"Fan Stories"
If you have a story you want to be added to this page e-mail me at Ceal@haminahamina.com
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 13:00:50
-0500
HI CEAL....MY STORY IS BASICALLY THE SAME ONE I TYPED ON YOUR
SITE LAST WEEK....I REMEMBER TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP OR BEING
AWAKENED BY MY FATHERS LOUD LAUGHING....I SNUCK INTO THE LIVING
ROOM & HID BEHIND THE COUCH WHERE HE & MY MOM WERE
WATCHING THE HONEYMOONERS....THEY FINALLY SAW ME BECAUSE THEY
HEARD ME LAUGHING TOO!!!.....THEN THE 3 OF US WOULD SIT ON THE
COUCH LAUGHING OUT LOUD....SO, ITS BEEN 35 YEARS OF WATCHING FOR
ME....THOSE WERE THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE....I LOVED MY CHILDHOOD
IN BAY RIDGE....THE HONEYMOONERS WERE A BIG PART OF IT....AND NOW
THAT I REACHED THE 2ND PLATEAU I STILL ROTFL WHEN I SEE
IT.....GREAT COMEDY CAN NEVER DIE....IT WILL BE WITH US
FOREVER.....BABY, YOU'RE THE GREATEST!!!!!.......TALK LATER,
JERRY
November 20,1999 .......8:17 am
Okay so here's my story ....I have been watching The Honeymooners
since I was a little kid about 11 yrs old .( I'm 35 now) They
came on at 12midnight everynight on WPIX channel 11 in N.Y. I
started watching them when I started helping my dad when he was
working on a Mr. Softee Ice Cream route he had his own truck and
route at the time and when we would come back to my moms house (
my mom and dad were divorced) we would clean out the whole truck
and then after we brought the truck back to the garage . he would
bring me back home and come in for a while and we would watch The
Honeymooners and I remember him laughing very hard at them .. I
really started getting in to them too..I thought they were
hysterical also.... I have been watching them ever since and I
got my Little sister in to them too..... That story comming up
.... so stay tooned ..LOL .. I love this story!!! .... Ceal :)
November 20, 1999 8:40am
Okay so here's my next story.... Its about how My sister and I
used to watch the Honeymooners...I was about 18 and she was 12
and we would watch them all the time together and one day one of
us got an Idea to put them on cassette so we would have the shows
to listen to even when they were not on tv, we didn't have a VCR
at the time.. so my sister would be up on the weekend and do the
taping , at the time I had a steady boyfriend ( whom I married)
and I would not get home till 1am so she would get the tape
player all set up and record them (she was good she even edited
out the commercials lol) and when I would come home we would go
in our room( we shared a bed room) we were supposed to be going
to sleep , but we would listen to the shows and be hysterical , I
mean as we were listening to the shows we can picture in our head
exacty what was going on cause we knew the shows by heart!!!
after about an hour of this our mom would start Yelling
.."Do you two know what time it is"...... so times we
were wise guys and we would tell her the time!!!!.( not a smart
thing to do!! LOL) but we would actually fall asleep listening to
the shows ,,,,,we did this for a few years .I think we had all 39
shows on cassette ...... well I will never forget this fun, fun
time I had with my "LiL Sister Raccoon" I have no Idea
what ever happened to these cassettes, I had gotten married when
I was 21 and of course then I got a VCR and stared taping them
..... but since then all we do when my sisiter and I get together
is laugh and joke Honeymooner style ...Its so funny how the basic
things you do every day can pertain to the lines of that Classic
show!! if you would see us together or hear us on the phone you
would be ROTFL.....
Ceal :)
11/20/1999 10:19:45 AM Eastern Standard Time
Ceal,
When I was about 5 my dad won a trip to Miami Beach and Daytona
Beach Florida. This was back in 69 I believe and they had just
come up with the concept of time share condos. Well, anyway, my
dad thought it would be fun to take the family on this 5 day trip
and all we had to do was drive, and drive, and drive, and
drive......well you get the picture. We were packed in a
stationwagon and darned if we didn't look just like the Griswalds
from the vacation movies, complete with the stuff piled on top of
the car and grandparents along for the ride, in fact, my dad was
alot like Mr. Griswald, (I can't for the life of me remember what
his name was.)
Well, when we made it to Florida we found that we were booked at
a fancy high rise hotel, with a huge pool. Our car looked like a
spec when we looked out our hotel window. To my sister who was 8
and I, 6, this was like a dream. We were told as we checked in
that Jackie Gleason was in town doing a comedy show at one of the
local theatres. My dad didn't miss an episode of the Honeymooners
so he wanted to go see the show. Of course my sister and I had
other immediate plans, the pool! Well, we spent many hours by the
pool, and I can remember that some of the people thought my
sister was a daredevil because she was so small and she was going
off the high dive.
