The summer when Joe was 11 he ran a circus. Today was a show day. He was dressed as a hobo clown, with fingerless gloves, exaggerated oversize clothes, a bowler hat and his face was painted. He was currently running promotion by pulling a Radio Flyer wagon around the block. His younger brother, Gary, was sitting in the wagon, helping to yell out to every kid they spotted as the pair made their way through the neighborhood.

“Come on, Billy”. “Hey Frank, it’s showtime!”

By the time they had made their way back home, they had a small parade with them of about 12 additional kids. The stage they had set up for their return this time was a cardboard box that Mrs. Halverson’s television had come in, made into a theater for paper puppets attached to pencils. Also on the lawn sat a makeshift barbell that only weighed 5 pounds, but had been painted over to read 1000, and next to this sat a bucket with a few eggs.

Gary would hype up the crowd as Joe weaved his way through all the kids, sliding his hands across his face and changing his expression. He pulled a deck of cards from his coat pocket, demanding the nearest bystander to ‘pick a card, any card’. They had secretly been sorted prior as all the red cards on the bottom, black on top, so that when the selected card had been pulled and put back in, it was easy to see which one didn’t belong in the assortment while flipping through. The neighborhood thought Joe was magic.

“What we have here is 1000 pounds!” Joe pointed to the barbell.

“Gary, see if you can lift that”.

Gary bent down and gave a good show. He pretended that all his might could not cause the weight to move.

“Alright now, Billy, you come up here and see if you can lift this!”

Billy always had a little bit of a strut to show off and was quite eager to see if he could lift the weight. He squatted down to hoist the 5 pound barbell that had been painted over to read 1000. He yanked up with all his might, flew back and fell onto the lawn.

“Let’s hear it for Billy! He must be the strongest man in the world!” Joe got everyone to clap and cheer.

Billy could not let the applause go to waste and quickly stood up, grabbed the weight again and hoisted it over his head, pursing his lips and nodding to everyone.

“Now, what I have here is a magic, indestructible egg! Gary, try to break this egg!” Joe announced, and passed the egg to Gary, who knew to only squeeze on the top and bottom of the length of the egg. He heaved, gritted his teeth and grunted as best he could while trembling his hand.

“Billy, come on up here!” Joe beckoned while Gary tried to conceal his smirk.

“Go on and try to break that egg,” Joe encouraged and Billy was all too eager without thinking of the consequences. He snatched the egg from Gary and gave it a good squeeze on the sides. It popped and splatted out on Billy’s hands, some getting on his knee and shoe.

Joe quickly ran behind the cardboard box theater and started the puppet show. The new distraction smoothed everything over.