talk about the changes they’ve seen.

Carroll Harris remembers when there was only a K-Mart and a Reasors in town.

“It was small hometown feeling. People were friendly. It was great,” said Harris.

Donna Best sold real estate for years and said it’s hard to believe how much the community has expanded. She remembers when Smith Farm Marketplace was only a farm.

“There are geese because they imprint, they come back every year and make a nest in the parking lot, because that’s where the pond was,” said Best.

Tom Schick runs the Owasso Roundup Club which puts on a big rodeo every June. He and his wife moved to Owasso in 1966, six years before it became a city and could pay police officers and firefighters.

Schick said the idea of raising his kids in a smaller community with good schools is what lured them there.

“It was very small. I think when I moved here there might have been 1,600 people and the train still stopped at the train station here,” said Schick.

According to the census, 451 people lived in Owasso in 1950. Ten years later that number grew to more than 2,000.

Close to 3,500 people called Owasso home by 1970, then growth exploded with almost 6,500 in 1980. Almost double that number in 1990. The city has grown by 10,000 residents in each of the last two censuses.

“It has grown. It’s grown large. I used to go to the grocery store and know everyone in the grocery store. Now I can go to the grocery store and I do well if I see three or four people I know,” said Hinkle. “I don’t know near as many people in town.”

“I kind of miss that small town feeling because it is getting bigger and bigger, but that’s just the way these little communities do,” said Best.

“Lots of people, different ideas. We’re not country anymore, we’re urbanized,” said Schick. “Things change. Things change all the time and you have to go with it.”

They said it seems like the city infrastructure is struggling to keep up with the rapid growth, but they think the great school system is still what’s drawing a lot of people to raise their kids in Owasso, just like they did.

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