I watched the movie Jumbo about a circus elephant and my wife Jean asked me “Art, did you see a circus very often when you were a kid?” And BOOM!!! It all came rushing back to my memory. I had a booking for the Michigan School Administrators or Principals, someone, and it was at the Amway Grand in Grand Rapids and we couldn’t leave the hotel.
Suddenly we were snowed in. I’d noticed a sign when I parked my car that the Barnum and Bailey Circus was playing that day within a block of the hotel. I’d given my presentation early and dressed warm to go outside. There was snow blowing everywhere but somehow I found the right place and went inside this big auditorium. Someone sold me a ticket and I took a seat up front. The whole auditorium was about empty. As I recall it, there were fewer than 40 of us attendees in that giant arena. The big circus band played the opening theme and for a couple of hours I was just a kid again watching this fantastic Greatest Show on Earth. Talk about the tradition that the show must go on…it went on and on and every performer gave our small enthusiastic group of appreciative onlookers their very best. It was a magnificent show with lots of clowns, pretty ladies on horses, elephants and acrobats and breathtaking aerial acts. It was everything you might dream about in a circus. When the show was over we all stood and applauded and applauded until we were worn out. Then I went back on the short trip to the hotel. By then the conference attendees were in a state of angry revolt. Obviously they had the bar open and some were to the point, when they realized they would have to spend another night in the hotel they were complaining and some were threatening a lawsuit for not being allowed to leave. I had a booking to speak in Chicago the next morning. I called the airport but it was closed but I got through to someone that told me that Capital was sending one flight going out to Chicago in about an hour and a half.
There was an announcement that no motor vehicles would be allowed on any of the roads. I packed up and made my way to my car in a parking lot. With just a bit of shoveling I managed to get out to the street and took a direct road to the airport. Snow was everywhere so I parked right in front of the entrance and left my car on the road. Sure enough. Capital had one plane and I was just there in time to catch it. In Chicago I got a cab right to my hotel for my speech. After my talk early the next morning a group of the attendees were headed back to the airport for a trip overseas and I caught a ride with them and boarded one of the first planes back to the Grand Rapids Airport and like a miracle my car was still sitting where I parked it. The highways back to my home were reported closed when I started out from the airport and just as I arrived at highway 131 it opened up and when I got to I-94 it had just opened and the same was true when I arrived at my Battle Creek roads. I was able to drive right to the corner of my street where I was able to park and walk down the road a few hundred yards to my doorway. I phoned the Amway hotel and was advised that they had not allowed anyone to leave the hotel as yet. That entire adventure all came unraveling out of me just because Jean had asked me a question about seeing a circus. Maybe I will watch that movie again tonight with popcorn.
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