Goat carts. What’s not to love? Adorable kids! Tiny livestock! Bespoke transportation! Staff members at the State Archives of North Carolina kept coming across photographs of kids in goat carts, often enough to make them wonder: Did everyone have a goat cart in the 1930s?
Luckily, the archivists wrote a blog post about the carts, titled, “Did everyone have a goat cart in the 1930s?” In short, no. Goat carts were not some sort of Depression-era Ubers for children. They were only practical for one thing: cute kid pictures. Traveling photographers would take the carts and goats with them from town to town, plop kids down in the seat, and take their pictures. The cart was presumably both prop and ad, because children would inevitably spot one and attract a throng of other kids and their parents. Those carts often had the year displayed on the front, turning the resulting picture into an irresistible keepsake.
Goat carts went viral and, surprisingly, proved to be Depression-proof. Then, at the beginning of World War II, traveling photographers started to be less of a trend. After that, goat carts largely faded from the public consciousness, only to be rediscovered by the occasional surfer of archival photographs.
Even so, goats themselves are enjoying a renaissance. They’re now being incorporated into yoga classes (na-baa-ste, am I right?), kudzu clearing, and the acronym GOAT, which literally means “greatest of all time.” And yes, there are a few “how to train your goat to pull a cart” websites, just in case you want to fetch your tintype camera from the attic and make a couple of bucks.
In North Carolina, spring brings the scent of fresh-cut grass and memories of helping Dad mow the lawn.
Nostalgic burger joints are like time machines, delivering something extra special that keeps us coming back.
This tiny city block in downtown Greensboro once had a gigantic reputation. Not so much for its charbroiled beef patties — though they, too, were plentiful — but for its colorful characters and their wild shenanigans.
In the 1950s, as Americans hit freshly paved roads in shiny new cars during the postwar boom, a new kind of restaurant took shape: the drive-in. From those first thin patties to the elaborate gourmet hamburgers of today, North Carolina has spent the past 80 years making burger history.
