In the 1970s, I thought it was absolutely fantastic when the circus came to town, in the field on the corner of Walvisvaardersweg and Torplaan in Den Helder during summer. The field consisted of a few clumps of grass and some dried mud puddles, where the clouds of dust obscured your view when you were playing with friends, Later the field turned out to be worth some money, it is filled with apartments where a cousin now owns a house. But before that it was always a pleasant moment when a large colorful circus tent was set up.

Clowns, jugglers and acrobats in tight suits and the exotic animals had an enormous appeal to me. As a child, I could lie in bed for hours fantasizing about running away from home and travel with the circus. It remained only the thought of leaving home for the uncertain life of a circus artist. The grass is not always greener on the other side. It’s a good thing I didn’t run away from home and travel different countries in a caravan with my new circus family. The world of a circus is one where I could not have been happy, I guess. Not that this life is too bad,. My home should be on a solid foundation and not on wheels. In addition, the circus has not been what it was for years. The circus of the past is now a relic of the past, when your own hometown was the world and people didn’t know any better.

The exotic animals of the past are now endangered, and a bunch of monkeys dancing on and between the humps of a camel is no longer special today. The internet has already shown us everything. In addition, exotic animals have not been allowed to perform in the ring of a large circus tent for years. Or elsewhere in the Netherlands. Good riddance. Animals are not here to entertain us. Let the acrobat and magicians show the tricks to the audience in person. By the way, I have no doubt that the animals were well cared for at the time, in the last century (as far as people knew), but nowadays we know better and I believe that an animal should live and not just exist. Certainly not in an environment of a limited number of square meters, like they do in a zoo. But that’s another story.