Cowgirl wall of faces -- Photo by Pat Bean
“Cowgirl is an attitude … A pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses … A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she’s just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, or an astronaut.” — Dale Evans
Journeys
They call it Cowtown USA. I’m talking about Fort Worth, Dallas’ next door neighbor. It was my home for a couple of years back in the late 1970s, when I was a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A bronze of Sacagawea graces the entrance to the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. -- Photo by Pat Bean
A job with such a big-city newspaper was the dream of many journalists, including mine. I
Pink symbol of the cowgirl spirit. -- Photo by Pat Bean
loved the hectic pace and getting to cover everything from murders and a bigoted sheriff to a visiting circus and former President Richard Nixon after his resignation.
It was a heady time in my life. But I gave it all up in 1980 to accept a job at a smaller paper in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. Mother Nature’s call to my soul was louder than skyscrapers, bright city lights and an opportunity to rise to the top of my profession.
I thought about this choice yesterday when my daughter and I visited the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. This is a place dedicated to women with strong ties to the land, even if they don’t excel at riding wild horses.
It’s a place that celebrates the pioneering spirit of the women who helped settle this nation, of movie-star, rhinestone cowgirls who showed young girls they could do anything they wanted to do, and of the tough cowgirl spirit of the women who went up against the guys and scored: Annie Oakley, who could out-shoot the men, and Sandra Day O’Connor who began life on a cattle ranch and ended up being a Supreme Court Justice.
I was a bit taken back, however by the museum’s current special exhibit. “The Apron Chronicles.” The show highlights, through their aprons, the hard-working lives and recollections of a diverse group of strong American women and a few men. .
Interestingly, I told my daughter afterward, that early in my life I had made the decision to never wear an apron. And I never did, even though I never shirked from cleaning and cooking and raising my children pretty much single-handed.
An apron was a symbol for me that women belonged at home in the kitchen. And while I actually love cooking, I knew the world had more to offer me than a cutting board and an oven.
And I was right.
Pat Bean's blog 
Thank you for mentioning the Cowgirl Museum! A few summers back I visited a friend in Fort Worth and she took me there as a side trip after our excursion to the modern art museum. She thought it would be funny and fun, and it was. But more than that, it inspired me. My friend was amazed at how much I loved such a place, given my general disinterest in cowboy boots and country music. To be honest, I think this sweet, vibrant place is probably my all-time favorite museum (and I’ve been to lots). I could have gone back day after day to read the stories of women whose spirit and sense of adventure led them to do things society told them they shouldn’t or couldn’t do. 🙂
Hi Pat,
I lived in Fort Worth after getting laid off from a job I had worked very hard at for 7 years. I lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking this small city in between the art district and cowtown. It was a slow experience, everything slowed down, and it was nice. Actually, my daughter came to live with me for about 5 months while I was there and it made the experience even brighter. Then she left, as I knew she would and should do. Everything has a heart of its own though, and my journey in Fort Worth lasted about a year then I returned back to Houston with a head full of memories.
Pat-seems like you fit right in with Dale Evans’ description of a cowgirl- it’s all about attitude. The museum sounds interesting as well but I do think the apron connection is a bit strange-surely there must have been some other symbol that could have been used to depict the hard work of these women/cowgirls.
Great blog as always Pat- do you think the apron chronicles is part of the trying to get women back where some believe they belong: the home and kitchen? i worry sometimes that young women do not see how far we have come and how very threatened that is
Thanks for a wonderful blog as always
Chery
I actually saw the Apron Chronicles not so much as putting women back where they belong but in valuing the word they do. And you so right. I try to tell my granddaughters about the struggles I had in the work place to receive the same pay for the work as I did as the men who almost always got away with doing half the work I had to do to be respected. They truly have no idea what we went through in the 60s, 70s and 80s. I’m glad we made it better for them, and it is nice to realized how far women have gone, even if we’re not all they way there yet, certainly not in many other countries. Thanks for commenting Chery
Keep writing … Pat Bean https://patbean.wordpress.com