Veteran Showman and banner painter extraordinaire Jim Hand was in the ding box at the entrance  of the new "Clyde Beatty Circus" making a three day stand at the I 75 market in Ocala Florida ending Sunday the fourth of Feb...

His lovely wife Lorraine was at the door grabbing ducats...

They appeared to be doing just fine until my kids and I showed up demanding tickets for "One senior and five pre-schoolers"...

Jim kindly observed that I appeared to qualify for the senior discount, but that all of my circus kinker brats looked too old to fall into the pre-school category...

 

My youngest informed him that to the best of her knowledge all of them had yet to waste a single day of their little lives in school... This was followed by my group attempting to lay the note while Jim was simultaneously doing his level best to turn the duke... The exchange was resolved with an apparent stalemate unless I miscounted... We entered triumphantly without a single casualty, dragging the tip with us...   The two veteran vaudevillians reported good houses for the weekend when questioned separately...

click on above image

This investigator witnessed a three quarter house for the Sunday evening performance and is satisfied that the reports are accurate...

The circus big top escaped damage from the fury of vicious winds which tore the roofs off churches, orphanages, senior mobile home retirement developments, and firehouses...

Saloons, nauch-houses, roadsiding flat joints, and my winter quarters escaped harm...

All is well...