the goat story

There are plenty of stories that I've heard told a million times. I know them by heart. Then there are other lesser known stories. Sometimes I'll remember just a smidgen of it and then I'll have to figure...is this a real story? Did I make it up? Did I dream it? So I call home and ask...

This is one such story.

The Goat Story...

My father is quite a bit younger than his only sister. This difference meant that when he was still fairly young, she was being courted by handsome young men. One such young man brought my father a baby goat. He'd been hunting on Bell Isle in Richmond. When they'd landed the boat, a bunch of goats ran off leaving a 1-day old kid.

My father took it to his grandmother's house (right next door) and they raised it. He had a dog named Spot and pretty soon that goat adopted the same name. When they called "Spot!" the dog would come running and the goat would too.

His father got a new car. It was the first one that had a curved back instead of going straight down. My father liked to climb up the front, go over the roof and slide down the back. Weeeeee! After awhile, the dog and goat joined him. The three of them would parade up the front, over the roof and down the back all day long.

Well, one night an insurance man came to visit my grandfather. He had a similar style car so you can imagine what happened. First the dog, then the goat, up the front, over the roof, and down the back. The poor confused insurance man came running into the house saying that something terrible had happened. My grandfather explained but the insurance man didn't believe him. So my grandfather had my father demonstrate their game.

I love this story...it just makes me smile ear to ear to think of my father teaching that dog and goat to slide down the back of a car. I decided to make a little piece to illustrate this story.