"I am a child, I'll last a while
You hold my hand, rough up my hair,
It's lots of fun to have you there"
(Neil Young)
I came face-to-face with a childhood memory yesterday when I saw an 8-foot tall bronze statue of Ralph Kramden on the sidewalk in front of Grand Central Terminal.
Ralph Kramden (as played by the great Jackie Gleason) was the lead character in "The Honeymooners" - an iconic TV show that ran between 1955 and 1956 and lived on in reruns. You can still find them on random TV stations 70 years later.
It was those reruns in the 60s, and then a decade and a half later with my college roommates in the late seventies that cemented my affection for Ralph and his co-stars.
Ralph was a hard-working bus driver with a very short fuse. He was famous for his slow burn and inevitable explosion of angry gibberish whenever he was faced with something that annoyed him.
Life in the Kramden's simple apartment was always tight on money, so Ralph and his buddy, sewer worker Ed Norton (played by Art Carney), had a never ending supply of hair brained schemes and big dreams to strike it rich.
Of course, those schemes never worked.
Gleason passed away in 1987. His estate and the TV Land cable channel collaborated to build this statue in 1999, and fittingly positioned it at the Western Hemisphere's biggest transportation terminal.
I love the expression on Ralph's face - smiling and optimistic as he probably thought up another fantastic strike it rich scheme that will inevitably end in failure.
If you've never seen the Honeymooners, head on over to YouTube and see good old Ralphie Boy in action. read more