The goats of Christmas past

Out by the old tower there's a little goat farm, and sometimes, the kids will go out to fence to feed the goats. The kids tell stories about the goats. The most commonly-told story goes that one of the goats was a venture capitalist, who overinflated internet stocks in the late nineties, causing the overvaluation that led to the crash. He made tremendous money on the whole thing, but an online astrology website cursed him for his scheming, and now he's just an old goat, brown on the belly and white on the back, with a somewhat desperate intelligence in his eyes. The little kids go out to feed him carrots, and ask him for financial tips.

Sometimes I go with the kids, out there by the old tower. When I was a kid, we used to play by the same tower, and when I was a teeanger sometimes I would sneak into the tower. They boarded up the tower for good when the goat farm started.

This past weekend I went out to the goat farm, and there was a giraffe there, in the fenced area, among all the goats. The old goat with the brown belly and the white back was nowhere to be seen.

[Poll #428624]