The Circus is in Town

Ringling Brothers Circus came to town yesterday.
I saw the picture in the Washington Post this morning.

Yesterday children lined the streets and watched the huge elephants and the clowns parade from Union Station to the Verizon Center where they will perform for the next four days. I wish I had known.

I sat at the breakfast table and stared at the picture of the elphant's rump and the clown standing on the massive pachyderm's back.

I thought Of Koki's story about meeting the Circus Train in the early morning hours in Charlotte when she was a kid. Daddy would have been there too.

I remembered the story about John King, the elephant man, who was killed that early morning in 1890 when the circus was unloading at dawn in Charlotte.

And I remembered when Mama took me to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus when I was about nine years old. We walked on sawdust, ate peanuts and stared wide-eyed at the trapeze artists swinging overhead, at the brave animal trainers, the white horses in the ring, and watched the clowns and their antics.

By the time we took our kids to the circus here in the 1960s the show had moved inside and many things were changed - except the excitment, the noise and the smells.

TMC showed the movie The Greatest Show On Earth, the Cecil B. DeMille Big Top epic with Betty Hutton and Charlton Heston not long ago - the film is filled with the sights and sounds of the circus.

It did not take long for me to decide - - I am going to the Circus.

I am not kidding. My ticket is waiting at the WILL CALL. Juliana is coming with me.

10:30 am Thursday morning at the Verizon Center when the music starts Juliana and I will be sitting in the front row.