The Cowgirls

Preface

Preface owmen-and cowwomen-are a breed apart. People who live with and by cows have always been alittle farther out-geographicallyspeaking- than the rest of the population. They pioneered in new country, lived hard and often dangerously, called no man master and occupied land that nobody else wanted. Some of them still do. As a result we like to think of them as more independent, more stable, more themselves than other men. They wear their own uniforms, live as they always have lived and keep some of the flavor of an earlier, braver, simpler, kinder America. Some years ago, when I was on the road looking into the situation ofthe contemporary cattleman, I stopped at a place at the end of the trail in a remote part of Colorado. A friendly, weather-worn human being greeted me: "Come in, Stranger! All we've got here is a lot ofbrush and a few good neighbors, but you're welcome!" This, we like to believe, is still the spirit ofthe cattleman in spite of airplanes, oil wells and politics. His business is dependent on weather and the market and his life is never secure. This keeps him from becoming a fat cat unless he is a fat cat already and is using the ranch for a tax write-off. In such cases the boots and the big hat are adisguise, but everybody in the cow business knows the difference. He has his faults, of course. Cowboys were once considered wild and some still are. A few cattlemen are crooked. Admitting these things, we still feel that out on the range it is harder to be dishonest than in Washington. I asked Farrington Carpenter, a top cattleman, one time what percentage ofcattlemen he considered honest. "They are about two percent sons of bitches, like everybody else," he Xl replied. This figure gives them a considerable edge over other American groups, including teachers and preachers. It seems obvious that the cattle person, past and present, is well worth knowing, and indeed we do know a good deal about him. We do not, however, know as much as we should. Most ofthe books have been written by writers who are not in the cattle business or by people in the business who can't write. Then too, the mythical cowboy of the movies and romantic novels is always getting in the way ofthe facts, and the changes which have come with time confuse us even more. The idea of a ranchman rounding up steers in a jeep seems somehow sacrilegious, and such equipment as the walking boot and the foam-rubber-padded saddle come close to obscenity. Life in the country and in the cow business keeps much ofthe old lifestyle going, however, and we can still talk about cowmen and cowgirls with some certainty that we know what we mean. The cowgirls have had less attention than their male counterparts and this is to be regretted, for they are justas varied and justas interesting a group as the men. Ace Reid's bedraggled ranchwomen are at the bottom. Edna Ferber's rich bitches are at the top. And there are thousands in between. They are all interesting, and their tale should be told. Joyce Roach is the one to tell it. She lives in the country at Crosswinds, north of Fort Worth. She and her husband, Claude, have cows and horses. Their children were involved. She has known ranch people from her childhood and has come to know them better through years of correspondence and interviewing. She is close enough to being a cowgirl herselfto speak with knowledge, and she can write. Her book is timely. The women's movement is in full swing and housewives all over the country are clamoring to be "liberated." Joyce contributes by showing that cowgirls are already liberated. And she can prove it! XlI C. L. Sonnichsen Tucson, Arizona 1977 ...