South Texas Catholic Monthly (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 6, Ed. 1 Tuesday, June 1, 1999 Page: 11 of 20
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Gulf Coast Register/South Texas Catholic and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
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Holy Saturday
Killeen/Fort Hood
"Army Wives, Vengeance is mine
says the Lord"
,A two-day stand is a bit of a luxury for the circus folks,
ause they don't have to take down and set up the next day
re is an entire morning of scmi-frcc time. Time to shop,
ne to do laundry, time to see whatever sites there arc in the
;al area, time to sleep in (my personal favorite!) and time to
end with family and friends. The down time is also used to
J mend and repair items that have gotten worn with use
t) time. Time is also spent working with the animals and
rfecting the acts.
One of my jobs, as security, was to help in the tent as the
ople leave after the last show. Safely is always a concern in
tnt larger than a football field. Patrons are asked to exit the
I' they came in and not to cross through the rings.
A woman with two small children had made the executive
eision that this rule did not apply to her and was about to
ad for the nearest exit by way of one of the rings. I stopped
r and politely asked her to exit through the main entrance
the tent. She stopped, glared at me with 2000 years of femi-
le anger and pushed past me her children in tow.
She hopped over the ring, took two strides and stepped
ht into a rather fresh pile of camel dung! As the luxuriant
tilizcr squished up through the manicured toes of her golden
tdaled feet she spun around and gave me a look that would
re killed Attila the Hun. I smiled sweetly and repeated,
ease exit though the main entrance!" She complied, shak-
I her fool and cursing as she left. At that moment 1 knew
I God must love the circus
ause His timing is impec-
ile and His sense of humor
Certainly beyond human
demanding.
That evening the sisters,
other lady and 1 dashed
o the local parish to catch
tuch of the Easter Vigil as
rould. We arrived just af-
he readings. In this large
itifully decorated church
sat down ready to rejoice
t the Lord was ristn. The
rice was lovely.
Jut, there 1 sat a stranger
a strange land
velcomed, ungreeted, and
iced at with suspicion by
assembly sealed around
1 had not found time to
in up after the show, so
:ing a little disheveled the
ihioners were even a bit
riant to shake my hand
ng the sign of peace,
here I was, a Roman
lolic Priest sitting with three religious women and a pious
•’ from the company feeling disenfranchised in a house that
ve always felt was my own. 1 knew then why it is that so
of the circus people venture off the lot to visit many of
local parishes even when they have the time. 1 realized
importance of the statement by the Holy Father concern-
migrants and people on the move.
ts we left the church to return to the lot I knew that I
Id stop worrying about what I would say in the homily on
ter Sunday. All I had to do was just show up, be there with
J.ongregation and let them know 1 loved them! When I
back to Corpus Christi a friend of mine asked, “Tom, what
lou while you were with the circus that you have become
assionatc about it?" I guess my answer after that evening
tld have to be, “the Holy Spirit." But then like all spiritual
ericncc 1 guess you just had to be there!
Easter Sunday
San Antonio, Texas
"Christ the Lord is Risen Today,
sign here please"
v;e arrived in San Antonio’s south side with the entire day
off! However the joy of this leisurely day was shattered by the
first wave of local inspectors that later would come like lo-
custs on the site. Because of a myriad of city ordinances none
of the animal could stay on the site. All the animals had to be
kept 40 miles away in Scguin and trucked in and out daily for
the show. Every time we set a time for the Easter Sunday
Mass we found that we had to push the lime back due to one
complication or another.
Because the tent was not yet set up we had our Easter Sun-
day Mass in the cook-tent. We celebrated the Resurrection of
the Christ in the golden glow of the new orange and white
tent with song and hymns and thankful praise. After Mass we
ate pineapple upside-down cakes that the sisters had been
making for days and ice cream provided by Jenny Madrigal
the cookhouse manager. “Ice Cream, constant proof that God
loves us and wants us to be happy!”
Easter Monday
San Antonio, Texas
"Who would have guessed that there
could be this many inspectors?"
The Monday after Easter the inspectors descended on the
lot in groups. There were building inspectors, electrical in-
spectors, Tire inspectors, architectural inspectors, animal con-
trol inspectors and even a plumbing inspector! Each of these
people taking meticulous care to do his or her job as if the fate
of the entire free world depended on it.
The circus is a family This day the family felt, and rightly
so, attacked from the outside. Spirits were down and nerves
were raw. Every time someone in a white shirt carrying a
Jennie has lunch with her mother Isa.
Photo/Mickey L. Crump
clipboard walked onto the lot you could just see everybody
cringing. Even I began to feel the stress of these people scru-
tinizing everything. It was like “formation evaluations" in
the seminary.
At one point during the morning while walking down the
mid-way I saw Fiji the wardrobe master setting up for the
show. I poked my head in the dressing area and yelled, “ Fiji,
quick the pantyhose inspector is here, hide the bad ones!" He
shook his head and laughed. By the afternoon any time we
saw a white shirt crossing the lot we would squint and say to
one another, “Hmm, must be the pantyhose inspector."
Easter Tuesday
San Antonio, Texas
'The best laid plans...”
