wesfrye53
Bronze Member
It's Shrine Circus Time Again!
It's that time of year again; time for the Al Menah Shrine Circus. This year we have 5 satellite circuses and 4 days in Nashville. Tonight we were in Linden, Tennessee, about an hour and a half from Nashville.
The circus folks call this a "Mud Show" because it's outside rain or shine:
Of course every show needs a "Ringmaster", or in this case a "Ring Mistress":
The show included aerial acts:
Tigers (BTW... the trainer/owner of the animals considers them part of his family. The restraints and cages are for liability issues only. He commented to me last year one of the things he didn't like about performing in Tennessee was he had to chain the elephants when they weren't performing):
and of course, elephants:
Recognize him? That's "Bo"! I introduced all of you to him last year. Bo, according to his trainer/owner, is the largest performing Indian Elephant in the world. And he's still growing!
Just before this picture was taken "Bo" whispered (actually he squeaked) in my ear and asked when he was going to meet Gypsy Heart. "Bo" has been wanting to give Gypsy a gift since I told him what she said about him last year. Alas, I had to tell him that Gypsy has been very secretive about providing me with her address so he'd just have to exercise patience. That's not what he wanted to hear but as you can see, I tried to console him:
It's that time of year again; time for the Al Menah Shrine Circus. This year we have 5 satellite circuses and 4 days in Nashville. Tonight we were in Linden, Tennessee, about an hour and a half from Nashville.
The circus folks call this a "Mud Show" because it's outside rain or shine:
Of course every show needs a "Ringmaster", or in this case a "Ring Mistress":
The show included aerial acts:
Tigers (BTW... the trainer/owner of the animals considers them part of his family. The restraints and cages are for liability issues only. He commented to me last year one of the things he didn't like about performing in Tennessee was he had to chain the elephants when they weren't performing):
and of course, elephants:
Recognize him? That's "Bo"! I introduced all of you to him last year. Bo, according to his trainer/owner, is the largest performing Indian Elephant in the world. And he's still growing!
Just before this picture was taken "Bo" whispered (actually he squeaked) in my ear and asked when he was going to meet Gypsy Heart. "Bo" has been wanting to give Gypsy a gift since I told him what she said about him last year. Alas, I had to tell him that Gypsy has been very secretive about providing me with her address so he'd just have to exercise patience. That's not what he wanted to hear but as you can see, I tried to console him: