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kenyon collage is a good college--- a  damn good college and way back when we were thrilled to have Gwen be accepted.  I mean she had good grades and good SAT scores but when she went there for their freshman initiation speech by the president of Kenyon College he mentioned the fact that they even had someone in the freshman class who had run a circus..   which was Gwen.  If I didn't know it then it certainly solidified the concept of doing something unusual that would make you stand out from the crowd.. because I'm sure Kenyan was inundated with qualified applicants..  and in my opinion Kenyan provided a super education for Gwen and the next four years..  When she graduated she knew all kinds of things that I had never considered when I graduated from Colby....  I'm pretty sure my parents paid to Get Me Out of there because I don't think I ever pass the dam 500 word spelling tests.   

 

I am sure running a circus in the eyes of the president of Kenyon College his field of reference was probably ringling brothers however running our circus took a lot different huzzah..  and my first and best memory of the circus was Gwen trying to sow a straight line making the clown outfits on  the old treadle sewing machine ----neither Gwen nor Janine was very old at the time and Gwen yelled  “Janine pump faster.”  to Janine who was sitting on the floor working the  treadle...  That crazy circus was just my way of not having to prime the kids to have their ponies in horse shows where they get a blue ribbon or more likely they wouldn't get any ribbon and I'd be left wondering why I did all that--- the circus was something else we made money for project hope about $1000... with the aid of Wayne Cashman left skate---- I'm not sure how I ended up with his left skate but I had it and I put it on a piece of wood and auctioned it off Wayne was one of the Bruins hockey players who had won the Stanley Cup so that scate was a very valuable thing I don't know what happened to the right skate but I had the left one I wonder where it is now.  Wayne's wife was  the horse person.. that's how I got to know them..

 

Circus practice began at 7:00 every morning with the flag raising ceremony where all these kids about 10 years old would get out in the middle of the front lawn and somebody would bring out the flag to raise it

it was very official...  and the circus provided and untold number of learning experiences.... including how do we get rid of a dead monkey before the crowd gets here,.... but that's another long story. Along with if you're planning to have a clown ride a horse then the clown outfit must never be made out of anything slippery..  such were the details of running our circus..  we were a long cry from ringling brothers but we were happy to share some of their publicity..