One of the shows in the Circus with little white horsesI was intrigued by an unusual train parked on a solitary track parallel to the Winchester road near our home at the border of Los Gatos and Campbell. It was the Ringling Brothers Circus Company train.
I love trains and this one definitely awakened the child in me; firstly because I had never seen a live circus with animals and secondly, I really wanted to meet someone to find how the life was like traveling and staying in a circus train. I found out that the show was in the town till this weekend. I jumped on the opportunity and we went for the Friday evening show.
We had an amazing evening. (Ringling Brothers) and (Barnum and Bailey) were two of the biggest and best circus companies that merged their operations in early 1920s. We went to the "Red Tour" described on their website. The tours are two year long. The tour company goes around from January to Thanksgiving, returning to their home in Florida for a break in December. You can find out more about the show at their website here.
If you have a child that loves trains I would definitely recommend stopping by to see the train when it is in the town. There were many opportunities where the kids participated in singing and shouting at the circus and kids were having fun time.
There were elephants, emus, tigers, playful dogs and horse shows. Oh..and there was a cute porcupine that entertained us at one point in the show. There was singing and dancing, clowns fooling around, gymnasts doing amazing feats of balance and flexibility and a Chinese party of dancers putting on a beautiful show towards the end. (I personally got tickled by elephants pooping in unison at one point in the show. I guess that goes to say that they are well-fed and not punished for doing what the kids do best. These looked like "baby" elephants.) And there was much more, too many things to write here. You can get a glimpse of what the circus is like at the link here.
What made the evening special was chance meeting with the ring master on the Winchester Lightrail train while coming back home. We chatted much about life on the circus, travelling by the train and of his home back in Pensacola, Florida. The circus has artists from all over the world, from eastern Europe, France, Spain and China. We took pictures with Chuck and had his autograph on our ticket to keep as a memento of this wonderful experience.
Chuck Wagner is an accomplished singer and Broadway theater artist. We had the privilege of chatting with him making the whole experience of attending the circus last night very special.
Ringling Brothers Train parked near Los Gatos, California.
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