| At age nineteen, I went to work for my | | | | "Trouble Every Day!" |
| grandmother on her 8000 acre cattle ranch in NE | | | | Shortly after I got married, I broke my finger in a |
| New Mexico. I'd always loved cowboys and loved | | | | horse wreck, had to get a pin put in it and wore |
| being on the ranch, so it was natural for me to | | | | a brace during branding for several weeks. Clyde's |
| want to be there at the time. Fairly early in my | | | | advice was to, "soak it in cider:" or so I thought. |
| job I came across a man I would never forget, a | | | | He told me later that was not the way he meant |
| neighbor to the east. His name was Clyde | | | | it. |
| Shepherd. | | | | During another branding season, a neighbor had a |
| Clyde grew up on ranches in West Texas. Even | | | | chuck wagon along with the crew. Clyde's Dad |
| though he was through and through cowboy, he | | | | was the cook and it was great fun living like the |
| never put on airs. Half the time you'd see him | | | | cowboys of the old west. As usual Ted was |
| wearing a baseball cap, and not the cowboy hat | | | | constantly behaving badly and Clyde instigated the |
| most of us wore at the time. Clyde ran a ranch | | | | one and only "chapping" I was ever a part of. He |
| for a West Texas family. As far as I know Clyde | | | | had several of us hold Ted down over the wagon |
| never owned much land himself, but spent his life | | | | tongue while he wore out a pair of chaps on his |
| building up ranches for others. | | | | back side. |
| That first meeting hangs in my mind because | | | | Clyde taught me a lot about cowboy etiquette. It |
| Clyde's dry humor showed up immediately. He | | | | was he who would berate any cowboy who got |
| asked if my friend and I were cooking our own | | | | out of formation when gathering a herd and God |
| meals. When I replied that we were, he said, | | | | forbid one cowboy should ride in front of another. |
| "Those Post Toasties aren't too hard to cook, are | | | | There was a certain amount of pride produced in |
| they?" which actually hit pretty close to the mark. | | | | all of us who worked with Clyde. We felt that if |
| Over the years I would come to admire Clyde's | | | | we could ride and work with Clyde Shepherd, we |
| wit. He could always come up with something that | | | | were among the best. I will always be grateful to |
| few would have thought of. As we worked cattle | | | | Clyde for that. |
| together, you came to know that Clyde always | | | | I kind of lost touch with him towards the end, but |
| knew the right place to be at any given moment. | | | | managed to get to the Nara Visa Cowboy Poetry |
| He might have been a little slower than some | | | | Gathering in 2005 when Clyde was honored with |
| getting there, but that didn't matter, he was | | | | an award. He then had diabetes and was in pretty |
| always there when he needed to be. | | | | bad shape. His humor and wit had not left him |
| He pulled no punches when it came to | | | | though. He told me he had to go to the hospital in |
| incompetence. One summer while branding with | | | | Amarillo twice a week, so they could change his |
| neighbors, a cowboy working with us was always | | | | oil. This was his description of his kidney |
| slacking off and getting in the way. At one point, I | | | | procedures. |
| heard Clyde calling him Ted, which wasn't his | | | | A cowboy humorist to the end; that was Clyde |
| name. I asked why he called him that and Clyde | | | | Shepherd. Clyde died a couple of years ago. |
| replied, "I nicknamed him that, TED, short for | | | | |