Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Remember the Circus

Will our children, grandchildren or others ever get to see a circus? That thought came to mind when I heard the news that the days of the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey circuses will be no more after 2017. Those of us who live, and earn a living with livestock and other animals can understand this. Federal regs and PETA have hampered many livestock businesses, BUT THE CIRCUS.

How many of you can remember the first time you saw an elephant and might have even gotten to ride one? How about a giraffe, and more exciting were the lion trainer and his lions? There were the clowns, the magicians and the trapeze artists. Of course, there were always tents and vendors, other than the large circus tent. I think the tents might have been off limits to me, as I don’t recall much about them, not things that need to be written anyway.

Some were lucky not to have to travel a great distance to see these wonderful things, as the Circus Came to Town!

Coming from a family that did not vacation, I consider myself lucky to have actually gotten to see a Three-Ring Circus as a child. Wow, which ring do you watch? I am pretty sure that I did get to see one of these in Glasgow also, but it was unusual for that large of a circus to travel to the smaller towns. Maybe that is why it came as a surprise to me to find out that the Ringling Brothers actually started in 1884 and there was a performance held in Dillon, in 1897. The community of Ringling, Mont., actually derived its name after one of the Ringling Brothers. I am sure that these communities were larger then, but it is always fun to find out Montana was in the main stream once in awhile when it came to entertainment.

 

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