Julie and the Old Traveling Circus

By William Pisani

Billy's parents could ill afford to pay for circus tickets for him or for his younger brothers, let alone to pay for summer vacations. And so he dreaded the very thought of going back to school in September, and the embarrassment of being asked once again by his teacher, "Where did you go this past summer?"

But this summer would be very different, as his fortune would at long last change. He would meet and befriend Julie the elephant, star of the old Hunt Brothers Traveling Circus. She would give him an experience he would finally be proud to share with all of his classmates, one that no else in his class could ever have imagined - and one that he would remember for the rest of his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669872153

William Pisani

William Pisani, born in 1943 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, is the author of The Call of Distant Drums (JoNa Books, 2005), a historical novel about the Native Americans. This was followed by An American Trilogy (Xlibris, 2011), a novel reflecting his own experiences growing up in a neighborhood of Italians and Irish-Americans during the 1950s. His latest work, The Little Bumblebee, is a picture storybook that uses imagery of nature to convey its important message.

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by William Pisani.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Vintage Photographs provided with permission by:

Circus World—Wisconsin Historical Society, Baraboo, WI

Rev. date: 03/31/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

850539

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Summer (1952)

Chapter 2: Waiting...

Chapter 3: Raising The Big Top

Chapter 4: The Gentlest Creature

Chapter 5: A Special Friend

Epilogue

36815.png

CHAPTER I

Summer

(1952)

Billy waited on Main Street, outside Bartels’ Ice Cream Parlor. He stared awhile at the hand-dipped chocolates stacked one on top another within the front store window. His friends Michael and Frankie finally came out the door, each holding a double scoop ice cream cone. Oh how he wished he had money to buy one.

Where are you going on vacation this summer? Michael asked as he licked the drips off the side of his cone.

Billy didn’t answer.

I guess, like last year, he’s not going anywhere, Frankie said.

Billy looked away. Sure he’d love to go on vacation, like all the other kids. But his father and mother both had to work, as they struggled to support him and his young brothers. And without a family car, they never took any trips, let alone vacations.

Not much time left, Michael said, before summer’s over and we have to go back to school.

Just the thought of that first day of school filled Billy with dread. As always the teacher would ask each student, Now tell the class what you did this summer. And as always he would sit there, waiting anxiously, then shake his head so she would know to skip over him. An occasional giggle from the back of the classroom would add to his embarrassment.

You won’t have anything to tell the teacher about your summer, Michael said, as though he had been