The Rangity Tango Kids is the story of a bunch of happy and rowdy kids growing up on a farm in northern California, surrounded by our aunts and uncles, great-aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents. It was a wonderful life and we all stuck together, put our arms around each other and took care of one another.
We all worked in the fields at a young age, pulling stickers, irrigating, driving tractors and harvesters, hunting the eggs, feeding the chickens, and milking the cow. Like the best of families, we had our share of crazy ideas, fights and disagreements, but we also genuinely liked each other.
My Dad died in 2019 and he is one of the reasons I wrote the book – to share some history about him and his father as well as my traditional American family that I wouldn’t trade for anything. My Mom died from a brain tumor in 2000 and she’s another reason I wrote the book. It was important for me to tell about a time, a place and a life that is disappearing; it's my way to share my family's traditions, keep my memories alive, and thank my parents for a wonderful life.
Growing up on the farm was an education that is hard to match and a life that was everything but ordinary. Like my Dad always said, “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”
Robert Redford
“The cadence of Rominger’s narrative style is soundly evocative of the world she brings to life in The Rangity Tango Kids. Growing up on a California farm riding horses and motorcycles, Rominger figured out where her heart was. The rich story of how to be a great family, to overcome challenges together, and to win in the end is one you won’t want to miss.”
Peter Coyote
“From the ground it looks like a falcon flies in circles. It actually rises flying over the same territory to a new, higher level. Rominger’s life and charming book are like this. She was born to a traditional, religious, farm family with the kind of old-fashioned values and principles politicians rant about and rarely practice. Lorraine’s story melds the best of true conservatism, neither Right nor Left, with a huge human heart. I loved this book.”
