Life Is A Circus!
As I have mentioned in the dim and distant past, I was born in a small County Down, Northern Ireland town called Dromore. Indeed I have mentioned in a previous blog about my grandfather Joseph Magill who originally was a boot maker. In this link (a snapshot from 1910) you can see his name mentioned within a summary of Dromore.
During my childhood days and early teens, there were few cars, little television and certainly meagre amounts of pocket money which was usually completely spent within the hour in the many little sweet shops which existed at that time. However there were times when I did save my pocket money for a few annual special occasions:-
Christmas – Summer Holidays – Halloween – and … the Touring Circus
A couple of weeks ahead of the arrival of the circus, posters would be pasted up in glorious bright red, yellow and blue announcing the arrival date for a touring circus – what excitement that caused!
There was one particular field on the outskirts of my small town called the pinnacle meadow, where the circus pitched camp. There were two Irish circuses which visited Dromore and both are still going strong today. They were Duffy’s Circus and Fossett’s Circus, one of which, even today, features a fantastic tiger act! As kids we would sit and watch the canvas big top being erected, the various animals being housed and all the circus paraphernalia being unloaded. If we were lucky (or cheeky) enough, a few of us would be offered a free admission ticket in return for helping do the more mundane jobs necessary within routine circus life.
Eventually it was ‘Showtime’ and we eagerly entered through the multi-illuminated entrance and took our seats on the hard wooded, tiered seating at the back of the tent. For those two hours we sat spellbound watching all the acts. When not performing, many of the acts climbed up on top of a lorry into the ‘orchestra pit’ to play various musical instruments.
OK so I have not talked about our innovative Acoustic Cleaners today – instead I just indulged myself in a little bit of reminiscing!
During my childhood days and early teens, there were few cars, little television and certainly meagre amounts of pocket money which was usually completely spent within the hour in the many little sweet shops which existed at that time. However there were times when I did save my pocket money for a few annual special occasions:-
Christmas – Summer Holidays – Halloween – and … the Touring Circus
A couple of weeks ahead of the arrival of the circus, posters would be pasted up in glorious bright red, yellow and blue announcing the arrival date for a touring circus – what excitement that caused!
There was one particular field on the outskirts of my small town called the pinnacle meadow, where the circus pitched camp. There were two Irish circuses which visited Dromore and both are still going strong today. They were Duffy’s Circus and Fossett’s Circus, one of which, even today, features a fantastic tiger act! As kids we would sit and watch the canvas big top being erected, the various animals being housed and all the circus paraphernalia being unloaded. If we were lucky (or cheeky) enough, a few of us would be offered a free admission ticket in return for helping do the more mundane jobs necessary within routine circus life.Eventually it was ‘Showtime’ and we eagerly entered through the multi-illuminated entrance and took our seats on the hard wooded, tiered seating at the back of the tent. For those two hours we sat spellbound watching all the acts. When not performing, many of the acts climbed up on top of a lorry into the ‘orchestra pit’ to play various musical instruments.
OK so I have not talked about our innovative Acoustic Cleaners today – instead I just indulged myself in a little bit of reminiscing!
posted by Don Cameron at
4:28 AM
