The first time at the circus
By Dan Ponder
from: thepostspotlight.com (Bainbridge, GA)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Despite everything you have seen on television in the past few weeks, I am not talking about politics. I am talking about the “Greatest Show on Earth” — the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Part of our family Christmas gift was front-row seats for Henry and Laura, along with their parents, when the big circus arrived in Tallahassee this past weekend. It was their first visit to a circus and the anticipation was great, especially by the grandparents.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my, we taunted them on the trip down. Ironically, there were none of the above, illustrating how much circuses have changed since my own boyhood.
I can still remember the smell of all the sawdust under the big tent. Sometimes I was lucky enough to see the big elephants working to pull the poles and tent up. Everything was done by hand with the help of the animals.
The tickets were sold in small stands leading up to the entrance of the tent. Peanuts and popcorn were the main treats along with an occasional cotton candy. The main forms of advertising were color posters that were plastered on everything from telephone poles to the windows of vacant buildings.
If you were lucky enough to see a really big circus, the tent was large enough to have three rings or centers of activity. When one act finished in one ring, another would start in the second, allowing the audience to be constantly entertained.
As famous as Ringling Brothers Circus has been, it did not invent the circus. The origin of a traveling show with trained animals, acrobats and clowns is believed to have originated in ancient Rome.read more: http://www.thepostsearchlight.com/2012/01/31/the-first-time-at-the-circus/
Part of our family Christmas gift was front-row seats for Henry and Laura, along with their parents, when the big circus arrived in Tallahassee this past weekend. It was their first visit to a circus and the anticipation was great, especially by the grandparents.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my, we taunted them on the trip down. Ironically, there were none of the above, illustrating how much circuses have changed since my own boyhood.
I can still remember the smell of all the sawdust under the big tent. Sometimes I was lucky enough to see the big elephants working to pull the poles and tent up. Everything was done by hand with the help of the animals.
The tickets were sold in small stands leading up to the entrance of the tent. Peanuts and popcorn were the main treats along with an occasional cotton candy. The main forms of advertising were color posters that were plastered on everything from telephone poles to the windows of vacant buildings.
If you were lucky enough to see a really big circus, the tent was large enough to have three rings or centers of activity. When one act finished in one ring, another would start in the second, allowing the audience to be constantly entertained.
As famous as Ringling Brothers Circus has been, it did not invent the circus. The origin of a traveling show with trained animals, acrobats and clowns is believed to have originated in ancient Rome.read more: http://www.thepostsearchlight.com/2012/01/31/the-first-time-at-the-circus/
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