It was a dry and dusty summer day   When that wagon train pulled in   Just three hours 'til the matinee   Was scheduled to begin   As the razorbacks unloaded the flats   A crowd did gather to see   The elephants tow the wagons back   To that empty lot on Barbour Street      And the canvasmen they dug right in   'Til on that spot where nothing had been   You could see the bigtop from miles around   When the circus came to Hartfordtown      The circus it was front page news   Back in Nineteen Forty-Four   Everyone was grateful for any excuse   To forget about the war   The sun beat down on the menagerie   In the cages the animals paced   There was orangeade and cotton candy   And a smile on every kid's face      Each mother and father, each boy and girl   They couldn't wait to see the greatest show in the world   You could barely hear the orchestra, they cheered so loud   When the circus came to Hartfordtown      There were polar bears and panther cats   With great big fangs and claws   And the lions did a balancing act   To jubilant applause   Then a spotlight played on a platform set   So high up in the air   That everybody held their breath   And they prayed a silent prayer      All eyes were glued to the man on the wire   So nobody knew when the tent caught fire   Too slowly it dawned on the sold-out crowd   When the circus came to Hartfordtown The fire drew air and began to climb   The audience jumped from their seats   There was a stampede for the exit sign   And some fainted from the heat   There were heroes who did their best to help   The children escape the flames   And the others who managed to save themselves   They survived but were never the same      And some still remember how the animals cried   But there weren't any animals inside   Over 100 people trapped as the tent burned down   When the circus came to Hartfordtown      As a boy I lived on Barbour Street   Four blocks from that circus show   And I begged my parents, I got down on my knees   But they would not let me go   For they had grounded me, two weeks straight   Now I can't even remember why   But I know the first time I ever prayed   Was when I saw that black smoke in the sky      And the war it was over in a year I guess   But the people in my town didn't cheer like the rest   It still breaks our hearts to remember now