The Circus

NOTE- Some coworkers were telling me that they had read some of my posts here. I was kind of surprised, because I just write all this mess for me. I get a lot of pleasure out of it most of the time, and writing about some harder topics in life helps my mental state. Anyway, they inspired me to write up a few things off my topic list. If you are one of my three or four readers, I hope you enjoy these little anecdotes. However, in all honesty, I don't really care. Like I said, I write this stuff for me.

The Circus

When our boys were pretty young, Rachel asked me to get tickets to the Circus. It was being held at Freeman Coliseum, as it had been for decades here in San Antonio. All of our major events like rodeos and ice capades were held there before other venues such as the Alamodome and AT&T Center were built.

The only tickets I could get were the cheapest seats in the coliseum. I had been to several events there in my lifetime, so I assumed there really wouldn't be ny problem with that. What I had never noticed, was that way up at the top, they have a couple of rows of wooden benches. That was were we ended up.

Now sitting on a wooden bench wouldn't be a problem for us at any other event. But, with the circus, it almost guaranteed that we couldn't see a thing. All the wires, nets, and cables hung down way lower than us. We had tiny glimpses of some acts, with no clear view of any. If it took place at the other end of the arena, we sat and listened to the music.

A year or two later, we decided to go to the circus again. This time I was ready. As soon as the tickets went on sale, I bought seats in the second row on the floor. We were right smack dab in the middle of the arena. We had a perfect view of everything. Of course, I paid nearly $50 bucks a piece for those seats. We should have had a great view. Especially way back then.

Now sitting in the second row of seats wouldn't be a problem for us at any other event. But, with the circus, it almost guaranteed that we would see the seamier side of the show. We first noticed it during the grand entry parade. The performers looked bored. The costumes had holes. The animals looked tired. But, it was the elephant act that made it clear to us that front row seats at a circus are not that great!

This circus (it was either Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers, or the combined form of both) had an elephant which was trained to run as fast as he could from one side of the arena to the other to demonstrate just how fast an elephant can be. They backed him up so that his big wrinkly elephant butt was right in front of us. Just as he was about to run, he passed gas with a trumpeting sound that shook our chairs. I turned to Rachel and we made those, “oh my God, that's disgusting” eyes at each other. Believe me it got worse. A few seconds after he let it loose, a wave of hot, humid, stench came at us like a tidal wave and hung there for at least a full minute.

I'm not sure if that durned elephant ran or not. Our eyes were both burning and full of tears from choking on his lovely gift. We haven't been to a circus since. To tell you the truth, I don't ever plan on it.