Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest

I learned so much about ranch life and about the incredible Sandra Day O’Connor

Was okay but have read books like this that were more interesting.

I wish more people could know what our ancestors went through. They made do with what they had, worked hard every day to survive, I am old enough to remember most of this history, and am sorry to think that most people today think everything comes from a super market.

"Lazy B," like the title implies, is the story of Sandra Day O'Connor and her younger brother growing up on a ranch in south-eastern Arizona. They grew up in an isolated environment that mandated self-reliance and initiative. Sandra received much of her formal education through riding the train to El Paso to stay with her maternal grandparents while attending a local girls' school. Her father had wanted to attend Stanford but the responsibilities of taking over the family ranch prevented that. Sandra O'Connor was able to achieve that for him, where she excelled academically, was then inspired by one of her instructors to study law (also at Stanford), met her husband (and also dated classmate William Rehnquist), and then struggled to begin a law career at a time that women had almost no such opportunity. (Despite Sandra graduating from Stanford Law #2 in her class, her early job searches were at best met with "Can you type?")Then it was on to Phoenix where she started a law partnership, then moved to the Attorney General's office, became elected to the State Senate, became a Superior Court Judge, was promoted to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Babbitt (D), and then selected by President Reagan to the Supreme Court.Personal Note: In the late 1970s I appeared in Judge O'Connor's court as a witness and was astounded at her astute (and polite) questioning of one of the attorney's. Later, I witnessed the buzz as those who knew her stopped to congratulate her Supreme Court appointment. And most recently I had the opportunity to hear her and her brother give a presentation on this book - very insightful, witty, and again - polite. (She autographed my copy!)An inspiring person!

I'm reading it for pleasure, and to learn more about the background and history of our first female Supreme Court Justice.

I loved reading this memoir about growing up on a huge cattle ranch in the American southwest. Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother H. Alan Day write from the heart in an easy to read book with lots of pictures. This is a tribute to their parents, a portrait of a colorful childhood in a remote setting on the Arizona border. The Day family raised cattle for a living; real cowboys worked the ranch, broke wild horses, built and mended fences, rounded up cattle, drilled wells, and built windmills. The children participated in all aspects of ranch life.The story is about three generations of a family surviving on an arid and strange land - what the land taught them and how they coped with extremes of drought and distance. Individual stories of the cowboys, their love of horses and cattle and other animals are portrayed in a warm and loving way, as if the authors are smiling as they remember those happy days and their parents who taught and encouraged Sandra, Alan, and their sister Ann; the fun times, hard work, windmills and wells, rodeos, the first train thru the area, school, and so much more.Short chapters, wonderful pictures, and a pleasure to read about a part of America where it truly was "home on the range", and where the cattle industry flourished over a span of a century. Thank you authors for sharing. The quotations are priceless. Here is one of them: When Time, who steals our years away, Shall steal our pleasure, too. The Memory of the past will stay, And half our joys renew. (Thomas Moore, "song")

This book was chosen by our book club, and I do not know the reasons. I have admired Justice O'Connor for years, and reading about her early years was pleasurable, especially because the writing is flawless.

Since moving to Arizona ten years ago, I have learned a lot about the history and culture of the state, but this book has given me a fascinating perspective on what life was like in the early 1900's, especially from the viewpoint of a little girl raised on one of the largest cattle ranches in the state, one who grew up to be a renowned Supreme Court justice, but still retained her love for the people and the life she knew as a girl. She tells her tale with love and humor, and with great respect for the family and the characters she knew. This story shows the hard work that went into the roundups, the cattle drives to the different watering holes and pastures, and the attention to detail it took to keep the animals healthy. This was about cowboys, rodeos and struggle, but also about the practical side of ranching when cattle were allowed to graze on the open range and had to be branded to keep from being mixed in with cattle from other ranches.

A most enjoyable book. Written with style and flair, it gives real insight into the joys and tribulations of growing up on a ranch.Clearly, as the youngsters grew, so the ranch grew upon them and their pride in it, and love for it permeate the whole book. The characters and creatures that inhabit the book are beautifully drawn to the point where I felt almost that I knew them personally. The book is a total delight that I hope to return to again and again.

My daughter doesn‘t like it