(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

“What part of the circus was your favorite, Madeline?”

“I liked the clowns the best! I especially liked when they boxed and when they cut the one clown’s hair off.”

It is not one bit surprising that a child who is so entertaining would enjoy the clowns the most. No, she is not falling in the photo further down on this page. She is actually spinning and jumping out of pure excitement to see the circus.

The clowns did do a boxing routine. They had huge boxing gloves on. One clown would take a punch while the other one clapped his gloves together, producing a very loud smacking noise. They even did a slow motion instant replay. It was quite funny.

Their haircut scene was amusing as well. One poor clown got to sit in the barber chair while the other three tended to him. They dumped about five pounds of talcum powder on him. One clown came at him with four-foot long scissors to cut his hair but went for his neck instead. At the end of the skit, they had the victim sit under a big hair dryer which malfunctioned and appeared to burn his hair off. That was what Madeline liked the most.

How appropriate it is to write about a circus for the one-hundredth entry on this journal! Truth be told, I liked the clowns the most too. Those of you who have been reading this website for any amount of time have seen a lot of clowning around going on here. You’ve seen me pee my pants in front of a second grade class, get beat up by a kid named Gary Sinko, choke to death on migraine medicine, turn into a gummi bear, and other various stunts one would only expect to witness under the big top. It’s all rather entertaining… until someone loses an eye.

The Cole Brothers circus was held behind a local mall for two days last week. No surprise there. The mall of this certain town often attracts plenty of freaks and sideshows from the local populace. But I digress.

Admission to the show was significantly more than I expected to pay. I had free tickets for Hannah and Madeline. Those tickets said that additional tickets could be purchased for $5. However, at the ticket booth, the price was $10 for additional children and $15 for adults. That pretty much emptied my wallet right there. So I didn’t have much money left for souvenirs or food. As soon as Madeline saw the food vendors selling popcorn, candy apples and cotton candy for exorbitant prices she was hungry. She begged, pouted and cried, as I continually had to say, “No.” I told her that the food was too much money and I didn’t have enough cash left. Observant as she is, she watched as a father paid for his son’s popcorn. Then she said to me, “Daddy, how much is a Lincoln?” At first I thought, “The car???” She said, “What kind of money is Lincoln on?” When I responded, “Five dollars,” she looked disappointed and I figured out why she asked such a question. Luckily, at the intermission we found snow cones for $2 and popcorn for $3. Then the wallet was empty.

The circus was a lot of fun. It was entertaining to watch people display talents that most other people don’t think about often. How many of us think of standing on a horse and juggling bowling pins while the horse trots around in circles? Who dwells on thoughts of training poodles to jump through hoops? Who among us often thinks of hanging by her hair, twenty feet in the air, while wearing a skimpy glittering outfit and a big smile?

Speaking of the circus girls, I have to say that some of them were awfully cute and a few of them were downright beautiful. Many of them seemed to be from foreign countries. There were the Colombian girls who danced and did some gymnastic type feats. There was the little Russian girl that they shot out of the cannon. There were Eastern European girls with blonde hair and arrestingly brilliant blue eyes. As soon as my geeky programming job is outsourced, I know where I’m applying for a job! I may not be able to juggle, but I can withstand a pretty good beating as a clown. I’ve been doing that for quite some time now!

While standing in a line during intermission, I got into a conversation with a couple. The wife told me how she just loved going to the circus, but felt kind of guilty about it because she felt that she was supporting the exploitation of the people involved in the circus. I felt the same way. Her husband said that he spoke with a young girl who was selling souvenirs earlier. She was thirteen. She told him that she grew up in the circus. When he asked her where her home was, she looked at him blankly at first. Then she said, “Right here is my home. We just travel all over and live in trailers.” I don’t understand that lifestyle. The thought that came to my mind was, “Gypsies.” Later, while driving to pick up my son from work, I ended up in the middle of the gypsy caravan of trailers making their way down the highway to their next show. My mind wandered through thoughts of what their life must be like. So many towns. So many faces. So many pretty girls. And so many clowns.

There were several thunderstorms on the day of the circus. I didn’t want to go as it was. But the storms past by the time the circus was to start. I couldn’t disappoint the kids by not going just because I didn’t feel like it. Hearing them laugh during the show and seeing their faces as they witnessed people doing things that “normal” people consider “abnormal” was worth the effort of going.

That is what entertainment is all about – making people happy, taking their minds off of the pressures of life and the harsh realities of the “real” world. The circus is a living fantasy. Enter the big top and escape from whatever steals the smile from your face. Long live the clowns! Long live the circus girls! Long live tightrope walkers and trapeze artists! Long live those who make others happy! May they travel our highways and perform near our malls often. God knows we don’t smile enough.

An AlphaBytes Project – The Letter E

CORRESPONDING PICTURE GALLERY:

• The Circus