THE BALLOON MAN

When the Circus Comes to Town, or Anywhere Close, I’m There

from:  vnews.com
By Henry Homeyer For the Valley News
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
I love the circus. I love the sound of the band, the smell of elephants, the thrill of watching acrobats swirling on velvet ropes or swinging from trapezes.

When I was a young man traveling in Europe on $5 a day, I splurged and bought a ticket to the Orfie Circorama in Parma, Italy. I didn’t know that Europeans take their circuses much more seriously than we do. I hoped to see at least one elephant, or possibly a mangy old lion.

The Orfei was amazing. There were three rings and an opening act that featured 36 perfectly trained and color-matched horses. There was a more-than-middle-aged woman wrestling an alligator in a 10-by-10 foot tank. Long past my usual bedtime, lions and tigers and bears kept me on the edge of my seat. I thought that someday I wanted to be a part of a circus.

Since then, for more than 40 years, I’ve gone to every circus I could. None has been on the scale of the Orfei, but they’ve all been fun. Sadly, the Big Apple Circus no longer makes a stop in Hanover.

Recently my partner, Cindy Heath, and I took my two grandchildren, George (age 9) and his sister, Casey (age 6) to see the Kelly Miller Circus in Keene at the Cheshire County Fairgrounds.

The Kelly Miller Circus is a family-run circus out of Oklahoma that has been around for 75 years. Before buying my tickets I went online and learned that the circus this year has six tigers, three elephants, three zebras and a couple of camels. All that, and acrobats, clowns and jugglers. I got tickets right away and at the circus got ringside seats for a $2 surcharge.

Before we even got to the gate, Casey was enthralled with the ponies, and I gladly bought her a ticket to ride one. Six little ponies, each just three feet tall, walked slowly around in a circle, each attached to an iron spoke that kept delinquent ponies from going too fast or running off with my grandchild. Very reassuring — both for me, and for Casey. Of course, the ride is never long enough, but she was lured forward by the sight of popcorn, hot dogs and cotton candy. Oh boy!

For me, the circus really is about the animals. Yes, I’ve seen elephants in the African veldt from a safe distance. But there is something special about seeing elephants up close while sitting next to a 6-year-old who has never seen a live one. Grandchildren whose eyes become as big and round as doughnuts. And at the Kelly Miller circus, there was the special allure of sleek tigers lounging and yawning and stretching before the show on a grassy lawn inside a metal enclosure, looking for all the world like tabbies, only much, much bigger.

The tiger trainer seemed to love his big kitties. They sat on tall stools and cavorted around the ring. On request, some jumped over their fellow felines (or as faux-delinquents, crawled under them when asked to jump over). They stood up on their back legs, demonstrating how long a tiger really is. They showed their teeth and acted fierce. But when the handler stooped over and kissed one of the tigers on the head after doing a trick nicely, my heart melted. Once again, I wanted to join the circus
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http://www.vnews.com/lifetimes/7692337-95/when-the-circus-comes-to-town-or-anywhere-close-im-there