Nepotism has long been a complaint about politics. It’s considered terrible form – and often, bad business – to elevate people to positions of authority based solely upon their relation to a recent leader in private enterprise. In politics, on the other hand, where name recognition and familiarity are often deciding factors for a voter, nepotism and family dynasties run rampant, and they are duly produced by a (theoretically) informed electorate. This is likely why Clay Henry, Clay Henry II, and Clay Henry III have served as the Mayor of Lajitas, Texas.
Clay Henry II was elected despite having killed his father in a fight in 1992. His son was later elected Mayor as well, although the legacy originally ended there… Clay Henry III was attacked and castrated by one of the local residents for the offense of drinking alcohol.
All three of the Mayors were beer-drinking goats, and the attacker was sick of good beer going to waste on stupid animals. To be fair, they weren’t simply beer-drinking goats, they were impressively beer-drinking goats.
Or at least, the original Clay Henry was. The other two more-or-less coasted on his name and reputation. The original was notoriously large and able to consume scores of bottles of beer every day, whereas his descendants were likely to be hammered after only a few dozen.
You’ll also notice that the legacy “originally” ended there. Clay Henry IV and Clay Henry V have been subsequently elected, although there was a span of a couple of years after Clay Henry III where the town had no official Mayor. As the original goat was unusually healthy and as randy as, well, a drunken goat, he’d had more than one son, and an alternate branch of the bloodline was chosen for the new officeholders.
They’ve been doing a pretty good job, too. Lajitas has grown from a few shacks to a small resort town since the time of Clay Henry the first. Not bad for a drunken ruminant.
Question of the night: What’s a skill or trait shared by multiple generations of your family?
