Monday May 4th, 2009. Hilmar, CA. 40 miles. Grass. Overcast.
Thirty-nine years ago today 4 college students were shot by National Guardsmen on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. Jim “BJ” Hebert one time clown and our concessions boss on CM attended Kent a decade later and recalls that the wounds were still fresh. Kent State was only incident during the turbulent Viet Name era when live fire was turned against anti-war activists.
Sunday May 3rd, 2009. Escalon, CA. 40 miles. Grass. Overcast.
Beautiful lot. Strong sponsor. Good day. We’re in California for another week. Somehow it seems impossible to write about circus, and the Golden State and not about Vargas. Not Circus Vargas as it exists today, or even the strong show of the 1990s – Vargas as it was in the 1970s and the 1980s when Clifford Vargas, the real circus genius built a show so wonderful, so strong, so synonymous with circus that even the Feld owned Ringling shows were merely the competition. And he did it on the west coast, and he did it under a tent. Sitting on a green lot in the Central Valley it’s tempting to say that the world has changed, and shows have changed, and California has changed and today, twenty years after his passing that even Vargas would no what to make of this crazy business. Tempting but probably not true. So we’ll hoist one and drink to Cliff tonight, a man who for a few years recreated the Golden Age in the Golden State.
