How I'd love to go, and, heck, I might.
Come July 26, you can stand on one of the town's cozy little old world streets and watch great gilded wagons burst by, rumbling wheels proving their mighty merit once more, the sweet blast of trumpets painting the air in the triumphalism of the once-great American circus.
The grand and glorious procession under the direction, for the second time, of local business leaders and Circus World Museum,
They're calling it Circus Celebration Days.
A weekend of big toppery will wrap the town in sawdust and spangles, band concerts and rare circus souvenirs on display. The lucky will have breakfast at the Al. Ringling Mansion. Ringlingphiles will have plenty to enthuse over.
The parade, starring over 75 units, to be Grand Marshalled by local Lodi hero Tom Wopat, famed for his role in The Dukes of Hazard TV show and for a sterling stint on the Great White way in a revival of Annie Get Your Gun that brought him a Tony nomination.
He'll be troubadouring on the sainted stage of the Al Ringling Theatre -- American songbook to contemporary twang. And playing Frank Butler in a staging of Annie Get Your Gun at Circus World Museum, July 26-27. .
This year marks the 130th anniversary of the Ringling brothers first circus, presented in Baraboo.
What rich festive fun it promises.
That, my friend, is your way back to a land of true circus kings. Hush, and listen, and maybe you'll hear the ghosts of five brilliant brothers arguing up a storm in some nearby shed, giving rocky birth to a great new idea of the sort that made them, in their day, the envy of Big Tops far and wide.
On with their parade!
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