My Dinner with Harvey

You know for a little guy, Harvey had quite a grip.

I met Harvey last night at a Mexican restaurant in Red Hook where my sister and I had gone for dinner.

We spent the day with our friend Maria who lives out that way and afterward we stopped by this place on Columbia Street for a meal before catching the ferry back to Bay Ridge.

Harvey wasn’t the six-foot rabbit from the Jimmy Stewart movie, nor was he the bruising goon who terrorized Ralph Kramden in an episode of “The Honeymooners”.

No, this Harvey was an adorable 20-month-year old boy who was sitting with his family at the table next to us.

We made eye contact as I was sitting down, exchanged silly faces, and things just kind of took off from there. I used my menu to play peekaboo and then unfurled my napkin in front of my face like a curtain.

I waved my index finger at Harvey and he took this as invitation to grab my extended digit and swing my arm back and forth like he was pumping for oil.

I probably should have stopped playing around and let us both eat our respective dinners, but I just couldn’t say no to the little dude. So, I decided to have some fun.

“I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong day,” I sang. “I’ve been working on the railroad just to pass the time away…”

My sister got in on the act, as did a woman at the table behind Harvey’s family.

Can't You Hear the Whistle Blowing?

“He knows how to work a room,” his mother said.

Indeed, he did. And he worked it like he was running for congress. I wish I could’ve taken his picture but it’s hard to work an I-phone with one hand.

I did find time to eat, but it kind of sucked when I finally had to let go of my little buddy.

Today is Father’s Day and my playtime with Harvey has me thinking of the games I used to play with my dad was I was a kid.

I have this distant memory of bending over, and putting my hands between my legs, where my father would grab hold of my wrists and pull me around in a kind of assisted somersault.

I strongly suspect that if my father did something like this today he would’ve been hauled off to prison for child abuse.

And yet I laughed like a lunatic every time he did it.

“Do it again!” I’d shout. “Do it again!”

This was about 60 years ago and the recollections feel both faded and fresh as I look back at a time when I was so small and my dad was so strong. I wish we could have kept things so happy and playful, but that’s not how life works.

Sons grow up, fathers grow old and they argue and fight and pull away from each other. In a perfect world they come back together and put aside their differences before it’s too late. But things are rarely perfect in this world, particularly relationships.

Harvey and his family finally had to leave. His mother actually thanked me, though I really think I should be doing the thanking here since I had such so much fun with the kid.

I hope Harvey and his dad had a great Father’s Day today and have many more great days to come. Just like I had with my father.