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Log inUnder the big top at the Skowhegan fair
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Under the big top at the Skowhegan fair
by Outspoken on Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:53 am
Under the big top at the Skowhegan fair
BY JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN -- Thirty feet above the crowd, the tightrope walker skipped rope, the wire beneath him bouncing with each hop.
Then he tripped and fell. Those in the circus tent the Skowhegan State Fair gave the requisite collective gasp as his feet went out from under him and he lunged, grabbed the wire in his hands and swung himself up and over into a sitting position. He let on it was an accident, and it was pretty convincing.
But he never lost his jump rope, and went on to perform for 10 more minutes to much applause. After that came a variety of spectacles, including a hula-hoop artist, acrobats and a pair of motorcyclists who rode loops and spirals inside a round steel cage, defying gravity and audience expectations that they might fall from the round ceiling and smash the female performer who stood stock-still below them at the bottom of the cage.
But 5-year-old Caleb Heald, of Albion, liked the performing Friesian horses the circus had brought from the Netherlands.
"It was very good," he said. "My favorite was the horses. I thought they were pretty."
The caged motorcyclers were all right, he said, but very loud.
"I liked them -- but at that point, my head nearly cracked open," he said. "It made me dizzy."
It was his second trip to the Skowhegan State Fair, and Caleb wasn't interested in standing around talking about it. As he set off in search of more fun, his parents, Kris and Gudrun Heald, trailed behind.
"As a family, we've only been here two times," Kris Heald said. "But I grew up here (in Skowhegan), so I grew up coming here."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5305327.html
Photo by JP Fortier
BY JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel
SKOWHEGAN -- Thirty feet above the crowd, the tightrope walker skipped rope, the wire beneath him bouncing with each hop.
Then he tripped and fell. Those in the circus tent the Skowhegan State Fair gave the requisite collective gasp as his feet went out from under him and he lunged, grabbed the wire in his hands and swung himself up and over into a sitting position. He let on it was an accident, and it was pretty convincing.
But he never lost his jump rope, and went on to perform for 10 more minutes to much applause. After that came a variety of spectacles, including a hula-hoop artist, acrobats and a pair of motorcyclists who rode loops and spirals inside a round steel cage, defying gravity and audience expectations that they might fall from the round ceiling and smash the female performer who stood stock-still below them at the bottom of the cage.
But 5-year-old Caleb Heald, of Albion, liked the performing Friesian horses the circus had brought from the Netherlands.
"It was very good," he said. "My favorite was the horses. I thought they were pretty."
The caged motorcyclers were all right, he said, but very loud.
"I liked them -- but at that point, my head nearly cracked open," he said. "It made me dizzy."
It was his second trip to the Skowhegan State Fair, and Caleb wasn't interested in standing around talking about it. As he set off in search of more fun, his parents, Kris and Gudrun Heald, trailed behind.
"As a family, we've only been here two times," Kris Heald said. "But I grew up here (in Skowhegan), so I grew up coming here."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5305327.html
Photo by JP Fortier
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
