It seems everyone living on the mill hill had some kind of domestic animals around. Some had horses, like my family, but more often it was hogs, a milkcow or goats. Now Wade Fry had goats, and those goats were all the timegetting loose and straying down to the mill parking lot.  I mean it happened sooften it just got to be a common sight for these goats to be down there. I oftenwondered why they didn't give them a punch card and pay Wade for lettingthem cut the grass. You probably aren't going to believe this ,but sometimesthey would make their way up the stairs, all the way to the tower where theywould hop thru the opening and would actually be walking around on top of themill. Pee Dee # 1 Textiles was three stories high and you could see these goatswalking around on the roof eating out of the gutters. People getting off their shiftwere constantly taking them back up to Wades House .

 

     Well Abby Coble was the proud owner of an antique Rag Top convertible thathe drove down to the mill everyday. He never expected anything to happen to itas it never did for ten years or more. Well one morning after the whistle had blew and all the first shift were working hard at their looms, cards, dolfing, ect., Shine Sykes came walking down the hill heading for Lefty's as straight as a martin going to his den. When he saw Wades' goats walking around in the mill lot he ran over and gathered 'em up. They still had the ropes around their necks. Now the thing to do like everybody else always did was to take them back up to Wades' back yard. But ooooh no, not Sunshine ! That would be a couple hundred steps in the wrong direction and Lefty's and a cold beer was in the other direction. So he reasoned the easiest thing to do was just tie them there in the mill lot. Now, he could have tied them to one of the many iron rails but that was across the parking lot, or he could have tied them to one of the many small trees around the parking lot, but that was too much trouble. No, the easiest thing to do was to tie them to a car bumper. Of the hundred or so cars parked in the lot, guess which one he chose to tie them too. Of course, I don't have to tell you, Abby Coble's Antique Rag Top.

 

     Well if you know anything about goats you know they like to hop up on things.Its as natural as breathing for them, and that's what they did. All day long they dinged that car with their sharp hooves jumping up and down on it, but that's not the worst of it. Finally, they all ended up on the cloth top of the car, which ripped, causing all three goats to fall down inside. When Abby got off from his shift that evening, all three goats where still in the car, having been there all day. They all three were just sitting there in the car, their heads looking out the windows like three kids waiting for Abby to get off work so he could take them to the picture show.

 

     And when Abby got to his car, it was a mess. Not only was there a big hole in his canvas top but the whole car was dinged up so bad it looked as if it had been ridden thru a hail storm. Well, by now Sunshine is taking it easy up at Lefty's enjoying a " cool one ", and its mighty lucky for him that he is because if he was within reach of Abby's hands, he would have strangled 'em!