This past weekend, I went to visit my parents in Massillon and they are in the process of going through all of my Grandpa Bob’s stuff (he is in a nursing home now). 

Grandpa Bob was a dentist, and his hobby was carving circus figures with this dental tools.  Over a fifty-year time period, he carved a 100-square foot replica of a complete circus — including 36 elephants, 186 horses, 102 assorted animals, 91 wagons, 7 tents and 2,207 people.  Until several years ago, this circus was displayed in his basement and it took up an entire room.  There was a switch and when you turned it on, little lights would go up all though the circus, and you could hear music and crowds and animal noises.  It was magical.

Now it is on permanent display in the Massillon Museum, but among his things are some carvings that he wanted his kids and grandkids to have.  I had fun looking through them and photographing them.

I’m glad the circus is in a museum where everyone can see it and appreciate it, but I’m glad some of the carvings will be kept in the family.

We also discovered this:

I found an entire collection of old photos that have people’s heads cut off:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm and is filed under family history, photos, tiger town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.