Everybody knows OKC is booming right now. Things are happening at an incredible level, most notably OKC has an actual big-league franchise in the Thunder! That was absolutely unthinkable 8 years ago at this time.

It got me to thinking. I remember part of the oil boom of the 70's-early 80's. There have been stories of OKC big shots trying to get a domed stadium and a NFL team, of how the nation's third largest bank, Penn Square Bank (not sure about the name) going belly up and hurting OKC big-time. When I consider how big Chase and Citibank are today it is mind-blowing to me that OKC had a bank that was once the nation's third largest. Also many small towns in Oklahoma were prospering big-time. Hammon, that tiny hiccup in Roger Mills county, had an actual downtown that was filled with businesses. And some of my friends from Gracemont said you couldn't get a rental there, not even in a then-newly opened trailer park because of all the oil workers in the area. And Tulsa had the USFL Outlaws.

How does the current boom compare to that of the 70's-early 80's boom? I was real young at that time. Things now seem to be bigger but I probably am not giving the previous boom the credit it deserves. So what about now versus then? Which was bigger?