A Doherty Branding

The first summer after John and I met in Kansas City, I went home with him after the Junior Hereford Field day.  The Dohertys planned to brand at the Horseshoe ranch the next day.  Although I grew up on a ranch, I had never been much involved in the branding because calves were put through the chute and there were plenty of boy cousins to do the branding, so I helped with the lunch.  I was in for quite an education on this day!  The day began at the crack of dawn because they wanted to work the cattle before it got too hot. We all needed a  jacket in the chill of the morning, but what a beautiful time of day. All of John's brothers, sisters and cousins participated in the round-up and branding regardless how young, so there was quite a crew--ten kids plus his dad, uncle and grandfather. I was mounted on Smoky, a proven dependable horse, which was good for me because riding on the open prairie of Wyoming was a stark contrast to the rugged hills, rocks and brush of the New Mexico ranch.  I just held on over the rocks and brush and let Smoky wrangle the cows and calves as he was trained to do.

 Once the cows and calves were in the corral, they were separated.  Then the flanking crews went to work.  One guy would grab the hind leg of a calf and a second person would stand on the opposite side of the calf grabbing a front leg and lay the calf down kneeling on the neck and folding the leg up to its body.  The guy with the hind leg would stretch it out and put his foot on the other leg.  This put the calf in the position to be branded, vaccinated and if necessary castrated.  John and I were a flanking pair, so he caught the hind leg and I took the front leg. Some of the calves were quite big and a real challenge to catch and flank. All of this was a sensory overload-- cows and calves bawling for each other, dust stirred up by the cattle, the acrid stench of hair burned by the branding iron,  heat and sweat from strenous work, bruises from getting kicked by a calf, and manure on your jeans and boots from sitting on the ground in the corral.

At the end of the branding, I was exhausted, tired and dusty with manure stains on the back of my jeans, but I had the satisfaction of knowing I had passed the branding test.  It was my first of many experiences on the Doherty ranch!

What's in a Name

We all value our name and have special names for others we care for.  Our fathers each had a rather unique nicknames.  My father-in-law's name was John Franklin but he went by Tanky.  The story goes that his sister could not say his middle name Franklin so she called him Tanky, which has remained the name that everyone who knew him at all called him. In the broader family circle there were five members named John including him:  his father, his cousin, his son, and a nephew.  The family called his father Daddy John, he was Tanky, the community referred to his son a veterinarian as Dr. John, his cousin was John Albert and the nephew went by Johnny Jim.  When we had a son we knew for sure we did not want to name him John!  The family tradition of naming a child after the parent seemed like it had gone on long enough.

My father's given name was Marvin, but among close family he went by Squid, which is nothing close to his real name.   I'm not even sure of the origin of this moniker.  My mother and others referred to my dad by Squid, but his mother never would. Unlike my father-in-law's nickname that everyone used, my father's nickname of Squid caused confusion.  My mother would be talking about  her husband Marvin and then Dad would walk in and she would call him Squid leaving people scratching their heads in wonder.  So our kids have grandfathers named Tanky and Squid.

The women in our families seem to be in a quandary of what to be called.  Both of us have grandmothers named Mary and sisters with Mary as a first name as well, but who go by their middle names of Kathleen and Janette. So our sisters have gone through life being called by their first name, which they do not use. My grandmother Mary named her daughter Mary. My husband has two cousins named Mary after his grandmother in addition to his sister. My mother-in-law is Joan, but it sounds like Joann and her daughter is named Joann spelled like you would expect.  My husband has a great-aunt and an aunt named Charline. He also has an aunt Georgia who named her daughter Georgia.  So like with the men in the family, we decided on something different for our daughter--Jennifer.  I only knew one little girl named Jennifer when she was born.  When she went to college, I think there were six Jennifers on her floor in the dorm!

Names are a reflection of our heritage and our times and every family has its own treasures.