I'll be 26 in September. I was born at Edmond Memorial Hospital in 1978, and my first home was right across the street from the hospital (now Edmond Regional Medical Center). My earliest memories of Oklahoma City go back to when Quail Springs Mall first opened in 1980. My mom bought me the General Lee matchbox car from Kay Bee Toys. To a toddler, Quail Springs was freakin huge! Today, I can traverse the mall in less than five minutes.

I remember when I-44 was being widened between Broadway Extension and I-35 to six lanes in 1984, and the construction of Remington Park Racetrack in the late 1980's. I watched the construction crane raise steel beams for 'The Tower', then the Bank IV Tower back in 1983. I remember the oil bust, and the effect it had on many people in the late 1980's, and I can still see that damn piggy bank icon that once graced the facade of 50 Penn Place, once known as the powerful Penn Square Bank.

But I also have these fond memories of Oklahoma City... popping fireworks in the empty streets of abandoned housing developments back in 1989. My cousin and I walked a hundred yards out on the dry bed of Lake Hefner in 1990 while construction continued on the Lake Hefner Parkway. Hell, I remember camping where the freeway now sits! I met Mayor Ron Norick in person during an NHL rally held at the Myriad 8 years ago. I watched the Oklahoma City 89ers bat it out at All Sports Stadium. I took a tour of Summit Middle School in Edmond in 1988 before I was supposed to go there for 5th grade. I watched a cover band play YMCA after an Oklahoma City Cavalry game. I met Mr. Roloff, the architect who designed Leadership Square and originally designed it as a single 60 story glass tower. I saw the renderings. He was my grandmother's neighbor.

I was there to see the Belle Isle Power Plant come tumbling down. I was freezing, and laughed MAO watching the OHP chase parked cars off the Belle Isle Bridge, shouting over their loud speakers "Okay people, let's move it! Let's go!" But more than anything... and this may be cheesy, but my most fond memory of Oklahoma City was riding my first roller coaster at Frontier City- the Orange Blossom- before they moved it indoors and called it the Nightmare.

Any interesting historic memories of Oklahoma City?