The Greatest Show on Earth

My father called last weekend and asked if I would like to grab a few of the kids (when you have so many you can just indiscriminately grab a few as a representative sample) and join them (he, Ava, and my brother's sons) for the circus. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was going to be in town and he was planning on getting some tickets and wanted to know if we could or would join them. It has been almost three decades since I last saw that show, and JAM's only experience with the circus was this pitiful affair up at the MD State Fair about 4 or 5 years ago, so I said of course! I mean, who wouldn't want to go see the show right? Well, to be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about going, especially since I heard the news story (also) that talked about the study done that proved that kids are just plain scared of clowns. But, being father of the year I thought I would see how it all worked out and on Friday I packed up JAM and Red, Pudge being a bit too small to really enjoy it, and headed down to Dad's house in Williamsburg.

And you know what? It really did end up being The Greatest Show in Earth! I had a blast, forget about the kids!!!! :) But, they really enjoyed it too. JAM was just the right age and Red was in awe of everything. And, after so many years having not gone to the circus it was so much different than I remembered. I am thinking that Cirque Du Soleil must really have had an impact on the way even regular circuses do their thing. Gone were the bears riding bicycles and poodles riding motorcycles. And I think we can all say a prayer of thanks for that. They still had the elephants and the tigers, although I hope we, as a society, are getting close to not liking or allowing that anymore. But still there and better than ever were the aerials and the motorcycles in the circle of doom (!!!!!), and no, they thankfully didn't crash.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Update - 3/5/08: And now, the flip side of things. After reflecting on my time at the circus certain thoughts have been recurring to me. I can't profess to be an animal expert but I have to agree that some pretty bad people are in the position to do some pretty haneous things to some wonderful animals. Makes me wonder why I went and supported the circus at all. Maybe Cirque Du Soleil really does do it the right way. Do they use animals? Nope. As if you needed evidence that the practices of these common circuses aren't the safest and most nurturing places for animals...