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Day
Trips
There’s Something Special About A Circus
By
Arthur Winfield Knight
The
circus recently came
to Lyon County in our
part of Nevada. I was
thrilled when I saw
the posters put up by
Circo Astillita Circus.
I love the circus. I
love movies about the
circus.
When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was about a boy who runs away from
home to join a circus. “Toby Tyler” was published in 1938 — a
decade and a half before I was born — and Disney made a movie of it in
the 1950s.
Our local weekly paper ran a small article about this Mexican circus. They’ve
been a touring unit for several years, but this was the first year they’ve
toured rural Nevada.
Lucky me. Arthur and I went to the last afternoon performance of their 3-day
visit. There was only one ring, but it was under a tent.
While we waited for The Greatest Show On Earth — that’s what I hoped
the ringmaster would say — to begin, I told Arthur that I hoped they had
a clown wearing HUGE shoes riding a tiny little bike.
Arthur just shook his head. After 31 years of marriage, he’s used to my
enthusiasms.
The circus consisted of only five or six people, but they did everything: jugglers,
musicians, magicians, clowns and putting the trained dogs and ponies through
their amazing bag of tricks.
This circus may have been small, but there was something charming about it — and
very brave. A circus is a thing of the past. It requires a long leap of faith
to follow through with putting one on.
I remember attending a larger circus 20 years ago. A woman in spangled tights
led an elephant with a leash of green ribbon. There were several elephants, and
they danced, clumsily, but still they danced as only elephants can dance. Laughing,
I watched them dance and remembered the old joke: Why did the elephant wear sneakers?
So he made less noise jumping out of trees.
This small brave circus had no elephants, but they did have six ponies that ran
and pranced in perfect order. They brought in a normal size horse, and I watched
a tiny pony run figure eights under the big horse. It was something I’d
never seen before, and I was impressed.
Arthur talked about a circus he attended where the famous Clyde Beatty showed
up with his whip and an assortment of lions and tigers. This small brave circus
had no tigers or lions, but it did have six well-trained Old English sheepdogs.
More importantly, the dogs seemed to have a good time, especially when they knocked
each other over to slide down a chute.
And best of all, there was a clown with HUGE shoes riding a little tiny bike.
What a wonderful show.
This page and its contents ©2008
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
