The Goat Tree

The following story is taken from real life.  It is my own account of a event that I actually experienced as a child.  To this day, when I think about it, It still gives me the freak-outs.  I certainly have no explanation for it.  It is just something that happened, and cannot be explained.  Well, here it goes...


The Goat Tree:

As a child, we would visit family far in southern Texas.  Although I haven't been there in decades, I remember a particular path that joined our relative's house, and the main road that led into town.  In that part of the land, and in those days, much of it was still undeveloped and so, much of it was still wild land.  There were wolves there, some wild horses, and wild boar there that could take your leg if you weren't careful. 

Anyway, as I remember, we would often sit before a campfire while the older family members would tell stories.  One night, after everyone had gone to bed, I awoke to go to the outhouse.  I was walking along the small path, when I heard a goat bleating.  Well, it may not seem like something that would be scary to you, but you must understand that I was about eight years old at the time.

I knew that our family did not have goats, and that wild goats weren't common there.  I remember looking around the flat land and seeing nothing.  The only thing close by was a dead tree.  I started walking again, and again I heard the goat bleating as if it were no more than five yards from me.  There was nothing there, and for an eight year old, I can say that it was a terrifying experience.

Well, I kept that experience to myself for some years.  One day, I mentioned it to an elderly relative who used to live in that area.  When he told me what old dead tree was used for, well I was freaked.  He said that when he was a boy, he remembered that relatives and neighbors would tie goats to that tree for "meat processing", and that it was known amongst his childhood friends as the goat tree.  He said that he didn't like going near that tree because he would hear things there. 

The tree itself has been long gone by many decades now.

It may not seem all that scary to you, but to me, it was a frightening childhood experience that haunts me, and remains unexplained to this day.