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Giving in to the temptation of the circus
By Mary Madewell
Published October 22, 2009
Sometimes it does a person good to revert to the days of our youth and do something compulsive.
I did Wednesday when on a whim I decided to attend the Carson & Barnes Circus. It wasn’t my first time to see the Hugo-based circus and hopefully will not be my last.
My first recollection of the 73-year old circus was either 1959 or 1960 in Lewisville, just north or Dallas. Lewisville was a small, quite country town back then and high school students were free to leave campus for an hour at lunch and walk the four or five blocks to nearby places to eat lunch. I was a sophomore or junior in high school. Yep, you can add it up — I may be getting a little senior in age but not at heart.
Carson & Barnes had rolled into town that morning with its gigantic circus tent, elephants and performers.
Now remember, things were different 50 years ago. There was not much concern about kids leaving school and walking around town — and few people even thought about liability issues.
My three girlfriends and I, who just happened to be majorettes for the Lewisville Farmer Band, decided to visit the circus on the way back from lunch. We jokingly told the workers there we wanted to run away and join their circus.
One thing lead to another, and we talked the circus manager into letting the four of us ride the elephants during the show that night. What a thrill it was — and quite a surprise to our parents and others in the community — when the four of us dressed in our sequined twirling costumes entered the ring.
We weren’t sitting in any type of enclosure and each of us rode our own elephant. I remember it well, sitting on the elephant’s neck and holding to a strap as the giant swayed back and forth. A thrill of a lifetime it was. Of course, a trainer walked along right beside each elephant.
At the circus Wednesday, I came so close to buying a $2 ticket to ride an elephant again. But after sizing up the distance between the platform and the distance I’d have to swing my leg to get aboard, I decided against making a fool of myself in front of quite a few people who might have known me.
Instead, I watched Paris High School junior Alex Stallings take a ride around the performance ring. The PHS junior class hosted this year’s circus performance as a fundraiser. The class received commissions from early ticket sales and from the $1 parking fee.
Maybe next year I’ll take an elephant ride.
The show is fantastic. In fact, I’d put Carson & Barnes up against Ringling Bros. any day of the week when comparing quality acts and the interaction provided during intermission and before and after the show with elephant, camel and pony rides and up close viewing of the traveling zoo. Of course Ringling Bros. is larger and provides many opportunities. The crowds at the big arena circuses are larger, too. But Carson and Barnes still provides that feeling one gets from a performance under the big top.
Alex the Clown is a classic act and certainly wowed the audience with his antics as well as his juggling and trampoline skills. And 2-year old “Miss Callie” is a cutie in the performance ring with the circus’ latest elephant addition — 2-year old Bal, born in Hugo, Okla., where the circus winters.
Individual performers are of Las Vegas show quality, and the costuming is superb. The show includes flying trapeze and high wire acts along with a breath-taking Ferris wheel-type device with performers walking on the outside of two large spinning enclosures. A performer with hoola-hoops is unbelievable as is a contortionist who can put himself inside a quite small box. The performing bears are amazing. One even rides a motorcycle around the ring.
My hat goes off to the late D.R. and Isla Miller for beginning a circus tradition now in its fourth generation with the Barbara Miller Byrd and Geary Byrd family.
It’s not too late to catch a performance before the show heads back to Hugo for the winters. Today the show is in Greenville, followed by Quitman on Friday, Queen City on Saturday and Mount Pleasant on Sunday. Carson & Barnes performs in Kilgore Oct. 26 and in Athens Oct. 27.
Mary Madewell is the managing editor of The Paris News.
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