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Adventure at the Circus
Elephants help raise the Bigtop
July 16, 2005
Kelly
Miller Circus comes to town.
July
16, 2005, was the day the circus came to town. In the
morning, people were invited to watch the elephants raise the
bigtop. Viola, the powerful elephant, is entering with her
trainer. For the next few minutes we would frequently hear,
"Viola, back!" or "Viola, stop!" This circus sets
up in a new place about 200 times a year, and we had the impression
that the verbal commands were probably unnecessary.
This event takes place in one of the fields of the
fairgrounds. Before we got there, the roustabouts had laid
out the bigtop. At the far end of the bigtop there was a
piledriver pounding the stakes in.
From the circus website, we
learn:
"The show travels on a fleet of 25 vehicles and requires an area of
some
90,000 square feet to set up on. The circus big top, imported from
Italy, has a
seating capacity of 1500 and is made of waterproof vinyl. The tent is
120' by
130' and 37 1/2 feet high and is supported by more than a quarter of a
mile of
heavy gauge aluminum tubing as well as several miles of rope, steel
cable and
chain."
Kelly
Miller Circus.
At this point, it is still people
doing the work.
Here
comes Viola, ready to work.
From the corner of her work collar
a chain hangs down on each side to a loop behind her.
There
is a metal sled-like brace that the workers put behind a pole while it
is tilted, and, on command, Viola moves forward, pulling the pole to
vertical.
These
people, and Viola, work smoothly and efficiently. It takes 1
1/2 hours to set up the tent and will take 1 1/4 hours to take it down.
Viola peeks out, after a job well done.
And there are camels.
e-mail us here.
Here's a link to all
the
rest of the grandkids'
pages.
This has been a spring and summer
of getting around.
You can see those pictures:
We went to the
Utica Zoo
Then we went to the Syracuse
Zoo
Wickwire
House in Cortland
A trip to babysit the grandkids
A visit to
Boston to see a Red Sox Game
Drive through Edmeston area to see
the animals
Ithaca
Herbert F. Johnson museum trip
Skaneateles
And there are lots of pictures of our trip out
west.
Published
7/16/05
Photos by Leslie or
David
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