I remember one day, I think it was a Saturday, my sister and I we were outside at play. We both went inside the house to get a drink, our Mother and Dad were standing at the sink. Both of them had really big grins on their face, and ask us if we would like to go someplace. We had no idea of where we were going to go, and what we were going to see we didn’t know. Our car pulled into the parking lot of the fairground, and there on a BIG banner it said, The Circus Is In Town ! Trailers were parked everywhere and painted on the side, great big words you could not hide. Wringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus it said, all the words were painted in red. There were vendors with cotton candy, peanuts and pop corn, Lot’s of funny clowns all running around each one of them tooting a horn. An organ grinder played and he had a little monkey too, And the cute little monkey would come running up to get money from you. He would run back very quickly to the man, to give him the money he had in his little hand. We then finally went inside the BIG TENT, because this is where they held the main event. I can still hear the words so clear, you have no idea of their worth. “Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome To The Greatest Show On Earth.” The man was all dressed up, he had on a tuxedo and a top hat, I had never seen anyone dressed like that. First three great big elephants would come out and do lots of tricks, There was also a man who could twirl plates on a stick. A little car would come out and it was puffing and smoking, we all knew they had to be joking. We would all count the little guys as they got out, there were ten in all running about. The lion tamer came out to show us what he could do, he had a chair and a big whip too. He would snap his whip so fast in the air, it would make this loud noise, and give us all a scare. There was a trapeze with a great big net and at the bottom of it two people met. He was all dressed in white, her in blue, we had no idea of what they were about to do. They both climbed up rope ladders to get to the top, the ropes seem to go on forever and did not stop. Two swings hung way up in the air, they both took a hold of one of the swings without a care. Oh what a wonderful sight it was to see, them swinging back and forth so gracefully. We didn’t know it was a part of the show, but all of a sudden she would just let go. We all held our breathes and waited to see, but he caught her by her arms very carefully. Everyone there was clapping with pure delight, because believe me for all it had been quite a night. I can remember the sawdust and peanut shells on the ground, all the sights and all the sounds. All of the performers would come out to take a bow, and when it was over all we could say was wow!

© Brenda Sparkman
January 2004

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