Kentuckiana Genealogy: Interesting Stories: The Circus People

By Board Administration (Admin) on Wednesday, June 28, 2000 - 03:37 pm:

There is one more story that I remember from this time of living in Louisville. It was the night we took a
walk to see where the "circus people" lived. This happened while we were still living at the first rooming house,
before the flood came. Seventh street in downtown Louisville was called the "Red Light District". Mother being
a sheltered country woman had heard of this but she had never seen such a place. She was very curious to see
what it was like so she got my father to walk with us down Seventh street so she could see those "evil" women
with her own eyes. Of course they couldn't tell me what kind of place it was, so they told me it was the place
where circus people lived when they were not traveling with the circus. I remember well walking down there
one night and I was certainly convinced that they were circus people. There were women sitting in windows
and waving and calling out to people who walked by. What was really strange was the fact that nobody
bothered us. Today we would have taken our lives in our hands to have entered such a derelict area of any
large city. Those were definitely gentler times.

submitted by Ardath and copyright 1999. Do not copy or reproduce in any way without written permission of the author.