One day, my parents dropped my sister and I and my grandparents
off at a boat that was going to take us on a day cruise and they
went off to listen to the siminar on the condos. There was this
guy on the boat that was doing magic tricks,(like pulling his
thumb off his hand, REALLY I am not lying) anyway, the trip was
kind of boring but my grandparents loved it.
When we got back to the hotel, we met my parents in the lobby and
my dad was talking to the receptionist at the counter, it was
about this time that he turned around and there HE was. It was
Jackie Gleason. There was no mistaking him, his voice gave him
away in an instant. My dad went over and shook his hand and
introduced himself and me and my sister stood there as he
introduced us. Mr. Gleason said hi and he was very nice. He even
agreed to a picture with me and my sister. I remember he was
really big, I mean at the time he seemed to be about 8 feet tall,
remember I was only 6, he was much bigger than my dad. I think it
had to do with how loud his voice was, but yet he seemed so nice,
not like he was on TV. Anyway, that made the whole trip worth
while, especially since we had to cut the trip short. The day
after we met Mr. Gleason we were instructed to leave the area
because a hurricane was coming in. We packed our stuff a left in
the midst of heavy rain. Later we found out the the hotel we were
staying in was completely leveled by the hurricane. De....
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 17:05:23
Hi Ceal,
One of the earliest memories of my childhood is me and my father
watching the Honeymooners on TV together. This was in the early
'50s so we were seeing some of them for the very first time. I
must have been around 5 or 6 at the time and I don't know which
was funnier, the show or my father's hysterical laughing. I
decided that anything my dad liked that much was ok with me and a
new Honeymooner fan was born. Time went on. I "matured"
and passed my love of the Honeymooners to my younger brother and
sisters. In the '60s we used to tape them on the little reel to
reel recorder and bring them over to my cousin's when we went to
visit my grandparents on Sat. nite. The grownups played cards and
we adjourned down to my cousin's apartment and played the tapes.
The speed was sometimes off on my cousin's tape player so they
got a little sped up and sounded like the Chipmunks version of
the Honeymooners. We really used to crank up the volume and one
nite I guess between the tapes and us laughing so loud, a
neighbor called the police (jealous Magarrity??) The next thing
we know, my uncle is banging on the door wanting to know what's
going on in there. You never saw 5 kids move so fast, cleaning
up, getting rid of the tapes,etc. and pretending we didn't know
what they were talking about. Luckily, they believed us and went
away. No one ever found out. TILL NOW. More time passed. Now I'm
a full grown nut and have several co-workers who are just as
crazy for the Honeymooners as I. In addition I found this great
bunch of people on the web who
also love the Mooners. I'm really lucky and thank all of you for
the laughs we share.
Steph (triviaqueen2)
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 05:43:45 -0500
Can't sleep so am visiting your site, having a little wine
(either that or somebody was just stabbed upstairs) and some Ritz
crackers with Delicious Mystery Appetizer. I will write again
with one of my fondest childhood memories watching with my Dad
the C39 as FIRST RUN, but for now:
A few years ago I was riding my motorcycle back home about 3 am,
and pulled up at a stoplight behind a car whose license plate
read "HAMINA." It was one of those deeply spiritual
moments, when no words need be said, and communication is
instantaneous. I simply slipped alongside, beeped my horn, and
gave him the friendly racoon greeting, which was returned, as we
both disappeared into the night.
Sincerely,
Joe Fensterblau
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 20:31:59 EDT
Subject: Fan Stories
To: haminahamina@yahoo.com
Ceal,
Here's the story of how I became a fan of "The
Honeymooners"...:
Ever since I can remember, there has been a picture on our
fridge.
The picture is of four people, two males and two females. I
remember when
I was little, asking my mother who "those people" were,
and I remember her
going "Oh, The Honeymooners." Little did I know, that
later on in my life, I
would actually understand WHO the Honeymooners were. I'm only 14
years old,
but I absolutely love Nick at Nite and TVLand. One night, I was
working on
some homework, and decided to watch TVLand. What I had dubbed
"some
Honeymooners special" was actually a musical comedy sketch
of "The Honeymooners" on
"The Jackie Gleason Show." The first musical number was
wonderful, and when
I actually saw Gleason and Carney as Ralph and Ed for the first
time...
it was like a magic chemistry. They were so hilarious! Of course,
the show
progressed and introduced Audrey Meadows as Alice. I didn't know
WHAT
it was about her, but there was something about her that made me
sit there the
whole time and think "Woah, she's cool!" (A little
corny I know, but true)
I became involved in the show, making comments such as "Oh,
nice JOB
Kramden, ya made her cry!" whenever Alice ran out crying
because Ralph would not
adopt a girl. By the end, when they decided to give the baby
back, I was
litterally in tears. And from then on... it just kind of stuck.
