My Runaway Question

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is probably too stupid to put in general questions so I decided to put it here. If the circus came into town and your current living situations were less than preferable could you run away with the circus? Does this happen at all anymore or is this just an old urban/folk myth?
I think it would be awesome if the circus still did recruiting like that…but somehow I doubt it is possible. It would be far too funny if the first place the “missing children dept of whatever” went was the circus to look for runaways :). So anyway what do you all think?

Openfist

The hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this,–thou art a villain.

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Nice backhanded compliment for MPSIMs there.

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As someone who has known people who are in the circus business: yes. It is possible. They’re not gonna accept children, but if you are on the lam from the law, and are willing to work long, hard hours for not much more than food and a bed, you can run away with the circus. I wouldn’t recommed it, though. The people I know have a horse show that travels during the summer, and many a barn hand has had a mysterious past that they refuse to talk about. Needless to say, my parents didn’t like me hanging out with the barn hands too much.

A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:

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I know a girl who ‘ran away’ with the circus once. She was and is not one of my favorite people. She was a drug abuser, a part time whore, and about as dumb as a stump.

She joined one of the local circuses when they came by and toured with them for about a year. They have their own code for living. It is them against the ‘marks’ (the rest of the people). She did various jobs, from running rides, to cooking in the snack stands – and discovered just how crappy some of that circus food actually is – to taking tickets. She shacked up with a guy there and lived in his trailer. No one bothered to tell her that he was a ‘beater.’ He liked to beat the crap out of her from time to time and no one in the circus bothered to get involved, so she left and came home.

Circus life is not like it used to be with the big, 3 and 4 ring outfits. Changing times have made it harder for a circus to exist – ranging in things from animal rights groups getting people to protest about any touring animals or big cat acts, to the national exposure of some crooked games, exposure of some thieves, and the rising cost of supplies and equipment. Some of the small circuses are still cool, but many are not. The circus, sadly, is a dying form of life.

CAREFUL! We don’t want to learn from this!(Calvin and Hobbs)

5

You know, one of my best friends growing up ran away to join the circus. (This is a totally true story.)

Well, one day her mother got laid off from her job and the only job she could find that paid well enough to take care of herself and her daughter (my friend) was in York, PA. Well, Kristine moved up to York and stayed there most of the time. The first summer she came down and visited me and my boyfriend and several of her other friends. She stayed with us (she was 16 at the time) for a short while and eventually went back up.

Well, several months later she shows up on my doorstep with her truck outside. She dropped out of school and drove down because she completely hated living in PA. Well, she was welcome to stay with us so she did. After about two weeks, she told me and my boyfriend to drop her off in Pearsall, TX (I was living in San Antonio at the time). I asked her what for and she responded, “You’ll see.”

Well, to make a long story short, King Royal Circus was there. She interviewed with the toothless ringleader who told her “you will get paid $300 every week no matter what, even if we aren’t working.” This statement is important to a later part of the story.

Well, he told her to come back at the end of the week and that she would be able to start working with them when they were ready to travel again as a concession girl. The week passed and I left her at the circus and she left her truck in my care until her mother could pick it up.

Several months (close to a year) went by and I didn’t hear from her at all. Her mother had long since picked up her truck and had it safely back in PA. Then one day she called me from San Antonio’s bus station. Her and one of her circus friends (one of the ringleader’s sons) had both been fired from the circus for embezzling money. Before you guys shout, “WHAT?!?” I should add that she was fired in Alaska and they had an extended layover and weren’t being paid. You remember the statement above. Anyway, she and her friend took out exactly how much they were supposed to be paid and were caught. They didn’t press charges but sent her back to where they picked her up from (not back to PA where her mother currently was).

To make her revenge sound ever sweeter, King Royal Circus was the circus that had the elephants stampede the crowd and kill kids several years ago more than once. I remember watching Hard Copy and seeing all these people I remember from the day Kristine interviewed and was later dropped off with. It was eery and funny all at the same time.

Also, at the time, my mother thought joining the circus was a viable carreer choice for me because I can juggle, do acrobatics, and am as flexible as most of the contortionists I have seen pictures of or seen in real life. It would have been interesting but I didn’t want to leave my boyfriend at that time. SIGH, the stories I would be able to tell now if I had left with her. Oh well… Those are for another time.

So, to answer your question, yes, people really do run away to join the circus still. It just doesn’t happen very often. You just lucked out and found someone that had a semi-experience with it. Also, in the interview, the only real question was “you aren’t wanted or running from the law, are you?” He actually knew she was a runaway.
HUGS!
Sqrl

SqrlCub’s Arizona Adventure

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Oh, Sentinal, that sounds more like a carnival than a circus. The “midway” is the set of crooked games and such that is attached to the circus which has the performing acts. They are related but not the same.

Also, if anyone is interested, the book Spangle by Gary Jennings is a very interesting piece of historical fiction about an American circus shortly after the Civil War. It is very good as are all of his books.

HUGS again!
Sqrl

SqrlCub’s Arizona Adventure