The thing is, I am from a ranching background too – on my mother’s side.

I spent summers with my grandfather and older cousin working (trying to work?) cattle and the land.

We would wake up early, go to bed early, and take a long siesta during the heat of the day.

We broke horses, mended fences, branded cattle, and tinkered on old truck engines.

I am a few generations away from McMurtry, but I have heard about the old cattle drives in stories passed down.

See, my grandfather got his ranchland from his father, who got it from his father (W.W. Riggs), who got it from the state of Texas in 1900.

And I still have family on that land today.

That’s roots.

I am, of course, from a ranching background. A few of my older uncles had done some modest trail driving. The trail drives and the myth of the cowboy which rose out of them were in the scope of my family memory.

-Larry McMurtry, Literary Life (Amazon)