TIE-DYED TULSA

You may have seen it driving around Tulsa: a boxy VW van covered with bumper stickers, multi-colored flowers, and reminders to “have a groovy day.”

The van belongs to Kelly Killion, who painted it with her mother a few years ago. It is the primary source of publicity for Killion’s small business, Tie Dyes of Tulsa, located on 11th Street, just east of the TU campus.

Killion herself is an unassuming woman. When I met her, she was wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt, paint-splattered denim shorts, and a pair of round John Lennon glasses with purple lenses. A floppy tie-dyed hat covered her head as she spray painted bright orange guitars onto blue and white sheets. She is not exactly your typical business owner.

She's obviously doing something right, though, because Tie Dyes of Tulsa has been going strong since 1995, when Killion got her start dying shirts for Hideaway Pizza employees in Stillwater. It is still a small business, perhaps, but it is a definite presence in the Tulsa community.

Tie Dyes of Tulsa is the kind of place that my friends would call "“hippie," which means there are beaded curtains in the windows and doorway, and the smell of incense in the air.

Killion’s two cats, named Yin and Yang, sleep curled up under the American flag hung from the ceiling. Appropriately for such a place as this, the stars on the flag have been replaced with a bold white peace sign.

Tie Dyes of Tulsa is not the kind of store that I expected to find when I shipped myself off to Oklahoma for college. In fact, had I gone my whole life without ever seeing a store for tie-dying, I probably would not have noticed the absence.

It is obvious, though, that Kelly Killion loves her business and believes that she is filling some sort of void in the Tulsa area. And after visiting for even a brief period, I cannot help but feel the same way.

--Laura Hermann

Laura Hermann is a TU sophomore from Fenton, Missouri. She is minoring in Musical Theatre and has yet to declare a major.