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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.


 

 

 

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