Where goats once grazed

By Peter A. Morris

It was another cold wintery day in the park. I was just wandering every which way, nothing or nowhere particular in mind, and found myself by the children's farm which was totally deserted at this season. I made my way through the woods that surround the farm, looking at the variety of birds, and at small animals making their living from under the piles of leaves. Squirrels searching and digging up their stash of seeds and nuts hidden away in the warmer weather, stuffing their cheeks with their bounty and heading into the depth of the trees to devour their feast.

I heard voices above the noise of the wind and wondered who was crazy enough to be out in this weather apart from me! As I moved through the trees I saw someone just ahead and called out not wishing to startle him "Oh, I heard you coming," he said "Have you seen any goats around? "No," I said "I thought they had been put away for the winter."

"Not likely, we graze 'em over this area."

"Then you put them into the children's farm in the summer?" I said "I don't know nuffin' about no children's farm. We raise 'em, fatten 'em then sell 'em, that's what we do wiv'em." And with that he turned his back on me telling me to keep an eye out for any strays and send 'em up the ways toward the barns where his farm was. He pointed towards Cook Street.

I wandered to the top of the hill and got a good blast of winter gale, then headed down the hill in the direction of Cook with the intention of looking for barns in that area that I had missed before. I had certainly not seen a working farm.

There are some sheds there where equipment used in caring for the park is kept. I met up with a fellow working in one of them. I asked him if he knew of a farm that raised goats in the area. "Lord me no! Not these days, but there used to be several in this area and they grazed livestock all through what is now the park and onto the top of what is Dallas Road now. But that was long before there were any roads around here in fact, long before there was much of anything here!"

So, once again I had experienced a brush with the past, the living past. If a person has lived in a certain way for a lifetime, parting that lifetime will not separate the habit of an existence. Will that existence continue forever? Who may answer?

Suffice to know that 'ghosts' inhabit the Planet Earth and no doubt any other space where life exists. I have met them in an amazing number of places and situations. One day I also will enter the spirit world. I look forward to discovering the pathway I will choose or which will be chosen for me.