Wednesday, February 7, 2001

A man for all time zones

Gubernatorial candidate styles himself after legendary Goat Man, fights for 'true time'

By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

Self-styled "goat man" Mitchell Williams Tuesday headed up his 57 goats and moved out of Fayette County.

Williams had said he wasn't kidding about his plan to drive his herd through downtown Fayetteville to help attract attention to his campaign for governor. He is campaigning on a platform based on "true" time, doing away with current standard times.

But Sheriff's Department officials weren't sheepish either about their insistence that he adhere to local law while in the county, which means not driving his goats on the public roads without a parade permit.

Williams had grazed his goats on kudzu behind Jeff Chambers' home on Jeff Davis Drive since last Thursday in an attempt to wait out the law, hoping officials would change their minds under the glare of publicity, but Tuesday gave up the idea. According to Chambers, Williams now plans to skirt the edges of Fayette, heading to Fairburn.

He turned the herd around and headed out of Fayette the way he had come in, crossing County Line Road back into Clayton County. It was a short trip, since Chambers lives just a couple hundred yards from the county line.

Sheriff's deputies stopped traffic long enough for the entourage to cross County Line Road.

The "herd" of goats often took up one and a half lanes of the two-lane Northbridge Road (in Clayton County). But passing motorists didn't seem to mind.

They just smiled ear-to-ear and had a good laugh. It was probably the funniest thing they saw all day.

The candidate was aware of the traffic hazard, especially since "the black one" strays at the edge of the lane, threatened by oncoming traffic.

"People don't know if you get close to them, they'll get out of your way," he said.

The crests of hills represent the most difficult parts of the voyage since oncoming traffic can't stop quickly when they finally see the man's entourage.

"I sure appreciate the police escort," he said.

A modern day wannabe version of the famous Goat Man, Chess McCartney, who traveled the Southeast for more than four decades, Williams Thursday bedded down his herd at the Chambers home after officers warned him that to do otherwise would be illegal. Cpl. Brian Finn and Dep. Manuel Rojas knew that Jeff Chambers had raised goats previously, and asked him to help out.

The Sheriff's Department is concerned over the safety problems that might come from having 57 goats herded along the right of way, said Maj. Ken Rose. "The law prohibits the running of livestock all over the roads in Fayette County," he said, but added the Sheriff's Department has no desire to arrest Williams.

Williams is calling his journey "The True Time Parade."

"They don't remember the old Goat Man," Williams said Friday as he tended his herd using a six-foot length of PVC pipe as a staff. "They'll get back to the office and some of the older ones who remember the old Goat Man will fill them in, and maybe we'll find a way of resolving this," he said.

The original Goat Man was a legend in his time. From the '40s into the '80s, McCartney drove his goat-drawn wagon north in the summer and south in the winter, preaching to large crowds along the way. He was a familiar sight to anyone frequenting U.S. Highway 41.

Williams says he feels he cuts a similar figure.

He drove school buses in the city of Atlanta for 15 years before retiring recently and going into the goat business full time, he says. He built up his herd and hired the goats out to Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, to keep the underbrush cleared out.

But the park yanked his contract, he said, leaving him with nowhere to go, so Williams did what any thinking person would do under the circumstances ... he decided to run for governor.

He has access to a camp site in Fairburn where he can stay the winter, he said, adding he hopes to head out to south Georgia in the spring to continue his campaign. His meandering path brought him through McDonough and Clayton County, then across the Clayton County line into Fayette.

Making about eight or nine miles a day, Williams herds his goats until he finds a stopping place, then hitchhikes back to where his RV is parked and brings the camper to where the goats are bedded down. "I live wherever the goats are at," he said.

He has run twice before for governor, and twice for Atlanta mayor, he said. Priding himself on spending no money on his campaigns, he brags that he spent $23.40 in one mayoral race and got his highest vote total ever: 261 votes.

Calling his campaign "The True Time Parade," he has been working his way south since Jan. 14. His campaign has a single issue: "Georgia needs a true time standard," he says, not the standard they're using now, what I call Mickey Mouse time."

Instead of Eastern Standard or Eastern Daylight Time, each part of the state should be on "true" time, measured by its longitude, he said.

"Our true time would be about 37 minutes after Eastern Standard Time," he said.

Using his standard, he said, school children would be able to board buses and walk to school in daylight, preventing injury and death. "This is going to be a hot, hot issue," he said.

The visibility of his goat parade has brought several offers of campaign contributions, Williams said, adding he is thinking about making a more serious run for governor this time, possibly even getting an official place on the Republican Primary ballot for 2002.

He had one contribution once before, he said. "A man offered a substantial donation and said it was so I could see a psychiatrist," he chuckled.