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Today Paris, TX, the closest we come to being back home until late autumn. Weather forecast is ominous with a possibility of severe storms in the late afternoon. Working on a circus can be harsh. Some people have said that a circus is like an old sailing ship. It takes discipline because with all that canvas aloft you are literally at the mercy of the winds. Hard work, little sleep, especially early in the season some people decide the romance of the show isn’t what they thought it would be and they walk away. It’s called blowing the show. A couple workers blew the show after last weekend. With stormy weather threatening for the next few days the tent crew doesn’t get a break. Imagine, we’ve been fighting the weather for 70 years. There are days you’re glad that nobody keeps score.
As you might imagine, on any large circus there are performers from throughout the world. There are many languages spoken on a circus lot. Performing on an American circus is an adventure and far more lucrative than performing, for example, in Latin America or Asia. With the advent of the internet home schooling on the road is far more sophisticated than it was in the days when circus children had only the text books they could carry. You may be interested to know that several faith based groups have specific ministries aimed at circuses and carnivals with services sometimes held under the bigtop. At one time a major Protestant Denomination actually operated a circus of its own staffed almost entirely by college students. Fittingly it was called Circus Kirk.
Posted by
B.E.Trumble |
10:04 PM