Cow People -- by J. Frank Dobie

 

J. Frank Dobie saved the best for last, but that might be debatable. The book was filled with so many stories of good, bad, ugly, unusual, and hard-to-describe people associated with the cattle business.

Charles Goodnight was the subject of the last chapter. He was co-founder of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, and wisely and judiciously chose to use his gifts, decision-making, and broad experiences to better those around him. Charlie Goodnight is still quite revered in several places, not just in Texas, but pretty much wherever he went. He was only bad to the bad guys. 

Dobie kept the reader entertained and reading until it was time to sleep, or some other priority got in the way. He tried to quote some of the stories just as he heard them, but seldom used quotation marks. Some of the content was quite gritty, and not meant for those that can't understand how exclusive much of our world was during the 19th Century, mostly after the Civil War. It takes a while longer for some people to get civilized and live peacefully with others.

Cow People was sociological, historical, violent in places, and very colorful with plenty of character development. But just enough. It is a pretty good book. I got a lot out of reading this one I think my mother had been saving for me. I caught myself getting very nostalgic for those times back in the 1980s when I ranged about the sports fields and arenas in and from Alice, Texas. I could hear the quiet down there. Something, a therapeutic thing, that I could only find in a few places around the world. Unless someone honked a horn miles away, I was in some on the best stress relief known to mankind. Yes, anyone might miss that, and it was a strong trait of J. Frank Dobie's South Texas Brush Country.

I'm sure it helped him become the writer he was. He entered Alice High School in 1904, and I was sports department at the Echo-News 80 years later. 

Thanks again mom, and to J. Frank for educating me about the Cow People world, and that instant when I could distinctly remember the quiet.

You really feel like you've been somewhere after reading Cow People. 5/5 stars...