Retiring to the circus
They were a typical couple in education. He had worked his way up through the schools from classroom teacher to school superintendent. She followed him from school to school, finding work as a secretary. For 13 years she had a day care program.
Their children always knew where to find them: He would be at the school meeting with teachers, cheering on the high school team, sitting down and talking with a recalcitrant student. She would be typing up letters at the office or extending her warm, loving embrace to other people’s children that she had given them as toddlers.
Sure Dad moved around in the area, serving 12 years as superintendent at one school district, a few years at another and so on. But Mom and Dad were always there, their lives dictated by the school year. Predictable mom and dad did everything together including planning for their retirement.
Before Mom and Dad settled into retirement, the one thing they wanted to, like many other retiring couples, was to travel around and see the country. They didn’t want to just see the tourist sites. They wanted to get off the Interstates and see Main Street USA.
That is when the predictable couple broke their mold. Instead of retiring to a series of RV parks with suppers straight off the grill, they ran away and joined the circus.
Instead of spending their days leisurely sleeping in, touring the sites and buying souvenirs, Professor Carson and Barnsie the Clown (Jerry and Pat Milligan, who technically retired to Portia, Arkansas) spend their days visiting schools, day cares, shopping malls, radio and TV stations promoting the Carson and Barnes Circus, inviting folks to come see the animals and tent raising.
Professor and Barnsie don’t have a lot of time to visit popular tourist sites. Instead, in the three years since their retirement, they have preceded the circus on first the eastern and then the western tours, telling folks about their circus. In the weeks before the Carson and Barnes Circus came to El Dorado, I had the opportunity to meet them and another couple which had retired from the military. Both husbands wanted to travel when they retired.
With her years of working with tiny tots, Barnsie is the perfect match to spend mornings talking with day care children and teachers. She knows how to tell the children about the cute, 2-year-old elephant and 6-year-old boy gymnast performing in the circus. She did the two, simple magic tricks she learned the year she decided to become a clown and showed them pictures of the circus animals.
As a former school superintendent, Professor Carson, Jerry Milligan, knows the limitations of students, teachers and principals. He visited area classrooms handing out circus math worksheets, talking with students and encouraging teachers to bring their classes to watch the tent go up. The professor is a clean shaven Santa Claus in a Carson & Barnes T-shirt, pith helmet with a photographer’s many-pocketed vest.
Their choice is not be for everyone, but for Barnsie and the Professor, joining the circus has been a great way to begin their retirement.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)