BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Man,I would have LOVED to have seen the entire "Miami Honeymooners" cast aboard a shiny new "Batwing!"

So the Miami buses were 96"wide; I recall an order (or two) of CTA buses during the 1960s, where these coaches were also 96" wide, due to an "L" line (now demolished) that they then had to run beneath.

Just thinking now, had "Ralph" and company stayed in "Noo Yawk", seeing them pose, perhaps, with a batwing Fishbowl, or a new "Dangerfield"......

["NYO"]

["BUS-O-RAMA"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Let's just say.....

"Ralph"worked for the GOTHAM BUS COM{ANY for 35 tears; would he still be "briving a dus"?

Or, would have he finally become a dispatcher of a traffic manager?

Regardless, by the time he retired, Old Looks and MACKS would have already been retired, and, if he were stil l"briving a dus", it would either be a Fishbowl or a "Dangetfield".........

"NYO"

["BANG! ZOOM!"[

[W.B. Fishbowl]

It's interesting that, when Gleason died in 1987, post-1967 "Fishbowls" - some rebuilt, others not - were still on the roads, as were the "Dangerfields" and RTS's; while the "Em-Tee-Yay" washed their hands on the Grumman "Borough Bombers," that misbegotten bus caught new life after it was rebranded as Flxible "Metro B." And of course the Queens indies were still in business.

It's also interesting that when his variety show was cancelled, in 1970, coincided with " 'stoa" retiring the last of their "Kramdens," especially the ones with the front roll signs sticking out - and exiling a few "lucky" ones of those to Brooklyn under the "Tee-Yay's jurisdiction. As Norton used to joke, of course, Ralph was pretty much built like a bus.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

And, of course, when the "Original 39" began airing in 1955, Brooklyn still had at least a few streetcar routes, and trolley-buses were still in operation in that borough.

The "Moit" was still running gate cars, and the fabled "Toid Aven-uh" El in Manhattan was about to give ip the ghost, along with the elderly MUDCs.

Red an dream "Soface" buses still were in dominance, as were the buses that were emblazoned with "GO THE MOTOR COACH WAY".

"Dem Bums" were still calling the hallowed Ebbets Field homeand the "Iron Men"of the Yankees were playing at the ORIGINA L"House That Tuth Built".

"Queen Marys" on 5th had then only gone for two years.

Ironic, also, the the "Jacjue Gleason Show" was cancelled at the time that "stoa" retired its last "Kramdens".............

"NYO"

['HOWSWWET ITWAS"]