Okemos is the town to the east of East Lansing. As such, it has a long history of being the place where Michigan State University students would go to drink alcohol back when East Lansing was a dry town – but that was long before I had anything to do with MSU.

With the rise of the Meridian Mall and the stores near the Okemos highway exit, commercialism in Okemos has obscured its historic one-room-schoolhouse past.

Its “being away from it all” and some degree of reputation for having a quality school system resulted in rapid growth of it as a suburb, and so now it has many many doctors and lawyers living there. These rich people contribute to high property values, which results in a very well funded public school system in Okemos. Affluence has its costs, and so it is not an idilic school system, to be sure.

There are many fine eateries, from French-inspired mid-western-style Villegas to the great Chinese food place that is She-Shiang Garden, not to mention the well-hidden but execellent Japanese place that is Akagi Sushi.

I went there many times when I was at MSU. I want to go back one of these days, but I don’t know if I’ll make it there this trip.