A little sad IMO - Ringling had their last circus performance tonight

[CitizenBBN]

I've never been a big circus person per se, but I am a big US history person, and I find the sociological and cultural history of our nation to be not just interesting but really telling when we use it as the backdrop for more specific things like political actions and events.

To that end, the circus is an event that has been with us as a people since the beginning, and Ringling itself has been in operation nearly 150 years. Really in many ways it goes back much farther, b/c Barnum himself started his sideshows in the 1830s, and really entered the true American circus business in the 1870s. Ringling Bros. started in the 1880s (I had to look up that one, I know Barnum but wasn't sure when Ringling started). So it's 150 years for American "circuses" run from town to town by trains and such.

In fact that innovation was a direct result of technology, the establishment of a rail system that allowed people like Barnum to leave the theater halls and prebuilt structures for the open road and stopping from town to town. And now technology has ended it.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but there's a whole century of American history where circuses are interwoven with the pace of life and growing up, and it's finally over. Even when I was a kid the circus showing up was a pretty big deal that week, and it was a ubiquitous part of life for this country for many generations, esp. in small town America.

I get the objections, and I won't discuss them here, but the truth is that the circus is just now the same pace as life now in the US. While not about circuses specifically, I can't help but think we have lost something important over the decades. Maybe we've lost a lot in fact.

[PedroDaGr8]

I can't help but think we have lost something important over the decades. Maybe we've lost a lot in fact.

I think that has always been the case, as society and technology move forward we loose/shed a lot of things that we previously valued. Some of these things we shed are for the better, some of these things we loose we are the worse for and for many it is a bit of both. Progress of technology is not a linear path of benefit, is much more of a two-steps forward, one step back.

[blueboss]

Back in the late 80's The RIngling Bros. red team ( they had two teams red and blue) was in Louisville and their train broke down or was having maintenance done to it. Most of the circus performers lived/stayed on the train while it was in the yard being repaired. The management stayed at the Breckinridge Inn during the repairs. My girlfriend at the time worked there and met some of the team members. The repairs on the train took longer than expected and a previously scheduled convention began which had prearranged reservations at the hotel forcing the circus team to find other accommodations. My girlfriend invited them to stay at our house for the few extended days that they were stranded for. So six different team members crashed at our house for four days. They were very nice and obviously fun people, they took us to the yard where the train was and introduced us to the circus members and gave us a behind the scenes tour of the entourage including all of the performing animals. It was the first and only time I have ever been in close contact with lions and tigers and of course elephants. They gave me a red team member shirt which was a really nice polo with the Ringling Bros emblem embroidered on it. There were several occasions when I wore the shirt and would be recognized by other members of various teams traveling around the country. I met some of the blue team members in the airport in Atlanta in between flights. Those encounters were always fun and I got to where when I would travel I'd wear the shirt and would generally run into other circus team members....

Anyway, sorry for rambling on, but being privy albeit for a brief period of time to an iconic piece of American history was a experience that I'll never forget.

Incidentally the shirt was the only red piece of clothing that I've ever owned, but I always felt a sense of pride when I wore it.


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[Doc]

Back in the late 80's The RIngling Bros. red team ( they had two teams red and blue) was in Louisville and their train broke down or was having maintenance done to it. Most of the circus performers lived/stayed on the train while it was in the yard being repaired. The management stayed at the Breckinridge Inn during the repairs. My girlfriend at the time worked there and met some of the team members. The repairs on the train took longer than expected and a previously scheduled convention began which had prearranged reservations at the hotel forcing the circus team to find other accommodations. My girlfriend invited them to stay at our house for the few extended days that they were stranded for. So six different team members crashed at our house for four days. They were very nice and obviously fun people, they took us to the yard where the train was and introduced us to the circus members and gave us a behind the scenes tour of the entourage including all of the performing animals. It was the first and only time I have ever been in close contact with lions and tigers and of course elephants. They gave me a red team member shirt which was a really nice polo with the Ringling Bros emblem embroidered on it. There were several occasions when I wore the shirt and would be recognized by other members of various teams traveling around the country. I met some of the blue team members in the airport in Atlanta in between flights. Those encounters were always fun and I got to where when I would travel I'd wear the shirt and would generally run into other circus team members....

Anyway, sorry for rambling on, but being privy albeit for a brief period of time to an iconic piece of American history was a experience that I'll never forget.

Incidentally the shirt was the only red piece of clothing that I've ever owned, but I always felt a sense of pride when I wore it.


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Cool story

[blueboss]

It was the perfect opportunity to run away and join the circus.

Tough life style, glad I was more grounded. Plus I'd be out of work now had I joined. At the time my life was more of a circus anyway, and joining Ringling Bros. would have seemed boring... minus the animals of course.

One of the things I remember vividly is hearing lions and tigers purring. Sounds like a two stroke motor running.

If in fact they were purring, may have just been growling getting ready to eat me for petting them.

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