From Roger Smith

ERIC BEHEIM wrote of school days when The Circus was taught as a study unit. This is my artwork from Mrs. Viva Walker's 3rd Grade class at Alta Vista Elementary School, out off Old Robinson Road, in Waco, Texas. I re-traced the light pencil with black ball- point. My mother wrote, "Oct. 1 - '51" for some reason. The Beatty show played Waco that year on March 21, at the late Saddle Club grounds, near the Circle Drive-in Theatre. My first time to see Beatty in person was in 1947, when he played Tyler, Texas, on August 25th. That was my epiphany. I stripped my bedoom window of its sash cord, tacked it onto a stick, and had my first whip, so I could play Clyde Beatty in the back yard, right after listening to his radio show. By the time I saw him in 1951, those planted seeds had taken root. Old time showhands will remember Waco's traffic Circle, a confluence of 5 highways, when roads actually went from town to town. At The Circle, you went around and headed 100 miles North towards Hillsboro, Waxahachie, and Dallas, or South and drove 35 miles to Temple.