I preface this story by insisting all of it is true.
We were living on Third Fifth Street between Second and Third, a neighborhood called Murray Hill. We lived there about seventeen years in a one bedroom apartment. We can’t sleep in the same bed because we just can’t. So the bedroom had two full size beds with about two feet in between them. Our dog at the time jumped back and forth all night. Like counting sheep.
So it’s early March on a Tuesday night and we’re all going to sleep. It’s about 11:30. Well alert number one is when our dog starts darting franticly between the two beds trying to grab the end of a curtain and pull it open. Then we start to hear chants and mumblings on the street right outside our bedroom. We were only on the second floor. Then the curtain draws open slowly and I can see PETA protest signs and a large gathering of pretty drunk people. Murray Hill had probably three or four bars per street and they stayed open til 4:00 AM.
So now the fueled up People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals start shaking things up by tossing beer bottles and stuff. Well this gets me out of bed and I look out the side curtain. I am eye to eye with a camel. Then a juggler on stilts walks past and waives at me. Next come five elephants with their tails connected and swinging. A few clowns, a lion in a cage … the circus was coming to town.
I called a friend of mine on the West Coast because he’d be up and told him all of this to which he responded:
Oh Jeff, how much did you have to drink tonight?
The crowds eventually wandered off and the exhibit came to an end. The next day I found out it’s a tradition that when the circus comes to town, one half enters through the Midtown Tunnel and the other enters via the Lincoln Tunnel. They meet at 34th Street then make their way into Madison Square Garden. A little pre-show live advertisement. The next day I also smelled fresh elephant dung.
For years this event happened and eventually (like most things in New York) it lost its appeal. Plus complaints were mounting.
The circus doesn’t even bother visiting any more.
Thanks PETA! Buncha Party Dung Poopers!
