The Goat Cart Picture

This is for Smile For The Camera, the theme being one's favorite photograph. Like a lot of people I have several favorites, but this is the one that I thought of immediately - so the goat cart picture it is!

Luckily, my grandmother wrote about the photo on the back. It was taken in Ozone Park, Queens on September 1, 1896 and shows the Hicks children and a cousin - and the goat and cart, of course. The goat, whose name was Rex, was given to Harry, Charlie and Lacey Hicks as a present by their uncle Smith Lacey. Smith was married to Minnie Hicks, younger sister of the children's father Charles Garrett Hicks.

From left to right:

Harry Hamilton Hicks (age 14)
Rex the goat
Garry Wilson (cousin on the Barnett side of the family, also 14)
Alida Mabel (Polly) Hicks (age 12)
Grace Agnes Hicks (my grandmother, age 7)
Lacey Reed Hicks (age 5, sitting in the cart)
Charles Garrett Hicks, Jr. (age 9)

My grandmother said that they took the cart out for a drive and the goat ran onto the railroad tracks. Her father Charles was working as an agent there and someone spotted the cart and shouted to him, "Charlie, there go your children!" Fortunately there were no trains coming!

It doesn't look like they would all fit in the cart, so maybe this was just two or three of the boys.

I think my grandmother would have wanted a go at driving the goat cart (not near the railroad tracks, though!) I wish I had asked her if she had.