Feature Writing Practice 3

 Feature Writing Practice

Story:

Thomas J. Serle works for Parker Bros. Circus, which is in town this week. Performances are scheduled at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day through Sunday, beginning today. Serle, who maintains a home in Fort Lauderdale, is a laborer who helps care for the animals at the circus, including 10 elephants. During a conversation with a reporter, he said: "Some people look on work with a circus as a glamorous job. It ain't. But I have been doing it all my life, and it's too late for me to change. I'll be 60 next year. I was born into it. Both my folks were circus people. I started out as an acrobat until I fell and busted a leg. It never healed quite right, so they offered me this job, and I took it. What else could I do? There's all kinds of myths about circuses, like about these elephants here. Some people say they're afraid of mice, but that's crazy. When we pen the elephants up for the winter there's always mice that get in their hay, and it don't bother them none. The elephants never try to run away or stomp them or anything. They share the same cages all winter. And then some people say elephants got a good memory. Hell, some of the ones we got are so dumb they can't remember a simple trick from one year to the next."

Feature Lead:

The smell of popcorn, the sound of children laughing and screaming with joy, and elephants doing all their cool tricks. That is how Parker Bros Circus is. With many animals at the show, there has to be a caretaker for them? Well Thomas J. Serle is a laborer who helps care for the animals at the circus including 10 elephants. As a caretaker at the circus, Thomas can definitely debunk some circus myths. "Some people say they're afraid of mice, but that's crazy. When we pen the elephants up for the winter there's always mice that get in their hay, and it doesn't bother them none. The elephants never try to run away or stomp them or anything" Thomas stated.