The
following night, I watched the special on the Cavalcade of Stars
episodes
featuring Pert Kelton as Alice. The following night, my best
friend,
Lauren came to spend the night. That night, the Inside TVLand:
The
Honeymooners special, was to air. I told her straight up
"Lauren, I'm sorry, but I
have to watch this!" Lucky for me, my birthday was not only
that weekend,
but so was the Honeymooners Fandemonium weekend! What a birthday
present! I
tape mostly all the episodes, and by the time it was over, I had
about 7
tapes full of Honeymooners episodes and the Inside TVLand
special. Now, I
even have a section of my wall in my room around my mirror,
devoted to "The
Honeymooners", along with the "Love, Alice" book,
and I watch "The
Honeymooners" every night. Now I can identify the people in
the
picture... no longer as "those people" but as
"Ralph, Ed, Alice & Trixie." It's a
classic TV show that means the world to me, and I love it!
~Ashley
aka
~Alice Kramden
=)
PS- I forgot to mention that I wrote to Art Carney, and not only
did he
send me a VERY nice autographed picture, but a 3x5 index card
telling me how
much
he loved my letter!
~*~*Alice Kramden*~*~
~*Ashley*~
"One of these days Ralph... one of these days... POW! Right
in the
kisser!"
"Well I don't wanna look at that icebox, that stove, that
sink and
these four walls! I WANNA LOOK AT LIBERACE!"
"I won't be gone long killer. I call you killer cause you
slay me."
--Alice--
"Now I know why all the world loves a fat man."~Ed
Subject: Fan Stories
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 14:06:27 -0500
Ceal, and all other fans;
"....and I'm calling Bellevue 'cause you're NUTS!"
(..to finish one of
Ashley's (Alice's) quotes above, which happens to be probably my
favorite
Honeymooners quote of all!!!)
I started watching the Honeymooners when I was about 13 (Im 25
now) on
Channel 11 in N.Y., along with any and all shows from the '50s.
If it
was black & white, I watched it. I found a gentleness and
safety in those
showswhich contrasted to the upheaval and stress of going to Jr
High School.
Now,I rarely watch TV at all - I'm more interested in music - but
at 10pm
and 1 am EVERYNIGHT I watch the Honeymooners on TV Land. It's the
same
episode at both times, but I'll watch them all again and again
and again...
One of the funniest Honeymooners moments to me is when Ralph
brings
the suitcase full of counterfeit money home and opens it for the
first time
-
his reaction!!!!!! I also can't stop laughing when Ralph, near
the end
of an
episode, finally realizes he's wrong and Alice sits down at the
table
with her back to him, and he tries to start saying something to
her to make
up, and gives up, paces, and tries again and keeps giving up,
meanwhile
Alice sits so sternly. I wonder how Audrey Meadows didn't just
burst out
laughing sometimes, especially knowing that alot of Gleason's
actions on camera
werespontaneous and improvised!
My favorite episode is "Better Living Through TV" -
where Ralph and Ed
tryto sell the kitchen utensil of the future on TV. That was on
two nights
ago,and I was afraid I was going to pass out or rupture an
internal organ
fromlaughing so hard - their sketch for their advertisement is SO
BAD to
begin with, but once Ralph freezes on camera - it is OUT OF
CONTROL
hysterical.And IT DOESN'T STOP - it snowballs and gets funnier
and funnier with
each passing moment. For me, though, all Ralph has to do is look
at Alice,
(or Ed or whoever) a certain way - he doesn't even have to say
ANYTHING, and
it's funny. In fact, I think in one episode, Alice says something
really
rude to him, and he stands there for a minute, and you're just
waiting for his
line, and he finally just says something like "You know, I
can't even say
anything to that.." Also, of course, the classic
Blabbermouth episode......
I guess the key to the Honeymooners are reactions - Ralph's
reactions
to be exact. They made that point on the Inside TV Land special -
Ralph had
hardly any of the funny lines, he just reacted. I've never seen a
TV show
(except maybe I Love Lucy) that is so purely and simply funny. I
find alot of
today's TV to be somewhat shallow and very glittery in one way or
another.You can see and feel how many millions of dollars are
being pumped into
most of these shows, and they are mildly entertaining at best to
me. By
contrast, The Honeymooners pretty much had one set, one camera
angle, and 4
characters; but 4 comic-geniuses portraying those characters.
Just like
the Kramdens, Meadows and Gleason had to make the most of their
meager
surroundings! I know this is a long message, but I have found
very few fellow
Honeymooners fans. As a native New Yorker now living in
Nashville, I
find that there are alot fewer people here who really love this
show, and
many don't even find it all that funny. It may be because
everyone on the
Honeymooners has an exaggerated 'New Yorker' personality? It
keeps me
in touch with my roots, in many ways....To Ceal - thank you for
providing this
great site!!! Woo Woo!!!!!! Pete PS - To Alice, who posted above
-
how did you manage to contact Art Carney? I'd love to write him a
letter, and
congratulate him on his Edvise Columns on TV Land - it's nice to
see
that Ed Norton is here in the year 2000!!!!