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I was with my Mother, my sister Karen ''65, our next door neighbors Marge Christopher and her two kids; Carol who was about 11 or 12 and her brother Jackie who was my sister's age, about 9 or 10. We were all so excited that night, especially me, who was the baby out of the group. First stop was the Side Show which was in a huge tent. One side was the elephants chained up and the other side was the "Freaks". That consisted of the Tall Man, Sword Swallower, Bearded Lady and so forth. We stopped at a soda machine that was in the tent and all of a sudden this horrible noise came out of the side of the tent where the elephants were. Some of them were standing up on their back legs and trumpeting as loud as could be. All the people in the tent panicked and started running to the exit side of the tent. It was pandemonium. My mother grabbed me, Marge grabbed Jackie and Carol and my sister were left behind to fend for themselves. We were so scared. Thank God we all got out safe. When we were outside, we knew my sister and Carol got out OK, but to the day my mother died my sister, Karen, tormented her about leaving her behind and grabbing only me out of the tent. My mother died in 1990!!! We heard all different things on what made the elephants trumpet and scare the s--t out of everyone. It is definitely a major Hicksville memory of my childhood. A few years ago I went to the Hicksville library to look in the old Hicksville newspapers that are on microfilm. Never came across anything, but I had the pleasure to meet Mr. Evers who is the Hicksville Historian on events like the circus. He copied this article he had and I'm enclosing that and the picture of Artie. OK now, who went to that circus so long ago???? My name is Barbara (Hoosack) Sarluco and I live in Port Washington now but my heart is always in Hicksville.
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