Working Cattle With Jerry Taylor

    Working Cattle with Jerry Taylor

by

  Mike Capron

I never worked with a man as relaxed and enjoyable as Jerry Taylor.  I pastured cattle for the outfit he worked for. It lasted for several years and we never had a tough moment in our relationship. He would show up for a designated cow work and stay for the duration of the works. He would bring one horse that he rode called “Four Day Bay”. We never furnished him with any horses and we usually stayed in a camp somewhere on the ranch. It was not a luxury situation ever, plenty of time in the saddle, lots of wind, dirt, and long days. Good chuckwagon and cook and we loved it. Jerry fit right in and the crew loved to work with him.  Late one evening he got in a concrete tank that was about half full of water, to take a bath.  The tank was right next to camp but not used for water source as it was very brackish and salty. Jerry took a quick bath but when it came time to get out, he couldn’t climb out. He started hollering for help. None of us in camp were very anxious to go help a naked man in a tank.  Skip finally took sympathy and went over to see what Jerry needed………Skip came back and said he sure had a hard time getting Jerry out of that tank. He said it reminded him of pulling a dead deer out of a tank. He sure was glad that Jerry’s arm stayed in tack while he was pulling on it so hard to get him out of the tank.