Natalie’s Dreams Take a Tropical Twist

 Natalie Gray, a small town New England girl, dreams of escaping a mundane, structured life in Reading, Massachusetts by taking advantage of her skills as a horseback rider, working on a dude ranch, and marrying a cowboy. Having taken horseback riding lessons during much of her young life, she gets the opportunity to become a riding instructor at a stable in New Hampshire during the summer of 1943 after graduating from high school. The distance from home allows her to make the decision to unshackle herself from her high school romance and explore independence.

 Her brother’s return home from England as an accomplished WWII pilot, her parents disintegrating marriage, and her success at developing skills as both a riding instructor and a hand-tooled leather crafts woman, inspire her decision to accept a job at a well-established Massachusetts dude ranch. Her romance with a young cowboy blossoms as her parents’ marriage ends. Her sudden elopement offers a contrast to her brother’s idyllic post-war marriage ceremony. Problems develop. The marriage ends in divorce, but is revived with a move to Floridan ranch.