The Wedding and a Goat

A number of years ago, back when I was still in high school, my next-door neighbor’s daughter got married. Not in a church, not in a chapel, but in the backyard of a township justice of the peace several counties over. Why there? Well, it turns out the justice was a distant cousin of the groom, and she reluctantly offered her backyard for the ceremony. That backyard, while spacious, was basically…