Hejaz Shrine Circus at Furman

Circuses aren't nearly as spectacular as I remember them being. We took the boys to their second one today, and I was just as underwhelmed with it as I was after the first.

Is this adulthood?

I'd think so, except that neither of the boys were all that awed, either. They liked seeing the elephants, and at one point during an aerial act, Jones turned to me and said, "HOW does she DOOOO that?"

But for the most part, they were as ambivalent about the whole thing as I was.

This surprises me, because I remember seeing Ringling Bros.' Circus at the Charlotte Coliseum when I was 7 or 8. I can still viscerally feel that sense of being amazed, ASTOUNDED at what I saw. I'm guessing rising insurance costs and, for Ringling Bros., the elephant lobby, have combined with the increased capability of film and video games to make ours a hard-to-shock society.

That's as philosophical as I'm going to wax on the subject. But just in case, years from now, Jones and Freddie are watching "Dumbo" with their grandkids and wondering why their mama never took them to see such a show, I'm posting this here as proof that I did.

And, I'm sad to say, it was FAR from "the Greatest Show on Earth."

(Oh, and I took clothes for the boys to change into after church. They said they wanted to stay in their "Topham Hatt" jackets to show Mayme and Pop, who were meeting us there, so ...)