A Circle that is three decades big.

I have been told if you leave your mark somewhere you are destined to return later in life. I don't know how much of that statement is true but the events in the past couple of days made me laugh and ponder that statement.

If you a reader of this blog you know that I will be traveling North America following Ringling Bros. Circus to monitor the treatment of the elephants and to inform circus-goers of the abuse that happens behind the scenes.

Anyway, I was on the phone with my mom the other night and we were talking about me being on the road and she said, "You know when you were a child I was a costume designer for Ringling Bros." Laughing, I said, "No way!" She continued to say, "Yes, I have photos of you hanging out with The Smallest Man in the World. I will scan them in and send it to you."

So let me set the time frame for this photo - it was 1977 and I lived in Texas - so no comments on my clothing choice. I was a victim of my environment. -haha.

The guy in the photo with me is Michu. He was with the attraction of "The Smallest Man in the World' by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1973. Several years after he left Ringling, his best career move, he became the man in the costume of "ALF' - yes this ALF...

And starred in several films such as 'Waxwork' and others

I find it funny how something so random and strange would make a full circle in my life and how things that don't seem to mean anything other than a passing moment have parallels to things that happen much later in life.

Let's play this out:

In 1977, my mom was doing a contract job for Ringling Bros., I was in an environment surrounded by circus carnies and while my mom was fitting costumes, I was hanging out with a man who was treated like a "freak show" by Ringling Bros.

Nearly a decade later in 1986, when I was twelve years old I enjoyed a TV show about a creature covered with orange fur, that has a rippled snout, facial moles, eight stomachs, and he likes to eat cats, living with the Tanners, a white suburban middle-class family. I had no idea that the person in the full body shots of ALF was a man who I met and ran around an arena with while Ringling Bros. carnies were trying on costumes that my mom had made.

As I grew older, shows like ALF no longer held my attention and cheesy horror movies began taking up a large percentage of my movie/TV viewing. In 1988, a film called 'Waxwork' came out. I think it went straight to VHS, but I watched and loved the lame humor. Not having a clue once again that the man inviting teenagers inside a wax museum where the midnight show resulted in their death, was the same man who had worked for a company that would rip baby elephants from their mothers--with some later suffering horrible deaths.

In 2006, rumors surfaced that Michu had died, therefore breaking this strange 'connection' - well, at least if I was aware of this connection I would have thought so until the year 2007.

Now in 2007, three decades later, I am back in the same environment as I was in 1977--in the eyesight of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The only difference now is that I am without the little man known as Michu and I am not greeted by "friendly" carnies.

So with this strange and unusual circle of events, I will carry these memories as I continue down the road for 'Elephant Freedom'



ps - check out this cool link about the elephant in this photo at Roadside America

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