Personal Accounts ~ page 6
(email your story to [email protected])
...he was black from soot and crying...
I was going through some old stuff in my attic and found a circus ticket. It is torn in half but the date and price of admission are on it ($1.20). My paternal Grandfather survived the fire and it was his ticket. My family was involved with the circus and I have some neat things. His name was Daniel Green and lived in this very house I live in today. It would be great if you could include him as a survivor. I remember my father saw him after the fire and he was black from soot and crying about what had just happened. I don't remember much else and unfortunately no one is still around to fill in any blanks. Thanks for having the site and I wish I could be of more help.
-- Robb Green
-- Robb Green
…in the hospital for about six weeks...
My brother and I were both at the circus that day. We were with good friends of the family..we were lucky...we all survived. I was 8 at the time of the fire. Turned 9 on July 27th. We were both at Municipal Hospital and then were moved to Hartford Hospital. We had injuries. I was in the hospital for about six weeks and was able to start school in September. Marty was more severely burned and stayed quite a bit longer. He was going into first grade and started later in the fall.
-- Jane McGrath Packer
-- Jane McGrath Packer
...they passed many panicked people down...
My brother David de la Vergne, sent me copies of correspondence between the two of you regarding the Hartford Fire. While I was only 6 months old at the time and totally oblivious to the event, I was not unaffected. First of all, it was the mother of all secrets. I did not find out about the fire until I came across some old newspapers clippings in my paternal grandmothers desk. I was about 8 at the time. Until then "mother" was a word that I really did not understand. I do recall my father and step mothers marriage in 1948. Under edict from Dave, I was never to call her Eleanor again and now must refer to her as Mother. I didn't quite get it but followed his rules.
My mother was never spoken about in my presence. My father never ever mentioned her or the fire to me in his entire life. David has only started talking about the fire to me in the past 15 years or so. However, I have survived all this with no great trauma that I can discern. There are two anecdotes I would like to relate. The first is from Denise Thompson, Jack Thompsons widow:
"The important thing you should know is this. Your dad and Jack's dad saved a lot of lives that day...one stayed on the top row of the bleachers and one of them jumped to the ground. First they passed the boys down shouting explicit directions on where to run to and wait. Then they passed many panicked people down, one after another after another for as long as they dared. Then they ran to find the boys."
And a note from an old friend from Meriden: "Something I never told you but meant to several times over the past 60 years. My mother was an RN and a friend of your parents and she told me many times of the Hartford circus fire horror. Every time she got to the part about you and your mom she would be crying so much she couldn't finish. She said your mother was a wonderful person and that her children were her whole life."
Looking back I cannot recall ANYONE ever mentioning the fire or my mother to me. It was like she never existed and the fire never happened. Thank you. Writing this out felt good.
-- Tom de la Vergne
My mother was never spoken about in my presence. My father never ever mentioned her or the fire to me in his entire life. David has only started talking about the fire to me in the past 15 years or so. However, I have survived all this with no great trauma that I can discern. There are two anecdotes I would like to relate. The first is from Denise Thompson, Jack Thompsons widow:
"The important thing you should know is this. Your dad and Jack's dad saved a lot of lives that day...one stayed on the top row of the bleachers and one of them jumped to the ground. First they passed the boys down shouting explicit directions on where to run to and wait. Then they passed many panicked people down, one after another after another for as long as they dared. Then they ran to find the boys."
And a note from an old friend from Meriden: "Something I never told you but meant to several times over the past 60 years. My mother was an RN and a friend of your parents and she told me many times of the Hartford circus fire horror. Every time she got to the part about you and your mom she would be crying so much she couldn't finish. She said your mother was a wonderful person and that her children were her whole life."
Looking back I cannot recall ANYONE ever mentioning the fire or my mother to me. It was like she never existed and the fire never happened. Thank you. Writing this out felt good.
-- Tom de la Vergne
...helped deliver the dead to the armory...
