When I was small, my father pushed through the crowd and put me on his shoulders. That’s how I got to shake Govenor Rockerfeller’s hand. I remember it like watching an old newsreel.
Let’s fast forward to a few years ago when I took my son to get shoes and a very tall, elegant and elderly man sat in the near empty store near us, his bodyguard near.
I coerced my son, Sage, to go up and ask Mr. Mayor, “How am I doing?” echoing Ed Koch’s famous line. To which he replied, “You’re doing just fine.”
The only other time I got my son to interact with a “sort of” celebrity was when we went up to Houdini’s grandson who had a table in front of our building for a school street fair. He showed my son how to do a card trick.
Sage doesn’t remember the trick or even meeting the trickster. But he remembers me telling him he did, and that’s enough. He remembers Mayor Koch though. And while I don’t go out of my way for celebrities, he was special. New York City is a lot of small towns crunched into one place. And Hizonor held them together just fine.
Ed Koch was brilliant in understanding the intricasies of politics and the complicated impacts which various policies and stances would bring. He could express them clearly so the average Joe understood. And he did exceptionally well in the other important half of being a mayor. He embodied and expressed that things were going well, that even if we just were hit by a disaster, we were on track to make things OK. You believed him.
Next, I’ll be writing about the first jobs of Hizonor Ed Koch and current mayor Bloomberg had, and the insights they give us into these men.
(Where did I get the image I modified? check out http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2013/02/ed-koch-three-term-new-york-ci.php )
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