When Giving Up Is All You See Maybe It's Time For A Mother's Day Gift

2 replies
I was over at my Facebook page and my friend Rick Wallenda posted something very amazing about his mother Carla I wanted all you dreamers to know.

It was late 1980 and I had recently left the Circus Vargas show and was settling into my new found city home of Sarasota, Fl to start a new life for myself.

I lived on Circus property that belonged to the Wallenda Family. Rick at that time was a highwire performer and skywalker and was about to go on tour. He asked me to stay on his property, keep it maintained while he traveled.

That's also when I met Carla his mom. Since I didn't have a job at that time Rick asked me to go with her to Ft. Lauderdale and help her and his sister with their circus acts.

Since I knew how to set up tents and rigging for the aerialists I thought it would be fun to see Ft. Lauderdale while working a few shows.

We played the Breakers Hotel and even though it was a small venue we drew a large crowd.

The finale of the show was watching Carla scale a 110 ft. tall sway poll to perform her head balancing act...Without A NET mind you!

That was a sight to see and at times as she swayed back and forth 110 ft. above the asphalt there was that concern that she could make one mistake and fall to her death right before my eyes. And yeah I cringe every time I think back on those days in Ft. Lauderdale.

Now getting back to Rick's post about his mom.

I want you to stop and think about this women's job and ask yourself with all your passion and hard work would you give up on your dream if you were facing death every time you worked.

Not Carla. As a matter of fact Carla is now 79 years old and in her 73rd consecutive season as a professional daredevil. She is the oldest still performing daredevil, and has the longest running career of any daredevil ever.

Translated even though her job requires she face death every time she clocks in it doesn't stop her from fulfilling her dream and making it happen.

This is a recent pic Rick showed of her practicing the Wallenda signature trick--the headstand--on her pole.




Now if that isn't enough to keep you from giving up on your dream here is another interesting life threatening event Carla was once apart of that goes all the way back to the late 1950s when she was only 23.

For most of you on this forum you grew knowing that we, Americans, conduct no business or trade with Cuba due to Fidel Castro. But before him Americans could travel to Havana, Cuba unfettered.

There was no Castro, Cuban Missile Crisis or the Embargo yet. So circuses could travel to and perform in that country.

Well in 1959 that all changed. Fidel shows up out of the hills with rebels to over throw Fulgencio Baptista government and decides to take over their circus site to setup his headquarters.

Now all the circus performers are stranded there and the show did not go on. Not knowing how or if they were getting back to the USA they were stuck there for 6 long rebel infested days and the American consulate did not know the performers were there.

They had no access to food and according to Carla they did not drink the water. Facing imprisonment, hostile actions against them or possible death was on all the performers minds.

Eventually the shrine circus promoter Tom Packs shows up with 2 huge charter planes to bring the performers home.

So don't give up and remember that not even death itself will keep you from fulfilling your dream.
#giving #mother #time
  • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
    Woody,

    What a wonderful story.

    Talk a about courage and facing fear.
    I can't imagine being able to do what
    the Wallendas and others like them do.

    Especially knowing that sometimes things
    don't go right.

    Don't remember if it was 1961 or 62. I didn't
    Google it and I'm not going to. It's enough
    to remember it.

    My mom took me to the shrine circus. The first
    time and the last. The Wallenda family was the
    highlight of the show. They had a human pyramid
    kind of thing that they performed on the high wire
    as I recall.

    It was amazing to watch. Especially for a little
    kid who'd never seen anything like that.

    Everything went well, without a hitch....for that show.

    Not for the next.

    Something went wrong during their performance at the next
    show causing the pyramid to come apart...and people to come
    tumbling down.

    I don't remember all the details. There was at least one death
    and several severe injuries, I do remember that. It was all there
    on the front page of the morning newspaper.

    I remember feeling stunned and depressed about it.

    Hard to imagine that you could come back from something like that but
    the Wallenda family did.

    A real-life display of awesome courage and facing your fear.

    Thanks, Woody.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8072708].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Cobaki
    Thanks for the share, guys. Didn't know about this until now. You can only imagine how strong and brave these women are. I don't think I have that much courage not knowing what's going to happen next. These women deserves a salute. I cannot for the life of me face the possibility of death even for just a few times.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8075370].message }}

Trending Topics