Just clowning around

The Democrat-Gazette editorial section mentioned the recent death of Bozo the Clown, aka Gary Weir. Regardless of what might be said or written about this man, it’s well known he was fun for the children, and adults as well. And while the children watched, the adults had a break from all the children’s house activity.

I’m reminded of the ice storm we had in 1999. A friend of mine owned and operated a day-care center on Wilson Street in Malvern. When the sun finally appeared a few days after the ice, the children at the day care were outside for recess. They were protected behind a chain-link fence from the center’s parking lot. I was working outside their enclosure and trimming some low-hanging tree limbs. When I stopped the chain saw, several children had gathered alongside the fence and asked: “What’s your name?” I said Bozo. Well, they snickered and were called away from the fence and returned to the building for a quiet and warm time inside. I continued to work with the trimming and sweeping up of branches in the parking area.

Later in the afternoon with my truck loaded with rubbish and headed home, I stopped at a service station to fuel up. A lady drove up to the opposite side of my pump and just as she exited the cab, the van window near me was lowered by the children inside. Three of them yelled: “Hey, Bozo.” The lady nearly fainted and stormed out at the kids to close the window and be quiet. They complied but were observed to yet be snickering. The lady immediately came to me with an apology and said she didn’t know what had possessed the kids to say such a thing. I told her the story and that I had told them that morning that I was Bozo. She was flabbergasted and I quit laughing long enough to tell her no apology was necessary and I hoped she wouldn’t crash on the kids for speaking to me because I was the reason they did. Yes, children can be funny; mamas can be embarrassed! PAUL GOZA

Malvern