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One of the exciting achievements of my childhood was winning the Grotto Circus Contest in 1961. The contest was designed as a promotion for the Grotto Circus which was coming to Cleveland. The aim of the contest was to guess the number of animals and people in the circus. Whoever guessed the closest would win $250 and four tickets to the circus.

I well remember lying on the floor with pencil and paper, making lists of the various kinds of animals in the circus and their quantities. Having never been to a big circus like this I would pump my mom for what kinds of animals they had in a traveling circus. For some reason she said there would be pigs in the circus and I put down 32, which in retrospect is quite a hilarious number of pigs. Well, the only thing we were to submit was the total. Lo and behold, I was one of four winners, and to my great surprise there were no pigs in the circus.

Winning had its perks. The Maple Heights Press sent a reporter to our house to take my picture and write a story which appeared on the front page the following week. “Eddie Newman, 8, was one of four who turned in perfect scores of 288, which represents the total number of workers, performers and animals it will take to stage the 32nd annual Grotto Circus, which opens in Public Hall tomorrow.”

“Eddie, about as affable a towhead as you’ll ever find, was all smiles when the Maple Heights Press informed him.”

Aw, shucks, that's sweet. But what’s a towhead?

According to the paper, “He admitted that his answer was ‘just a guess,’ though he had attempted to arrive at the answer scientifically.” You bet I did.

My mom told the reporter that the money was going into my school savings account. "For college," I interjected, adding that I was planning to study fossils and dinosaurs.

To this day I am uncertain how I ended up winning $87.50 since $250 divided by four is $62.50. Maybe I got a bonus for being so cute. One thing for sure, the circus was fun. And I learned early in life that sometimes when you go after something, you really can win.