My father, James F. Horan, was a Hartford firefighter with company 2 (Main and Beldon St); they were one of the first trucks to arrive at the scene. He carried several women and children to safety, and also helped deliver the dead to the armory and morgue. My dad would cry for years after the event when telling his kids about the circus fire. My dad is deceased now, but I remember his sadness as tho it was yesterday.
--Kathleen Horan Falcon
--Kathleen Horan Falcon
...insisted that going in the daytime was “safer.”
It was July 5, 1944, and my friend, Jerry Edison, and I, both age14, were headed for the Ringling Brothers, Barnum, & Bailey Circus. We were excited about taking public transportation into the city – just the 2 of us, unaccompanied by adults, and by the prospect of seeing the first performance scheduled for that week in Hartford, CT.
Our parents, concerned about the dangers that might befall a couple of not-so-worldly youngsters, had forbidden the idea of attending one of the evening performances. They insisted that going in the daytime was “safer.” We reached the circus grounds in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the circus, with all its paraphernalia, was delayed arriving in town that morning. As a result, circus officials were unable to set up as scheduled. Therefore our afternoon performance was canceled. Disappointment was tempered by the announcement that tickets for the canceled performance would be honored at any future performance during the Hartford stay. Armed with that information, we headed home and immediately campaigned for returning that very night. Again, we heard the speech on the advantages of daytime safety vs. nighttime perils. Word in both households was that we should go to the next afternoon performance the following day. Somehow, youthful arguments for returning that evening prevailed. Accordingly, after a quick early supper, off we went and we were admitted to the evening show with our original tickets. We saw a memorable performance – for more reasons than one. The next day, July 6, 1944, during the afternoon performance, the main tent -- waterproofed with paraffin and gasoline -- caught fire, resulting in the loss of 168 lives and countless injuries in the greatest fire in the history of the city of Hartford or the circus. Needless to say, our parents were happy they had allowed us to go back the night before instead of that horrific afternoon.
-- Albert S Botters, April 15, 2014
[email protected]; T:(860) 633-8848
Our parents, concerned about the dangers that might befall a couple of not-so-worldly youngsters, had forbidden the idea of attending one of the evening performances. They insisted that going in the daytime was “safer.” We reached the circus grounds in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the circus, with all its paraphernalia, was delayed arriving in town that morning. As a result, circus officials were unable to set up as scheduled. Therefore our afternoon performance was canceled. Disappointment was tempered by the announcement that tickets for the canceled performance would be honored at any future performance during the Hartford stay. Armed with that information, we headed home and immediately campaigned for returning that very night. Again, we heard the speech on the advantages of daytime safety vs. nighttime perils. Word in both households was that we should go to the next afternoon performance the following day. Somehow, youthful arguments for returning that evening prevailed. Accordingly, after a quick early supper, off we went and we were admitted to the evening show with our original tickets. We saw a memorable performance – for more reasons than one. The next day, July 6, 1944, during the afternoon performance, the main tent -- waterproofed with paraffin and gasoline -- caught fire, resulting in the loss of 168 lives and countless injuries in the greatest fire in the history of the city of Hartford or the circus. Needless to say, our parents were happy they had allowed us to go back the night before instead of that horrific afternoon.
-- Albert S Botters, April 15, 2014
[email protected]; T:(860) 633-8848
...burned so badly that he was unrecognizable...
Photo of Francis Markovicz, Jr.
courtesy of James W. Ciaglo Jr.
I was 1-year-old at the time of the fire and we lived in a 6-family house at 22-24 Morris St. (3 apartments on either side) in Hartford that was owned by my mom and dad. We lived on one floor, my aunt Stephanie “Stella” (Strong) Marcovicz, her husband Frank, and my cousin Francis lived on another. My mother's mother, Rose Bocek, and my aunt Dorothy, then 13 years old (now Dorothy Bocek Strzemieczny), lived in another apartment. My mother's mother outlived three husbands. The Grape’s, who survived the fire, lived on the third floor of 22 Morris St. and went to the circus that day with Stella, Francis, and Dorothy. The fire wasn't talked about much in the family although I remember my mother telling me that they weren't sure Francis was buried next to his mother. He was burned so badly that he was unrecognizable, and since the body was that of what appeared to be a 4-year-old male, they assumed it was him. Stella was identified by my grandmother based on a ring she wore because she too was burned beyond recognition. Stella's husband went to the morgue with my grandmother but he collapsed when he saw what was left of his wife.
