Thirty One

            I remember one time our boss came to our place on Saturday and we all had a little to drink. I know I was feeling pretty good and would of done about anything anyone would of dared me to do.

            Anyways, he asked my brother to give him a haircut. he had quite a bit to drink and when he sat down he went to sleep. My brother looked at me and said, "Here, you cut his hair. I can't do a very good job."

            It just seemed I was waiting for that chance. I said, "Sure, Ic an do it." I started to trim it. At the same time the idea came to me to put one over on my brother. I just started cutting and went all over his head. No hair left.

            When I was done (he never did wake up while I was doing it), my brother walked in and saw it. he was about ready to leave home as he knew he'd get blamed for it because he started to do it before the boss went to sleep and all I could say was, "Ya, I know, boy are you gonna get it!"

            I did think for a couple of days that my brother was gonna get fired but after a couple of days the boss started laughing about it too, but he always did think my brother done it, but he never did ask for another haircut after that experience.

            We were beginning to talk about doing something different for a change. We got word of a big Circus coming to Chicago in the near future and decided to go see it so the day came that we caught the train from Canton, Ohio and headed west.

            My brother wasn't too good at catching trains but I had plenty of experience at that so it wasn't too much of a problem, only he was awful slow at getting around and at certain things we had to be fast at. He acted like an old clumsy horse. A few times I thought he might get killed till he learnt a little about it and caught on.

            Anyways, the Circus was there when we got there. They beat us by two days but they were there for fifteen days so we didn't miss anything. We both liked it so we decided to take jobs with them. At least we would have a place to sleep and something to eat. We didn't work together so we didn't see each other much during the day. There was plenty to eat but sleeping was another thing. We had to sleep anywhere we found a place. Sometimes in the big top, sometimes outside on nice nights. The sometimes we found a place on the Circus train parked on a siding nearby. It was always on the ground or the floor in the train.

            We soon found out it was an awful life. I worked in the center ring (it was a three ring Circus). I helped to put whatever they used in to the ring for an act. When it was done, take it out and put what they needed for the next on. It was ok while everything was new to us but after we see the same things every day it soon got to be old stuff and wasn't much fun. Then when we were moving from one town to the next, sometimes we were traveling at night, the train was packed with all the help, there was no beds or any place to sleep. A few times I crawled under a seat on the floor.

            One night a bunch of fellows was sitting at a table playing cards. There was a spot under the middle of the table and that's where I lay all curled up with feet all around me. I sure didn't wake up feeling like I had a good night's rest. Then sometimes while they were setting up it would be raining or a real thunder shower would come up. We all had to keep working right on through it. Sometimes it would be in a big field and by the time the Big Top was up, certain spots would be in a regular mud hole. All the help, the horses and wagons, some of the wagons would get stuck and they would bring the elephants out to help push the wagons along.

            It was all a great experience and adventure for me but it didn't take long to get enough of that kind of living. Then there never was any place to wash up about half the time. It wasn't like the Circus is today with everything to do with and a lot of places to set up indoors and some machines to do a lot of the work that was all done by hand back in the 1930s.

           I think we was with them about three weeks when we started thinking of getting out but one day I didn't see my brother. Then the second day I began to wonder where he was at. No one knew. So on the third day I left and started back to Ohio.