Texas Ranch House

While catching up on writing, I listened in on some of the tapes I had. One tape I watched was the Texas Ranch House, one of many of what I call 'history reality series' that were popular in the mid-2000s. As I watched this unfold, I am always astonished at the delusions of the participants, especially the women. What did they think it was going to be?

Life in the past was TOUGH. People had a little fun, but life was always about work. I think for many of us in the 20th and 21st centuries, our only concept of history is what we see in tv and in movies-usually fictionalized. 'Bonanza,' the popular tv western series that aired from 1959-1973, was notable for not having women as regulars on the show. I am guessing because it would have had to show the actual work these women had to do, which was routine and necessary, but not as cool as the Cartwright boys taking down cattle thieves or traveling to San Francisco for fun. 'Big Valley,' which aired from 1965-1969 wasn't that that much better, though at times Victoria Barkley showed that she did not mind getting her hands dirty when she needed to.

I thought is was interesting when one of the assessors who judged the progress of the group at the Texas Ranch House, noted that the women spent more time at the more interesting crafts, but not at the routine, unglamorous and necessary chores. A running theme I keep find as I watch many of these shows is that people underestimate how much work that went into simple living and when it came to household management, that was the exclusive domain of women. I often found it funny that there were men in those periods writing on how fragile women were, though they failed to consider how much muscle it takes to haul water, to get up and cook and clean and watch over gardens and keep accounts and be on hand to help out when needed-in addition to making home comfortable and welcoming AND raising the children.

I was really disgusted with the way the men treated the women on this show. Not so much because of the gender roles, but because the men seemed to treated the women in a way that not even the hierarchical, chauvinistic men of that era would have treated the women. I also felt that while the cowboys were correct in that they were essential to the ranch, they still worked for the ranch owner and his family. They were still hired help. The behaviour of the colonel in the early minutes of the series, was actually not that far off from how they would have been bossed. And sure, these are 21st century people essentially bringing 21st century experience to the project. However, they sign on to at least try to authentically portray life in a certain period and they needed to accept certain truths. One of them was that it was hard work all the time and the questioning orders thing so common to 21st century life did not exist in that period. You knew your place on the totem pole and if you didn't like it, you could leave, but there wasn't always a job waiting around the bend. Also word of mouth was quite strong and if you developed a reputation as someone who couldn't follow orders and was a troublemaker, your prospects were slimmer still.

The owner of the ranch made some key mistakes in judgment. The two largest ones having to do with his handling of two major incidents that dealt with the hired hands.

The first was the firing of the colonel. Granted if you make certain rules and establish consequences once they are broken, you must be prepared to follow through if the situation arises. I felt that Mr. Cooke, in haste to establish his authority, clearly fired the wrong man as subsequent episodes in this series showed. He let go of a man, who will he was not everyon'e pal, got things done and dealt fairly with the hired hands. He also knew where he was in the hierarchy and acted accordingly. I was surprised that he got into a fist fight with Nacho as I thought he was smarter than that. However, the more I saw of Nacho, the more I could understand how even someone with discipline, could be driven to take a poke at him. Nacho went onto make everyone miserable, even serving rancid food and no food to the hired hands. He also maintained unsanitary conditions in his kitchen. There was one exchange between Mrs. Cooke and Nacho concerning the kitchen, where if I had been there, Mr. Cooke would have had to break up another fight. I know that while he was talking over me, I would have made clear-he works for us and if I need to know what the cookhouse is like or need to assess their food stores, the only words out of his mouth I would want to hear are, "This way, ma'am." If, it was not appropriate for me to as a 19th century married woman to confront Nacho in this way, you better believe Mr. Cooke better be done there and let him know that it was his way or the high way. While hired hands and cooks could be hard to come by, they were not impossible to get. Mr. Cooke waited too long to dispense with Nacho and as a result allowed him to cause considerable damage to the running of the ranch.

The second mistake was in not trading the cattle for his hired hand. As the assessors concurred, Mr. Cooke should have given the head of cattle (the Comanche chief was actually not negotiating hard at all) and had them go out and find new cattle, which though tough was not impossible. By not trading for the hired hand, Cooke sent the message loud and clear to the others whose respect for him was already shaky, that they did not matter. The issue concerning this hired hand's horse was ridiculous. Another example of Cooke fighting the wrong battle. As I understood it, the hired hand, who happened to be the hostage of the Comanche, had already paid for his horse outright, so it belonged to him. When Mr. Cooke traded horses for his release, he had to understand that this situation happened more often than not and to say to a person, "well I'm going to take your horse as payment for your life" was really stupid and thoughtless. Then he threatens to beat this guy up if he takes the horse. I wondered where this vinegar was when other situations that required that came up. He not only lost the battle, but the war since the rest of the hired hands left in solidarity.

