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As he mourns, the show goes on
By JENNIFER FARRELL
© St. Petersburg Times, BROOKSVILLE -- Harvey Clark buried his son Dee Jay on Wednesday, three days after a hit-and-run driver knocked the 18-year-old from a bicycle he was riding along Centralia Road. On Friday, Clark was back at work in his regular uniform: black and white floppy shoes, a curly yellow wig and a red foam nose. "It's tough," said Clark, standing under a large tent surrounded by a menagerie of birds and farm animals, including a small pot-bellied pig, a dwarf rabbit and two black Labrador puppies named Messy and Bessie. "We have a tradition in the circus world," he said softly. "The show must go on. If you fall down, you pick yourself up and go again. I'm a circus man all my life." Clark's Sonny Brothers Circus and Petting Farm, on display over the weekend at the Hernando County Rodeo and Barbecue Festival, is by design a small, family affair. To run it, Clark, 78, has relied on help from his daughter, Bobbie Ann, 19, and her younger brother, Dee Jay. After Dee Jay was killed, Clark thought it would be a good idea to let Bobbie Ann visit her grandparents in Georgia for a while. She's not due home until January, which leaves Clark in a bit of a bind. He cannot sell tickets for his antique mechanical horses, mind the animals and run the one-ring circus all on his own. So friends up and down his rural Budowsky Road neighborhood have pitched in. They collected more than $500 to buy a headstone for Dee Jay and planned to help staff the circus and petting zoo through the weekend, said neighbor Kenneth Tremblay, 40. "He was kind of left high and dry when Dee Jay . . . " Tremblay said, his voice trailing off. "We're all going to do it in shifts to help him out." On Friday night, crowds were light at the festival's midway, but Clark was determined to go on with his circus. He plans to tour across Florida through April, with engagements including fairs and church festivals. New attractions in the works include an inflatable moon walk, a live pony ride and, in January, a 7-ton Asian elephant and a new big cat act. "I'm going to give a show, regardless," Clark said, heading outside to the empty ring. "If I don't have but one person, I give a show." Anyone with information about the hit-and-run case is asked to call the Florida Highway Patrol at 754-6767. -- Staff writer Jennifer Farrell covers Spring Hill and can be reached at 848-1432. Send e-mail to farrell@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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