My Dad is originally from New York, but he was raised in Terre Haute, Indiana. All of his cousins and extended family still live in New York. Every four years we go up there for a HUGE (I'm talking HUUUGE) family reunion. Everyone in my Dad's family has like six kids, and then they have six kids, and then they have several kids, and the next thing you know… HUGE. Anyway, at those family gatherings EVERYONE calls my Dad "Herk" or "Herky". Like so much so, that when someone introduces me or my kids, they say "This is Herky's daughter, Kathy" or "This is Herk's grandson, Cooper". Why do they call him Herk? Here's the story…
When my Dad was a tiny little baby, we're talking like two days old, My Grandpa laid him in his crib on his back and stepped out of the room for just a second. In that second, my Grandma came in and flipped him over to his belly. When my Grandpa stepped back in, he proclaimed "This baby has flipped himself over! He's as strong as Hercules!"
And that's how it goes. Kind of, I might have switched Grandpa for Grandma… maybe he was the flipper not the proclaimer, but you get the point. Hercules became Herk which became Herky.
by Kathy