I've noticed that except for the 'Jane Austen dating club' show, there have not been any more reality shows produced or at least that have aired on PBS. Maybe many people realize that the past is the past and while it's good to know it and learn from it, going back to it knowing what we know now is often times a mistake.

I was not surprised when the assessors determined that the ranch would have failed.

How To Think Like A Nonprofit Social Media Genius

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

How To Think Like A Nonprofit Social Media Genius

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: socialmedia nonprofit)

thoughtLEADERS, LLC Blog: Do Anything! Just Do It Now! - The 10th Leadership Principle

Ah yes, this was a blog post that caught my attention. Anytime someone can find leadership principles from a story like 'The Outsiders," that is a post worth reading.

The post can be found here:

thoughtLEADERS, LLC Blog: Do Anything! Just Do It Now! - The 10th Leadership Principle

I pretty much agreed with his analysis though I barely got through the movie. I know the scenes he referenced primarily through the book, which I can recite pretty much by heart.

Regarding making 'sounder' decisions: don't know that Ponyboy or Johnny could have made a sounder decision not to go in after the kids. A recurring theme in many of SE Hinton's books is the fact that adults tend to be kinda impotent and when things need to be done, they choose not to act or act in a way that they think they are supposed to without realizing how useless they really are. Even misanthropic Dallas Winston went after Johnny and tried to do something.

Also we do forget that Pony was all of 14 when he made many of his decisions in this story-some good and some less good (much to the frustration of his oldest brother Darry, who I personally think he had more in common with than he realized at the time, but I view that from the perspective of an adult well over 18, than the 11 year old I was when I first read the story and wanted Darry to lay off Ponyboy.) Given some of the background of many of the characters, it is a wonder that they made some of sound decisions they did. I liked the fact that again and again it was shown Ponyboy and his friends demonstrated how decent they basically, even if some of the gang demonstrated less than decent behaviour at times.

I sometimes think that the reason that some people wish they were young again is because it seems that youth can be as decisive and actionable as Ponyboy and Johnny. Maybe, maybe not. I think that we do well to see how and where in our lives we can make sound decisions and take decisive action.

After all, the greasers can't have all the fun, can they?

Google Search and the word that sounds like 'Delores'

Admittedly I've never really had a reason to google this word, but I agree that considering all of the other more disturbing things that a casual Google search can turn up, I would think that the 'word that rhymes with Delores' would be the least of their worries:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/12/05/is-google-sexist

Jane Austen's first Law of Blogging

I saw this at Austen Blog and thought that it was not just adorable, but practical advice:

http://www.austenblog.com/jane-austens-first-law-of-blogging/

Edna Parker just died. She was until her death the oldest recognized living person in the world. I can't imagine living that long, outliving my children-just being that old. I still see myself as being a kid. I still think of myself as, "a high school student with a scapel," as Callie Torres so eloquently stated. I don't know when that will change.

I am of course competitive-I want to live until I am at least 225. I figure if ALF can do it, so can I...

Edna Parker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Parker

Mommy Michelle

Poor Michelle Obama.

I hate to ever say that because she is a person to be celebrated, not to be pitied. Unfortunately, upon Michelle's ascension to the role of 'First Lady,' she unwittingly inheirited the battle that Hilary Clinton, her husband's one time opponent fought when the crown was placed on her head. After 8 years of Laura Bush's quiet teacher like and traditional manners, Michelle Obama, with her advanced education and dynamic career, will have to balance not only the demands of the 'office' of First Lady, but the demands of motherhood, wifehood and self fulfillment.

Subtracting out the 'First Lady' job, the issues that Michelle Obama faces are issues that many women face-especially Gen X and Ys who are now trying to establish and maintain families and careers in climates that are definitely better than the climates their mothers dealt with, but climates that still have a long way to go before they are considered 'equal' or at least 'accommodating.'

Hilary Clinton was raked over the coals for pursuing things like Health Care Reform instead of taking care of her first and only duty, which was to be a mother to her daughter Chelsea. Of course she saw to Chelsea-a young woman the likes of Chelsea Clinton is no accident. Some strong parenting had to take place, especially in the midst of the turmoil that family endured.

Michelle Obama is the mother of two school age children who are intelligent and lively. While to be sure, they are her life, they cannot be the whole of her life. She is someone besides Sasha and Malea's mum and Barack's wife. The question to be answered is that can she balance it all without something having to give and that 'something having to give' not be her children or her marriage? Will she be fine fulfilling the First Lady's role in a traditional way, which does not always lend itself to career development (at least for some careers)? Would her balancing her duties less in favour of the traditional roles expected of women alienate her and by extension, her husband from those who see a more traditional mother, wife and First Lady role as being the important one?


BlogHer looks at this issue in this post:
http://www.blogher.com/will-michelle-obama-spark-next-mommy-wars-skirmish