Former Circus World workers savor the past

By Tim Damos / News Republic--> ( Baraboo Newspaper )

Tim Perkins has never performed under the bright lights of the hippodrome. But the 48-year-old Baraboo man has the circus in his blood.
His father, the late Leonard Perkins, began working for the Circus World Museum when it opened in 1959 and eventually became building and grounds foreman before his death in 1990.
"I lived on the south side across the tracks," Tim Perkins said. "I kind of grew up down there (at the museum), so it wasn’t really a strange environment for me."
Tim Perkins would tag along with his dad during his childhood summers and do odd jobs for performers — including some truly "odd" jobs that involved handling the bodily excretions of circus animals.
He began working with his father full-time in the maintenance department in 1978, and continued for the next 26 years. Perkins and his father worked side-by-side, maintaining wagons, setting up props for shows and transporting animals back and forth.
It’s been the hard work of dedicated employees and volunteers that have helped make Circus World a central part of the Baraboo community for 50 years, and an historic gem, Perkins said.
And there’s no doubt the museum has influenced those who have crossed paths with it over the years. That was certainly the case for 36-year-old Randy Peterson, who went from grunt to performer.
His first childhood job was in 1980 as a water boy for the circus band.
"It was a big deal for me because they paid me and gave me a bag lunch," Peterson said.
Peterson’s father worked with horses and played in the band. The Peterson family used to drive from Milwaukee to Baraboo almost every summer weekend to help out at the museum.
After Peterson graduated from high school in 1990, he moved to Baraboo and worked for the museum full-time as a maintenance man until 1996. Six years later, he would return ... with his own elephant act.
Peterson said a friend got him interested in the large mammals and he eventually decided to purchase his own. Peterson now lives in central Florida and works as an elephant conservationist.
While the people behind the scenes make Circus World tick, it’s the performers who many people come to see.
Juggling and unicycling act T.J. Howell of Baraboo started performing for Circus World in 1988, and says he remembers the 12 summers he spent there vividly.
Performers would stay together in trailers parked in the back of the property, Howell said, and the close quarters helped develop camaraderie among the group.
Nights were spent eating pot luck dinners, talking, and laughing.
Howell said one of his fellow performers brought with him a jet ski one summer, which made for a lot of fun considering the museum’s location along the water.
"We used to jet ski up and down the Baraboo River," Howell said.
One summer, Howell said, the circus performers formed a team for the city’s softball league. The first few games were rough, but they eventually got into the swing of things, and began drawing big crowds with their zany antics, he said.
If the team didn’t get off work in time to start the game, a circus clown would rush over to the ball diamond and entertain the crowd until the rest of the performers arrived.
"We packed the house," Howell said. "I doubt they’ve ever had crowds like that ... We just brought an atmosphere to it. And if we lost, it didn’t matter because we were just out there having fun."
Howell now works primarily for the Tommy Bartlett Water-Ski Show in Wisconsin Dells, but lives just down the street from Circus World.
It’s been performers like Howell and many others who have captivated the imagination of fans like Steve Flint and his father.
"My father was a circus nut," said the 55-year-old Flint, who hasn’t missed an opening or closing day of Circus World since 1963. "If we didn’t get up there at least a half dozen times over the summer, it was a bad summer."
He was just a child in those days. But as an adult, Flint continued traveling to Baraboo from Janesville during the summers, and soon became a familiar face at the museum.
In 1980, he began volunteering at the museum off and on, helping restore wagons and doing other odd jobs. He would sometimes punch out at his auto plant job at 2:30 a.m. and set a course for Baraboo.
Flint said he eventually served on Circus World’s Board of Directors. He doesn’t volunteer anymore, but he hopes to retire in Baraboo someday, near the place that was such an important part of his childhood.
"I look back at the pictures now and it’s changed a bit over the years," Flint said. "But it’s always had a certain magic about it."