Favorite Fictional Character --- Curious George

There is a certain phenomena that I'm sure you are all award of, though you may not have thought about it.  It's one of those rarities of life that make it all worth it.  There are just certain characters that seem to be pop culture icons.  They are characters you are familiar with, even if you have never read a book, watched a movie, seen a TV episode, or looked them up on line.  They are characters that you can have no actual experience with, but you still know who they are.  You will recognize them by sight and may even have a vague sense of their adventures.  They are part of the culture, part of whom we are, even if we don't know them personally.  Some are probably more famous than others, but either way, they are loved and cherished by millions.  Curious George is one such character, a character that is beloved by everyone who knows him and will be loved by all those who have yet to tag along on his adventures.

I can't remember how old I was the first time I read the first Curious George book and met for myself one of the most interesting primates to ever grace a page.  I quickly fell in love with the little guy as The Man with the Yellow Hat brought him out of the jungles of Africa and back to the big city to live in the zoo.  I don't think poor George knew what was going on at first, but his good nature and open curiosity allowed him to settle in, well at first anyway.

It wasn't long though before George was escaping from the zoo and getting into all kinds of trouble.  He gets into a restaurant, eats a pot of spaghetti, and made to do the dishes by the cook.  He was so good at it, the cook brought him to a building and got him a job as a window washer.  Now George being George, it didn't end there.  While washing a window, George saw some men painting a wall.  It looked like so much fun that George snuck in and painted the walls with a jungle theme.  Well you can imagine the painters surprise when they come back and see the trees and leaves all over the walls. They chase George down a fire escape and the poor guy breaks his leg.  When he comes to, he is recovering in a hospital, though things don't go that smoothly there either.  But the day is saved when The Man with the Yellow Hat takes him home to live with him.  Of course our hero has a movie made about his exploits and he gets to watch the movie for the first time with the cook, window washer, painters, and all his other friends.

George has had some other amazing adventures through the years.  He even got a job as a newspaper boy, but turned the newspapers into paper boats.  He joined an animal show as a bicycle riding monkey who played the bugle, and rescued a bear cub in a tree.  He has been pulled through the air by a kite.  He has even flown into space and wrecked a dinosaur exhibit.  He got to do the things I wanted to do as a boy, and I was jealous of him for it.  I learned to love living vicariously through him, and his adventures are still great fun to read when I'm feeling a bit out of sorts.