A Goat Story

My Grandfather had a magnetic personality. Everyone loved him very much, especially his children and grandchildren. He always had a good joke and always had a good story. Now, being from the south, he often told stories that were incredibly amusing yet at the same time had no particular moral to them. There is one story in particular that I never really understood. It was pretty funny the way he would tell it. But when you would stop to think about it, you would realize how cruel it probably was. It didn't really have a moral- that is until he lay on his death bed in what were literally his final days. I like to call this one-


A Goat Story. A Childhood Memory

My Grandfather always had a funny story about his childhood on the family farm in Virginia. He use to tell this story about wanting a goat. He just wanted a goat so badly as a pet. So one day he went to his father and asked, "Pappa, Pappa, could I please have a goat? Please Pappa please." He asked over and over again. So his father looked at him and said, "Son if you finish all of your work well this week, you can have your goat." Now we are talking about the early 1900's. So I am not talking about childhood chores. Children had to work back then. Having summers off for school back then was for the sole purpose that children could help tend the farm.

Well, my grandfather went out and did his work and did them well. He milked the cows, gathered eggs. He helped till the fields and feed the animals. He probably did a lot of other things I don't even know about which I am sure I would find unpleasant. He probably did some of the other children's work too just to get his goat. At the end of the week he went to his father and asked, "Pappa, Pappa, now can I please have my goat?"

"Did you finish all of your work well?" his father asked.
"Yes Pappa," answered my young grandfather.

His father looked at him, leaned forward and spoke, "You will get your goat when broomsticks turn to pine trees." This is the part where we would laugh at this story. Broomsticks turning to pine trees will never happen on this planet. Then we would ponder it and think to ourselves, geez that is mean. There was no particular moral to the story. The moral came much later when my Grandfather was much older and had fallen ill.

I can't say my Grandfather grew old and frail. I had the honor of working by his side. Well into his late 80's he was outworking the younger guys on the job including me. It was something to see. Then suddenly, he began to get a little tired and sick to the stomach. He couldn't keep his food down. This went on for a couple of years but he was still outworking the younger guys till it started getting worse. When he went to the doctor to have it checked out, they found leukemia. It had spread to his lungs. He was told to stay home and not work. He was 90. He was going quickly. He was disappearing before our eyes.

He was on pain medication and was displaying some unusual eerie behavior. He couldn't walk so he was bedridden. He was having hallucinations from the powerful pain killers. He thought he was plastering his bedroom. He would call out to his brothers one by one. They were all dead. Most times he would carry on a conversation like normal. Big Pop, as we called him, knew he was going to die. There are two things he said in his dying days that really stood out. My Aunt Nell was keeping him company one day when he looked at her and said, "I am not afraid to die, but I am going to miss everyone something awful." The second thing he said revealed the moral and true ending of the Goat story. My Aunt was tending to him another day and he pointed into the air and said with such a satisfied whisper, "look at that little goat." My aunt turned to him and replied, "Daddy I see it. He is so beautiful."

God showed my 90 year old Grandfather the goat that was promised him when he was a boy of 8 years old. That funny story turned out to be a memory that had bothered my Grandad for years. That thing my Great Grandfather said about brooms turning to pine trees was painful. It was so painful Big Pop took it to his death bed. I am not saying my Great Grandfather was a bad man. He is the one responsible for our family being in the building trade. He provided for his family and taught his boys to do the same. But he said one thing to his son that hurt him to his core. He would have just been better off telling my Grandfather from the start that he could not have the goat, instead of making a promise and breaking it. I guess the moral of the story is, be careful what you say to your children. Choose your words wisely. They look to parents for guidance. They adore their parents. So parents make sure your children have good memories of you, not cruel ones. You plant seeds with everything you say. Make sure those seeds aren't weeds.