The Circus Comes to Town and So Does a Stranger
Working at Idora Park, I looked forward to so many things. Definitely one thing would be WHOT Day. And the bands at the ballroom, ranging from Tommy Dorsey to the DeFranco Family.
One of those days was the day that the circus came to Idora Park. It was fun to watch them set up the tents and the cages for lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). Okay, there weren’t any bears.
There were clowns, both female clowns and male clowns. And there were elephants that could do tricks and people were on high wires.
You could tell it just looked like so much fun to watch.
They would set up the circus on in the ballpark right next to the Jack Rabbit. I had time to watch part of one of their shows. It's neat to watch little kids, all excited and pointing at the elephants and lions for their parents. They're looking at the clowns and they’re just so excited.
They had different colored cotton candy and peanuts you could buy but you had to watch out because you didn't want the elephant grabbing your peanut bag.
After the circus, a lot of them got to come to Idora Park, the place where they could have even more fun.
So finally after the circus was all done after a couple days, they packed up and left. I was working at the punk rack at the time, and George Goodman came up and said, “Hey, Chuck, we got a new guy for you.”
I said, “That's fine, bring them on.”
His name was Mark. He was one of the roadies for the circus and he decided that he wanted to stay in one place for a while. To be honest, he had been doing this for a while. The reason he was working on circuses was because he got drafted he was trying to avoid the draft, although he never told anybody that but me.
Mark was a little mysterious, a little jumpy about his surroundings. But I later found out he had a cure for that.
So, I showed him how to run the game. It really wasn't hard because he had seen games at the circuses he worked for. We become pretty good friends, as you do working at Idora Park.
He told me where he was from and that he was working at the different circuses to avoid the draft. There were a lot of people at that time who did not want to go to war. I remember when they gave out the draft numbers one night, my oldest brother missed it by two weeks. But then again, eventually he join the Air Force.
So one day, Mark says, “Chuck, why don’t you come with me to my car for a little while?”
I said, “Well, that's going to be a little hard since we both work at the same place, but I’ll see if I can get someone that can fill in for couple minutes.”
I got one of the other guys to get one of the breakers to take my place and we walked out to his car. He had a 1960 Ford Fairlane, light green.
We were talking inside the car and he leans over me and grabbed something from behind the glove compartment. It was a bag with some green stuff in it. And it wasn't oregano.
He already had a rolled-up cigarette. “You want some?”
I said, “No, I think I'll pass.”
I was surprised he was lighting that up in the parking lot because he wasn't too far from the ballroom. And I was slightly nervous because I didn't want to get caught with this.
I did check around see if anyone coming was coming. And I could see just at the fence—there was Sarge.
It look like he was coming our way, so I told the kid, I said, “You got to put that out, and you know, do something about the smell.” We both lit up cigarettes.
Now, I will tell you that for a short while, yes, I did smoke—less than a year, it was Kool cigarettes. When I got back to weightlifting and on the wrestling team, I could tell that I was a step or two slower and quit.
So Sarge tapped on the window and said, “What you guys up to?”
I said, “We're just talking.”
Sarge said, “Chuck, I think you guys better get back to work.”
I don't know if he smelled it or not, but I wasn't going to argue the point with him.
After about a month and a half, Mark decided it was time to get back on the road again. And I've never seen him since, but I do remember him and the fun we had working together.
Hopefully now he's living in Colorado.
Thanks for reading. See you on the midway!