Ann Asks: That goose at your first apt

At last, a short easy one which I will make difficult. My first apartment was in Marion Iowa in 1974-1975. The goose was at my second apartment at 6355 Memorial Drive, Stone Mountain, GA. At first I had a one bedroom apartment there, and then when Jean and I got married I got a 2 bedroom apartment on the third floor (big stuff at the time) in the same complex. (Too much information)

There was a small man-made lake in the center of the complex and a collection of 10-15 geese that spent the year there. There was also a day-old bread store not too far away that sold loaves of bread for next to nothing, so for cheap entertainment I would occasionally buy a day-old Twinkie for me, and a day-old loaf of bread for the geese.

I’d stand on the porch and toss out chunks of bread onto the shoreline, or fly entire slices of bread out into the lake like Frisbees. At first the geese would fly over to my porch when I started tossing bread out. Then it became such a habit that they would fly over when I just stepped out on the porch. Eventually they came over when I just opened the patio door. They knew day-old bread was in the offing. (Offing = the near or foreseeable future, look it up)

One of the geese was particularly aggressive. If I went out on shoreline he would come right up to me while the others kept their distance. If I sat down he would climb on my legs. If I lay down he would climb on my chest. It was difficult to keep my hands, and the bread, out of this guy’s snapping beak.

Sometimes I’d finish distributing a loaf and head to my car to run errands. This aggressive goose would follow me up to the parking lot on the other side of the apartment building and try get in the car with me! There were reports that some of the geese had been hit in the parking lot, so I’d lead the goose back to the shoreline where he would be safe, and then run for the car, but he was too fast, I could not shake him.

I think I eventually worked out a successful strategy to get him off my tail, but I can’t recall what it was. My one bedroom apartment was on the first floor and he’d follow me to the door and try to get in the apartment. (Nothing better than having goose crap all around the entrance to your apartment) The two bedroom apartment was on the third floor, and the goose couldn’t do stairs, so I think my escape strategy involved the stairs.


Not my best work, but there it is.