Pedigrees

One of my favorite old cattle books is 'Dual-Purpose Cattle' by Claude Hinman. In the book he tells this story with regards to "pedigrees":

Attending a Boston convention of the A.O.U.W., at a dinner meeting, a pleasant young matron chanced to be seated beside a dignified local dowager, typical of the "proper Bostonians." This good lady finally unbent enough to say, "Pa'don me, my deah, what did I understand your name to be?"
"My name is Mrs. Sawyer," was the reply.
"Oh" (more warmly) "Perhaps you are one of the Wellesley Hills Sawyers?"
"No, I'm sorry, I am not."
"Ah, then perhaps you are one of the Brookline Sawyers?"
"No, I am from Oklahoma City. I have no relatives in New England."
"Oh," was the much cooler response, and after a pause, "You know, in Boston we think that breeding is everything."
"Well, we think it's lots of fun in Oklahoma but we do not think it is everything. We have other interests."

The cattle breeder should incline to the Oklahoma viewpoint and not consider pedigree "everything."