At the Circus

Kosair's Shriner's Circus came to town this weekend, and has an animal lover, I gave pause as to whether we should attend. I've heard protests about the treatment of circus animals, and the ethics of using them for this purpose. I decided to go, using this as a learning experience. I think too often, people make decisions about things without having experienced them first-hand. The girls are assigned to think about today, and to do some research on this company in particular and whether they think the protests have merit.

I myself haven't done the research, but found that buying tickets is only the beginning of the money you need while attending a circus. Little did I know. Firstly, you must have money for the slide, the jumping pit, the elephant rides, etc. that preceed the show. Here's William giving the slide a try:

Then, of course, you have to have popcorn, (I was wise enough to bring water, which could not be purchased there, only soda). I got by without the cotton candy, ice cream (can you make the cone any larger, people??), and snow cones because we went to a morning performance. Then, when the lights go down, you get all excited...because EVERYONE has a light up toy! You can have one, too, for $10. I kept saying to myself, this is for a charitable organization, this is for a charitable ....

This toy was broken before we got in the door at home.

The circus left me thinking how far we've come from the big-top tent circus of old. Today's circus is full of lights, very loud music, and despite the amazing stunts, doesn't seem to wow the crowd like one might expect. With today's audiences used to seeing all kinds of stunts on TV and in movies, the crowd didn't seemed impressed by the acts. Me, I was very happy when the tightrope walkers were done. Several times the guys almost fell, and I don't need the stress!

My last observation is that men that don't want to go to the circus (my dh was out of town) haven't been lately. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders have nothing over the circus. Man! I've not seen that many flat bellys in one place in a longggg time.