07/16/2020
This is a throw back in time! The year is 1981. The place is downtown Lexington. It's July 4th and we're ready for the parade, a motley crew of some never been and never will be again clowns. After the parade, Cambo the Clown (that's me), is requested to go to the officials' stage to receive an award. It's for best float in the parade. Mayor Scotty Baesler hands the trophy to Cambo. A little later Cambo hands the trophy to creative artist Jonathan Lewis, who conceived of and built the float with a little help from us friends on top of a pick-up truck. It's a big clown head that resembles Cambo's look back then, which included a black top hat and a couple of blacked out teeth (no explaining those choices). Jonathan ingeniously designed legs with big feet that were attached to rods that were welded to the front tires such that as the truck rolled along the legs would pump up and down as though they were pedaling the float through the parade. This was back when Cambo's Balloon & Clowns inhabited a store front on South Limestone across from what was Good Samaritan's Hospital. It was a colorful little place offering all kinds of goodies, including helium balloons, animal balloons, theatrical & clown make-up, juggling supplies, magic supplies, kites, musical noise makers, classic gag items, and so on. The store location until that time had been an apartment for students. A friend's family owned the building and offered to put in plate glass storefront windows. I slept in the back room amidst the inventory. In the following year I would get out of the retail business and run off to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, but that's another story.
This is the only picture I know of that captured the float and some of the crew.