My aunt Dorothy accompanied my aunt Stella and cousin Francis and sat with them that day at the circus. She remembers jumping down from their seats and running though a series of animal cages to get out. She remembers getting out and being sort of bewildered, and she didn't know where Stella and Francis were. She had no money and really didn't know that area of Hartford very well; it was only through the kindness of a stranger that she got a ride home. One picture of Francis that I inherited after his death is of him dressed in a cowboy outfit and riding a hobby horse. I also inherited his Lionel train set, some of which I still have.
— James W. Ciaglo Jr.
My aunt Dorothy accompanied my aunt Stella and cousin Francis and sat with them that day at the circus. She remembers jumping down from their seats and running though a series of animal cages to get out. She remembers getting out and being sort of bewildered, and she didn't know where Stella and Francis were. She had no money and really didn't know that area of Hartford very well; it was only through the kindness of a stranger that she got a ride home. One picture of Francis that I inherited after his death is of him dressed in a cowboy outfit and riding a hobby horse. I also inherited his Lionel train set, some of which I still have.
— James W. Ciaglo Jr.
...they all had many splinters from the pole...
Remnants of an animal runway (tunnel).
The Wilkinson family - Robert, his wife Cheryl and their daughters Janet and Suzanne - attended the circus and were able to escape. When the fire broke out, they stayed in their seats by order of father, Robert. They locked arms so that they would all stay together. As the crowd rushed to the bottom of the bleachers, Robert led his family to the top of the bleachers and they slid down one of the support timbers, and he used his pocket knife to cut open the tent. My mother, Suzanne, said that they all had many splinters from the pole, but made it out safely. After others saw Robert's quick thinking, many took similar action with their own pocket knives.
Suzanne recalls seeing people getting injured by some of the large cats… I believe she said tigers, as they attempted to climb over the cages/tunnels which were blocking the exits.
— Todd Thiele, California
Suzanne recalls seeing people getting injured by some of the large cats… I believe she said tigers, as they attempted to climb over the cages/tunnels which were blocking the exits.
— Todd Thiele, California
“Lady, don’t you know that hundreds of kids are dying at the circus fire?”
On a hot, summer’s day on July 6, 1944, my older brother Milt, had, I believe, his first summer job - working in a machine shop in the North end of Hartford, near Barbour Street. This meant that my brother Dave had to take me to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus entrenched on Barbour Street. Dave was 6 years older than I and I was 9 years old. In the end, Dave and a friend of his escorted me and several other kids my age to the circus. Because there were 8 of us, we couldn’t get seats all together so the other kids and I sat in the first or second row and Dave and Joe Veroff (?) sat six or seven rows in back of us.
Dave and Joe bought all us kids a bag of candy each and we sat contentedly watching the spectacle. Then a great commotion and people started running towards the exits. I remember looking up towards the top of the tent and there was a hole caused by a ring of fire. The other kids and I immediately joined the crowd and started running. We all got out safely and wandered about through the mayhem not really knowing what to do. I looked for my brother to no avail. While I was making my way out my brother and Joe came looking for us but could not find us. Dave ran frantically out of the tent, still could not find me and ran back in, escaping only seconds before the tent collapsed. He then found me and I was crying and clutching my bag of candy. Upon finding me with the candy, he angrily threw the bag away and clutched me. All of us got out safely, but we had the problem of getting home and getting in touch with our Mom and Dad. People in the apartment buildings near the circus were charging $5 and $10 to make a phone call (remember this was 1944 and pay phones only charged 5 cents).
We, of course, did not have the money and decided to trudge across Kenney Park to, I think, Joe’s apartment where we could make a phone call. This would take some time. In the meantime, my father, who was working at his liquor store in downtown Hartford heard on the radio that there was a fire at the circus. Knowing that Dave and I were there, he immediately ran to his car and drove to our house on Chatham Street. Simultaneously, my father’s partner, Jacob Krinsky, called my mother inquiring about us and where we were. Mother became immediately suspicious because Krinsky had never before called my mother on the telephone, let alone asking about the kids. She then gets on a bus to go to my father’s store and from the bus, sees my father in the car driving toward the house. She gets off the bus and runs back to the house, but misses my father who has returned to the store. Mother gets back on the bus and heads to the store, as well. When the bus approaches the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street, the bus stops and waits for all the ambulances and police cars streaming up Main Street towards the circus. Mother still does not know what’s going on! She nervously asks the bus driver why he doesn’t continue on and the driver says: “Lady, don’t you know that hundreds of kids are dying at the circus fire?”
Mother faints, but somehow she manages to get to the liquor store where she finds my Dad. The police had no specific information to give them other than they were piling bodies in a field near the circus. At that point, my brother Dave telephoned and told them we were both safe and sound. At first, mom did not believe us and soon she was assured that it was Dave and I who were calling.
My brother Milt, working at the machine shop, heard about the fire, which occurred only a few block from where he was working, came over looking for us and even went through the fields where they put the dead bodies. Milt contracted poison ivy, to which he was extremely sensitive and was confined to bed for many days, and he had to quit his job.
The circus fire was a tragic affair and 168 people died, many, if not most, from being trampled during the panic. For many years I refused to go to the circus and to this day I am very uncomfortable in a tent and would never attend a tent circus.
-- Philip Corn
Dave and Joe bought all us kids a bag of candy each and we sat contentedly watching the spectacle. Then a great commotion and people started running towards the exits. I remember looking up towards the top of the tent and there was a hole caused by a ring of fire. The other kids and I immediately joined the crowd and started running. We all got out safely and wandered about through the mayhem not really knowing what to do. I looked for my brother to no avail. While I was making my way out my brother and Joe came looking for us but could not find us. Dave ran frantically out of the tent, still could not find me and ran back in, escaping only seconds before the tent collapsed. He then found me and I was crying and clutching my bag of candy. Upon finding me with the candy, he angrily threw the bag away and clutched me. All of us got out safely, but we had the problem of getting home and getting in touch with our Mom and Dad. People in the apartment buildings near the circus were charging $5 and $10 to make a phone call (remember this was 1944 and pay phones only charged 5 cents).
We, of course, did not have the money and decided to trudge across Kenney Park to, I think, Joe’s apartment where we could make a phone call. This would take some time. In the meantime, my father, who was working at his liquor store in downtown Hartford heard on the radio that there was a fire at the circus. Knowing that Dave and I were there, he immediately ran to his car and drove to our house on Chatham Street. Simultaneously, my father’s partner, Jacob Krinsky, called my mother inquiring about us and where we were. Mother became immediately suspicious because Krinsky had never before called my mother on the telephone, let alone asking about the kids. She then gets on a bus to go to my father’s store and from the bus, sees my father in the car driving toward the house. She gets off the bus and runs back to the house, but misses my father who has returned to the store. Mother gets back on the bus and heads to the store, as well. When the bus approaches the intersection of Albany Avenue and Main Street, the bus stops and waits for all the ambulances and police cars streaming up Main Street towards the circus. Mother still does not know what’s going on! She nervously asks the bus driver why he doesn’t continue on and the driver says: “Lady, don’t you know that hundreds of kids are dying at the circus fire?”
Mother faints, but somehow she manages to get to the liquor store where she finds my Dad. The police had no specific information to give them other than they were piling bodies in a field near the circus. At that point, my brother Dave telephoned and told them we were both safe and sound. At first, mom did not believe us and soon she was assured that it was Dave and I who were calling.
My brother Milt, working at the machine shop, heard about the fire, which occurred only a few block from where he was working, came over looking for us and even went through the fields where they put the dead bodies. Milt contracted poison ivy, to which he was extremely sensitive and was confined to bed for many days, and he had to quit his job.
The circus fire was a tragic affair and 168 people died, many, if not most, from being trampled during the panic. For many years I refused to go to the circus and to this day I am very uncomfortable in a tent and would never attend a tent circus.
-- Philip Corn
...stepped onto the top of the cage and then jumped down to the ground...
As I write this I am 81 years old. A lot of time has passed since the day I went to the circus in the summer of 1944. I was 11 years old and attended the Ringling Brothers Circus with my 23 year old sister, Shirley Hauschulz Hunter, 2 ½ year old niece, Patricia Hunter (McClelland), and my 14 year old sister, Nancy Hauschulz (Elliott/Aldrich).
I know my mother's first response after hearing we were on our way home because of a fire was “and they were so disappointed yesterday when it was canceled”. Obviously at that moment she had no idea what a horrific event it was. I don't remember if we actually went to the circus grounds the day before and came home or heard about it being canceled. I don't even have any memories of the trip to the circus the day of the fire. I know it meant taking the bus to Hartford and transferring to another bus to the circus site but I don't remember it. I remember walking around a while before entering the tent but don't remember much about what we saw.... except it was a stifling hot day and we felt sorry for the caged animals. I remember after the fire thinking maybe the sun shining on the glass of those cages set the tent on fire like using a magnifying glass to burn a piece of paper.
We had general admission tickets which gave us seats in the “end zone”. Before the show started an usher came along and said there were empty seats in the end reserve section next to the animal entrance cages and for $1.00 we could move there. I am assuming it was $1.00 for the four of us. We moved to that section. It was not crowded and we sat in about the 4th or 5th row. I don't remember much about the things we saw.... the high wire act and animal act. But, I will never forget, I vividly remember seeing flames on the side of the tent across from us. I can close my eyes now and see it! Shirley said “let's get out of here”. My first instinct was to go down to the ground and out the way we came in but Shirley said “go up”.... we did until we were on a level with the top of the animal cage. We stepped onto the top of the cage and then jumped down to the ground and out the exit. There was a canopy over the exit and after exiting it I turned around to find the others. As we gathered together we saw the flaming tent and supporting poles collapse. I remember seeing a woman so badly burned she was “naked” but she was trying to get back to look for her husband and child. Shirley told her to get into a car that was parked there and hoped someone would find her and just as she did a man and child saw her… it was her husband and child. They looked fine but I have always wondered what happened to them... if she survived. Nancy and I wanted to stay and “get our money back”... typical I guess for our age, having no idea of what was really happening. I remember my niece, Pat, would play circus. She lined dolls and stuffed animals up on the stairway and said “watch the people fly” and “now watch the cats dance”.... then “oh oh ...here comes the fire we have to leave”..
Shirley had given birth to premature twins in April and had spent weeks at the hospital with them. As we were walking along the street a woman on the third floor of one of the houses recognized her... they had met in the hospital during that time. She invited us up to her apartment to use her telephone. Shirley called my mother and told her we were all OK. My mother was baby sitting the twins and was not one to listen to daytime radio so had not heard about the fire. The next door neighbor had heard it and went over to be with mother in case she got bad news. Shirley's husband was a volunteer fireman in Wethersfield and worked as a fireman at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Whenever there was a severe fire in Hartford the surrounding volunteers were called to stand by in case they were needed. Shirley called Dick at work. The foreman called to him that he had two phone calls, one on line 1 and one on line 2. One was Shirley and the other the Wethersfield Fire Department calling volunteers. Fortunately he picked up the right line and it was Shirley saying we were all OK. I now know how fortunate we were that the woman saw us and had a telephone as telephones were scarce and it might have been a long time before our family knew we were safe.
As a fire fighter, Dick had told Shirley that in such a situation you should go up, not down. That probably saved us from harm. If we had gone down and then had to go over the animal cage..... who knows.... that was the death trap for so many.
My memories are a child's. I remember we were soooo impressed that the bus company let us ride free on the trip back home. I remember a young boy on the bus who was going to hang out in Hartford … he was afraid to go home. He was afraid of the scolding he would get for losing his shoes. Shirley said “go right home!” I hope he did. Still not knowing what was really happening at the circus Nancy and I couldn't figure out why a couple boys from our neighborhood were sitting at the bus stop in front of the old Wethersfield Prison waiting for us. Especially because as kids do, we had had some kind of “spat” and weren't talking to the boys the day before.
My sisters and I seldom talked about it. Nancy was carrying our program rolled up in her hands and the ends were brown from the heat. I remember the heat! But can’t say I remember the noise. I don't know why. I had poison ivy badly and it itched like crazy. Nancy had a scratch on her leg she claimed was from the animals who were exiting through the cage as we jumped but we couldn't say for sure. A neighbor had asked Shirley to take their daughter about my age with us, but she was on crutches and Shirley thought it would be too difficult to handle with the three of us she already was taking. We often wondered how different things might have been had she been with us that day.
I don't recall ever having nightmares etc., but then in those days you didn't see or hear such things over and over again. I remember waiting for Life magazine to come out and seeing pictures but don't remember reading any newspaper reports. I now believe that our parents didn't let us read about it and didn't tell us everything they knew. No big memorials were placed all around like today. I wonder if they really help the victims and their families? In 1951 my sister married Bill Elliott whose family lived only about half a mile from us in old Wethersfield. He lost his mother and brother in the fire. They attended a different grammar school so we hadn't known them. Today the whole town would have been holding memorial events. Just a few years ago my sister Shirley told me that she and her husband and my mother and father visited the grounds the next day and described what she saw. They never told us “kids” they went. When we went back to school in September I entered Junior High and met a girl, Dora Metrelis, from another part of town who had a severe burn on one arm and whose mother was severely burned and spent a long time in the hospital..
Sometime in the fifties I attended the circus again. I think it was in Plainville in an outside arena. I didn't enjoy it. My father was a Shriner and took me and my children, 8 and 11, to the Shrine Circus at the Armory. I tried to enjoy it for the kids but we never went to another circus.
I moved out of Connecticut in 1962 and returned to live here in 1995. The circus fire was buried in my mind. I remember hearing a little about the unidentified girl, and then someone was writing a book and they were building a memorial but I never responded to it. Shirley bought the book for me and had it autographed by the author. It really wasn't until I read the book I realized how fortunate we were and how horrific it had been for so many. I visited the Ringling Museum in Florida in about 1997 and there was nothing there about the fire. I visited again this year while in Florida and found reference to it on the wall. Had to look for the date 1944 on the wall that lists circus history going back years and years.
It was after visiting in Florida that I Googled the fire on line and found all the material now available and the Survivors group. So here I am...
An interesting aside. When I Googled the fire I also got information on the Hartford Hospital fire in December 1962. My husband and I were in Indiana preparing to move there for a job transfer. My grandfather was a patient on the 9th floor and my father was there visiting him. They were told to stay in the room and Dad told about watching out the window as all the fire fighting was going on. They had no idea at the time how severe it was. After the fire my grandfather (in his 80's) was moved to another room.... on the maternity floor... he got a kick out of everyone asking him “what did you have Rudy, a boy or a girl?”... Again, I didn’t know at the time it was so severe. We moved in January and news didn't travel like it does today.
Shirley, Pat and Nancy have all gone home to be with the Lord. I have no one now to reminisce a with about our “day at the circus”.... Shirley had five more children, Nancy and Bill divorced but she had four children with her second husband. Pat had five children. I have two children. All the wonderful people who might never have been born God had not been with us that day. My heart aches for those he could not save and for their families and friends.
-Arlene Hauschulz Carlson
I know my mother's first response after hearing we were on our way home because of a fire was “and they were so disappointed yesterday when it was canceled”. Obviously at that moment she had no idea what a horrific event it was. I don't remember if we actually went to the circus grounds the day before and came home or heard about it being canceled. I don't even have any memories of the trip to the circus the day of the fire. I know it meant taking the bus to Hartford and transferring to another bus to the circus site but I don't remember it. I remember walking around a while before entering the tent but don't remember much about what we saw.... except it was a stifling hot day and we felt sorry for the caged animals. I remember after the fire thinking maybe the sun shining on the glass of those cages set the tent on fire like using a magnifying glass to burn a piece of paper.
We had general admission tickets which gave us seats in the “end zone”. Before the show started an usher came along and said there were empty seats in the end reserve section next to the animal entrance cages and for $1.00 we could move there. I am assuming it was $1.00 for the four of us. We moved to that section. It was not crowded and we sat in about the 4th or 5th row. I don't remember much about the things we saw.... the high wire act and animal act. But, I will never forget, I vividly remember seeing flames on the side of the tent across from us. I can close my eyes now and see it! Shirley said “let's get out of here”. My first instinct was to go down to the ground and out the way we came in but Shirley said “go up”.... we did until we were on a level with the top of the animal cage. We stepped onto the top of the cage and then jumped down to the ground and out the exit. There was a canopy over the exit and after exiting it I turned around to find the others. As we gathered together we saw the flaming tent and supporting poles collapse. I remember seeing a woman so badly burned she was “naked” but she was trying to get back to look for her husband and child. Shirley told her to get into a car that was parked there and hoped someone would find her and just as she did a man and child saw her… it was her husband and child. They looked fine but I have always wondered what happened to them... if she survived. Nancy and I wanted to stay and “get our money back”... typical I guess for our age, having no idea of what was really happening. I remember my niece, Pat, would play circus. She lined dolls and stuffed animals up on the stairway and said “watch the people fly” and “now watch the cats dance”.... then “oh oh ...here comes the fire we have to leave”..
Shirley had given birth to premature twins in April and had spent weeks at the hospital with them. As we were walking along the street a woman on the third floor of one of the houses recognized her... they had met in the hospital during that time. She invited us up to her apartment to use her telephone. Shirley called my mother and told her we were all OK. My mother was baby sitting the twins and was not one to listen to daytime radio so had not heard about the fire. The next door neighbor had heard it and went over to be with mother in case she got bad news. Shirley's husband was a volunteer fireman in Wethersfield and worked as a fireman at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Whenever there was a severe fire in Hartford the surrounding volunteers were called to stand by in case they were needed. Shirley called Dick at work. The foreman called to him that he had two phone calls, one on line 1 and one on line 2. One was Shirley and the other the Wethersfield Fire Department calling volunteers. Fortunately he picked up the right line and it was Shirley saying we were all OK. I now know how fortunate we were that the woman saw us and had a telephone as telephones were scarce and it might have been a long time before our family knew we were safe.
As a fire fighter, Dick had told Shirley that in such a situation you should go up, not down. That probably saved us from harm. If we had gone down and then had to go over the animal cage..... who knows.... that was the death trap for so many.
My memories are a child's. I remember we were soooo impressed that the bus company let us ride free on the trip back home. I remember a young boy on the bus who was going to hang out in Hartford … he was afraid to go home. He was afraid of the scolding he would get for losing his shoes. Shirley said “go right home!” I hope he did. Still not knowing what was really happening at the circus Nancy and I couldn't figure out why a couple boys from our neighborhood were sitting at the bus stop in front of the old Wethersfield Prison waiting for us. Especially because as kids do, we had had some kind of “spat” and weren't talking to the boys the day before.
My sisters and I seldom talked about it. Nancy was carrying our program rolled up in her hands and the ends were brown from the heat. I remember the heat! But can’t say I remember the noise. I don't know why. I had poison ivy badly and it itched like crazy. Nancy had a scratch on her leg she claimed was from the animals who were exiting through the cage as we jumped but we couldn't say for sure. A neighbor had asked Shirley to take their daughter about my age with us, but she was on crutches and Shirley thought it would be too difficult to handle with the three of us she already was taking. We often wondered how different things might have been had she been with us that day.
I don't recall ever having nightmares etc., but then in those days you didn't see or hear such things over and over again. I remember waiting for Life magazine to come out and seeing pictures but don't remember reading any newspaper reports. I now believe that our parents didn't let us read about it and didn't tell us everything they knew. No big memorials were placed all around like today. I wonder if they really help the victims and their families? In 1951 my sister married Bill Elliott whose family lived only about half a mile from us in old Wethersfield. He lost his mother and brother in the fire. They attended a different grammar school so we hadn't known them. Today the whole town would have been holding memorial events. Just a few years ago my sister Shirley told me that she and her husband and my mother and father visited the grounds the next day and described what she saw. They never told us “kids” they went. When we went back to school in September I entered Junior High and met a girl, Dora Metrelis, from another part of town who had a severe burn on one arm and whose mother was severely burned and spent a long time in the hospital..
Sometime in the fifties I attended the circus again. I think it was in Plainville in an outside arena. I didn't enjoy it. My father was a Shriner and took me and my children, 8 and 11, to the Shrine Circus at the Armory. I tried to enjoy it for the kids but we never went to another circus.
I moved out of Connecticut in 1962 and returned to live here in 1995. The circus fire was buried in my mind. I remember hearing a little about the unidentified girl, and then someone was writing a book and they were building a memorial but I never responded to it. Shirley bought the book for me and had it autographed by the author. It really wasn't until I read the book I realized how fortunate we were and how horrific it had been for so many. I visited the Ringling Museum in Florida in about 1997 and there was nothing there about the fire. I visited again this year while in Florida and found reference to it on the wall. Had to look for the date 1944 on the wall that lists circus history going back years and years.
It was after visiting in Florida that I Googled the fire on line and found all the material now available and the Survivors group. So here I am...
An interesting aside. When I Googled the fire I also got information on the Hartford Hospital fire in December 1962. My husband and I were in Indiana preparing to move there for a job transfer. My grandfather was a patient on the 9th floor and my father was there visiting him. They were told to stay in the room and Dad told about watching out the window as all the fire fighting was going on. They had no idea at the time how severe it was. After the fire my grandfather (in his 80's) was moved to another room.... on the maternity floor... he got a kick out of everyone asking him “what did you have Rudy, a boy or a girl?”... Again, I didn’t know at the time it was so severe. We moved in January and news didn't travel like it does today.
Shirley, Pat and Nancy have all gone home to be with the Lord. I have no one now to reminisce a with about our “day at the circus”.... Shirley had five more children, Nancy and Bill divorced but she had four children with her second husband. Pat had five children. I have two children. All the wonderful people who might never have been born God had not been with us that day. My heart aches for those he could not save and for their families and friends.
-Arlene Hauschulz Carlson
...grandmother could not even bear to say my name...
Esther Kavalier's gravestone at Emanuel Cemetery.
I was not there, but I actually owe my life to the fire. I am a "replacement" child. My Aunt, Esther Hoffman Kavalier, and her daughter Sandra Lois Kavalier, perished that afternoon and the next day. In September, 1944, as my mother told it, she petitioned my father to have a second child. Two were lost, and she felt it was time bring a new life into the world. He was reluctant because the war was still on but she would not take no for an answer. I was born June, 1945 and according to a Jewish tradition, named for my deceased Aunt. My grandmother could not even bear to say my name during the early years of my life, and so I went by the nickname Cookie until I was 6.
-Esther Hoffman-Weinstein
-Esther Hoffman-Weinstein