Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages - I present Star of The Show, part of a new series that is very sentimental to me, called "Take Me to The Circus."

When I was a young girl living in Iowa my parents gathered all of us little girls into our car and took us to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. Forty-five years later I still can remember the day...

As we began to pull our car up into the open field my eyes danced with my very first view of the big top standing high, calling us to walk into a different life. This life of mystery - smells of sawdust, wild animals and food, colors of tents, wild lions in their cages and the sparkling costumes worn by what I thought had to be the most beautiful people in the world; it pulled me in so many directions. I was hooked! Mystery and color - the perfect combination for my little girl eyes.