Tuesday was supposed to be breeze. All the inspectors had
been satisfied, there was no setup, the morning was basically
free. There was a couple that wanted to see the sight of San
Antonio and I was excited to be their tour guide. They really
wanted to see the Alamo! (What Texan docs not like showing
off the Alamo?)
But, as I drove on the lot that morning my car burst a water
The lot setup in Brady, Texas.
To the right, is the bach lot and
to the left is the front lot. The
big top tabes two hours to put
up and less that one hour to
take down. The big top is
60,000 square feel and could
not be erected on a football
field.
STC photo/Fr. Tom Goodwin
hose and green engine coolant poured out like a geyser. So
instead of being the tour guide for the day I spent the morn-
ing and most of the afternoon sitting in the waiting area of a
local repair shop practicing patience. Not praying for it! Never
pray for patience. Patience is a learned virtue and if you pray
for it God has to teach it to you.
So I sat there praying for acceptance. Trying to accept all
of this as some kind of divine order. I think I was more disap-
pointed than my friends that we didn't make it that day to the
Alamo. Time off the lot is precious to circus folks especially
Tor recreation. Because most of the times they get to leave the
lot it is to go shopping or do laundry and such.
Easter Wednesday
San Antonio, Texas
"How did it get so hot so quick?"
This was the first day that sun really came out. The mer- I
cury climbed into the 90s and the pavement steamed. But,
the show must go on. The tent heated up like an oven. Even
with the (laps open it was hot. 1 mean hot! I stood amazed as
one after another the performers did their acts in the blazing
heat. Never once showing discomfort they did the show with
the same enthusiasm as always. In that blazing heat I learned
about dedication and fortitude in the face of adversity. These
people had been through a terrible week that didn’t show any
signs of getting better, and in spite of it all gave a wonderful
show to a delighted audience.
Easter Thursday
San Antonio, Texas
"I’m a vegetarian - you're a!
Thursday we moved to the fashionable north side of San
Antonio. Things went reasonably well until the animals ar-
rived from their exile in Seguin. The elephant lot was right
up against the parking lot of the Mall. So, my job was to keep
people from coming too close to the pachyderms.
As I was standing there a smartly dressed, blonde women
with an English dialect walked up. “I’m a vegetarian," she
announced. I thought it was strange way to start a conversa-
tion but I responded, “that's nice!" “Do you work here?" she
asked. “Yes," 1 answered. Then she began to share her feel-
ings about “animal rights." About how the circus abuses and
even kills animals and on and on. When she took a breath I
remarked on here shoes. (A very expensive pair of leather
pumps.) “Well,” she snapped, “I can t wear anything else in
this awful climate."
As the conversation when on she became more and more
agitated and angry. She had pels but that was different. She
went hunting with her dogs but the was different. Finally just
wanting her to leave 1 said, “nice car," she drove a Lexus, “I
see you got the leather package, makes sense to me." With
that the air turned blue. The language that came out of this
seemingly tasteful lady would have shocked a sailor. With an
un-lady-like hand gesture she left vowing to return with a
group to protest.
There are a variety of Animal Rights Groups in America.
Some use terms like “Ethical Treatment of Animals," “National
Humane" or "Animal Liberation." At any given point in time
they may be protesting and objecting to one thing - such as
fur, or veal, or the use of animals in the testing of cosmetics,
or animals in movies and the circus. However, if you read
their literature you will discover that they do not want hu-
mane treatment of animals by people. They want NO treat-
ment of animals by people. No pels. No meat. No milk. No
Seeing Eye dogs. No medical research. They say that animals
have the same "Rights" as people but no responsibilities.
Although a vast majority of the public would reject the
agenda of the animal rights groups if it were known, they have
been very successful in raising large amounts of money to fur- .. .I
ther their propaganda and lobbying and to pay their fat sala-
ries, build their offices and fly across the globe. Many do not
spend any memgy to actually care for animals. They often use
staged photographs_of “abused” animals, half-truths and let-
ter writing campaigns by a core group of activists. They also
obtain records of inspections by government agencies of le-
gitimate zoos and circuses. They edit and distort the reports
to give a false impression of the facility and its care of ani-
mals.
Unfortunately, these groups cannot just be dismissed as a
group of nuts. They have acted as terrorists, destroyed re-
search facilities, killing animal and destroying valuable medi-
cal research in the process. They have bombed circus wagons
destroying the very homes of the animals they claim to be
protecting. With false information and huge budgets they have — *;j
convinced various cities to pass laws banning circuses, rodeos
and other events.
In his book ‘The Problem of Pain”
published in 1962,
C. S. Lewis wrote these words:
"Man is to be understood only in his relation to God. The
beasts are to be understood only in their relation to man and
through man, to God. Let us here guard against one of those
untransmuted lumps of atheistical thought which often survive in
the minds of modem believers. Atheists naturally regard the co-
existence of man and the other animals as a mere contingent re-
sult of interacting biological facts; and the taming of an animal
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Espitia, Paula. South Texas Catholic Monthly (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 34, No. 6, Ed. 1 Tuesday, June 1, 1999, newspaper, June 1, 1999; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth855660/m1/11/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .