RHINESTONE COWGIRLS : BETTY TAROLL
Name: Betty Taroll
Number: 42
Position: Blocker
The windblown edge of Lubbock, Texas, is the unlikely birthplace of either a rollergirl or a free spirit, but that is indeed where Betty blossomed. Of course, she wouldn’t become a rollergirl until much later, but the general exuberance that would come to guide her in life appeared early, at that age when one can wriggle one’s shirt off and run around topless and no one notices, as Betty was wont to do on those warm Spring days on the endless South Plains when the duststorms were having a nap.

Eventually, however, Betty got to the age when folks started to notice her bare-breasted rampages through the cottonfields. Later, they were the same people that noticed her building that UFO homing beacon in her uncle’s back field. Still later, they noticed how many boys she was kissing – and why were they so upset about that one girl? Betty wondered why these people were so strange, not wanting her to have any fun and not wanting to have any fun themselves. But then she read all of Tom Robbins’ books, which explained everything, and she concluded that if she wanted any peace at all, she’d have to keep her fun shielded from the eyes of the righteous, at least for as long as she still resided in Lubbock.

Which wasn’t for long. Betty jaunted north to Amarillo to paint signs for Stanley Marsh 3 (it's 3, not III, mind you) and pull weeds out of his Smithson piece Amarillo Ramp. Life with Marsh was actually too much like a Robbins novel and she soon let Lubbock, the navel of the universe (at least according to the little green men who visited her uncle’s back field), drag her back by its otherworldly magnetic power.

By the time the Rhinestone Cowgirls caught up with Betty, she was operating a roadside attraction out past the Strip (a mini-Las Vegas just past the city limits where the dust-crusted Lubbock denizens can buy booze). The Rhinestones were indeed seeking her out – they had heard about her museum dedicated to Chippy, a 1930’s saloon girl that kept all of West Texas from imploding under the weight of all that cowboy testosterone. They also had heard about the hordes of women that would just show up behind the museum and galavant through the cottonfields in their skivvies (Betty would later say, "I was not trying to be a pioneer. I was just being myself."). At any rate, the Rhinestones had a delivery to make in Lubbock, and Betty’s museum sounded like an interesting diversion while there.

The Rhinestones arrived at the Chippy Museum in time for the Typical Saloon Evening Reenactment, ended up joining the reenactment (with Ruby Sioux and Witch Baby taking turns playing Chippy), and drank Betty’s entire store of Patrón. That was just fine, because by then the Rhinestones had convinced Betty to close up shop in Lubbock and move down to Austin with them, where the air was dust-free and didn’t foul up your skates’ bearings.

So if you wonder why Betty smiles so much during a bout, wonder no longer – it’s because she can’t contain her general exuberance, her love for the surreal, her love for the roller derby game, and her love for her sisters-in-skates, the fun-lovin’ Rhinestone Cowgirls.

LIKES: Lubbock, dancing, rockabilly boys, long walks on the beach, flying saucers, MAC lipstick in Dubonnet
DISLIKES: Lubbock, cranky people (i.e. staunch conservatives, Holy Rollers), people who drive slow in the left lane
WORDS TO LIVE BY
"I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn’t know any other way to be, or any other way to live." -- Bettie Page
site designed by - bzldesigns
TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls is SKATER-OWNED and OPERATED.
TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls ©2005 - All Rights Reserved.