The news tonight talked about the pachyderms and how they like to eat popcorn from people sitting in the front rows. They are amazing animals. I watched them at the last circus I went to, many years ago. They looked so very sad when no one hardly clapped at the right places. It all but broke my heart.
Saturday we are taking Hailey, our granddaughter to the circus. It will be her first visit to the Greatest Show on Earth. It will be her first glimpse of the mighty pachyderms up close. They are so incredible, their society so very complex. Their society and life intersects ours in so many ways. Elephants even mourn, like we do.
I think I will check out "Twenty-One Elephants" by Phil Bildner. It is the story how P.T. Barnum proved that the Golden Gate Bridge was safe and made his circus the event to go to!
In Montana there is a little town called Ringling. According to Wikipedia "Ringling was named for John Ringling of the Ringling Brothers circus family, which once owned considerable ranchland in the area. Ringling was also president of the White Sulphur Springs and Yellowstone Park Railway."
I think I will check out "Twenty-One Elephants" by Phil Bildner. It is the story how P.T. Barnum proved that the Golden Gate Bridge was safe and made his circus the event to go to!
In Montana there is a little town called Ringling. According to Wikipedia "Ringling was named for John Ringling of the Ringling Brothers circus family, which once owned considerable ranchland in the area. Ringling was also president of the White Sulphur Springs and Yellowstone Park Railway."
According the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey site the the elephant's closest living relatives -the mammoth and the American mastodon went extinct in the ice age. I love the history of the circus.
Last year I had walked into one of the kindergarten rooms and a child ran up to me carrying a picture. It sort of resembled an elephant. I however had fallen into those traps before so now wiser leaned down and asked the child to tell me about his picture.
He looked at me with surprise, surely I would already know about his fine drawing. He cocked his head to the side and looked up: "Mrs Ferris you know, the big hairy elephants. You remember them!"
Oh the pain - I looked into his innocent eyes and nodded, "Yes I remember them."
How do you explain to a kindergartner that you came along a few thousand years later. Especially since he still believes I had one roaming around my backyard when I was young. I just nodded as he continued to tell me about his picture. Laughing inside at the idea of knowing the mammoths from long ago.
The news said that the elephants were downtown earlier. Oh I would have loved to have seen them. I am looking forward to going to the circus even if I can't remember the mammoths of my youth.
