Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for March 28, 2021

Before COVID-19, know of anyone who still goes to the circus (including Le Cirque du Soleil)?

In the ‘good old days’ that this strip is from, there was a trade magazine for all the circus/fair/amusement parks. The classified ads in the back wouldn’t fly today. They would be looking to hire fat men or women, and freaks were also in high demand. They did want them to be ‘sober’.

I’ve seen a circus in New Hampshire, and Ringling Bros And Barnum And Bailey in New York City. But I never went to the Big Apple Circus, even though it performed right outside my workplace.

I used to love the circus when I was a kid, and I’ve enjoyed them even as an adult. My mom took me a couple of times to a small circus that would visit our area every year. By the time we had an arena large enough for Ringling Bros. to come, I went a few times over the years, once in high school with my girlfriend, then a couple of times with my wife and daughter when she was little, including chaperoning her Brownie Girl Scout troop’s trip. I used to love going to the menagerie beforehand to get up close to the animals, including the elephants and tigers; I remember feeding the elephants peanuts, which they’d take with their trunks and feed themselves. When I was in college, the Hanneford Circus came every year and I saw them in the gym. For a while, the Cole Brothers’ circus would set up their tent in our local mall’s parking lot so we saw them a couple of times. We also went to the Big Apple Circus while vacationing up in Boston when my daughter was younger, too. We’ve seen several Cirque du Soleil shows over the years; while certainly not a traditional “circus,” their shows are very entertaining; the acrobatics are very impressive. Good memories. I think they were a great way to foster a love of animals in children, as well as adults.

Lucy, has she threatened to sell you to it? 8^D

I want to the circus once or twice as a kid. Found it boring. In retrospect, I didn’t appreciate the skill / danger of what I was seeing. But it paled in comparison to seeing a Death Star exploding

Well Lucy, she thought with all your clowning around, you should be in it.

Selling you to the Circus?……

Drop her off and don’t look back.

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“IF YOU DON’T BE A GOOF GIRL WE WON’T TAKE YOU TO THE CIRCUS, LUCY!”

The big threat for any little kid at that time and for a few decades to come. Though I went to high school with kids who bragged about turning their parents in to child services for taking their tape players away from them as punishment. And child services sided with the kids. Forget about the fact that taking the tape player away for a week wasn’t endangering the wellfare of kid, the parents weren’t allowed to discipline the kids.

I was born in a time when circuses traveled from town to town in railroad cars, paraded through town to the field where the circuses were held in tents erected by human and animal labor, matured in a time when circuses transitioned into indoor, air conditioned arenas, and now live in a time when there are precious few, if any, circuses left. I get it as far as animal rights go – especially elephants, which are very intelligent creatures. But there was a certain “magic” to a circus that people born today will never understand.

I took both of my kids to the Tripoli Shrine Circus for a few years when it came to town annually. They loved it, I loved taking them, and it was a great cause to fund the Shriners Children’s Hospitals.