From the recording Blue Ridge Mountain Time: Songs from Wildacres
(2016): a song I brought to SoLaTiDo and recorded on the mountain; I love Richard's accompaniment. The song very much influenced by a wonderful exhibit at The Ringley Brothers Museum in Sarasota Florida.
Lyrics
Posters are up all over town
Circus coming to the old campground
Gonna be things that you’ve never seen
Gonna be better than a dazzling dream
The very next day coming down the track
A long long train going clackedy-clack
Elephants pulled up the tents
There were beautiful ladies and handsome gents
I saw tight rope walkers, a human cannon ball
Dancing bears, a grown man not three foot tall
I ate cotton candy, I ate caramel corn
Saw a sad-faced clown get a laugh when he performed
They left as quick as they had come
I got a souvenir: an Indian drum
Trash is scattered on the old campground
Barnum and Bailey; a merry-go-round
Tonight I put a blanket on the bed
The greatest show on earth is what they said
October winds will bring a killing frost
A memory saved, a dream or two that’s lost