The Yellow Banana

I was an anxious child.

That is an understatement at best, but the truth is I was super anxious about most situations. One of my biggest dilemmas was going to sleep at night.  And if you think that was an issue, it was only exacerbated by sleeping away from home.  I practically never spent the night away from home, unless we were on vacation as a family.  However, my sister and I did spend the night at my Grandma and Grandpa Riske's about once a month when our parents were working in their band, the Knight Kats.

As bedtime approached, my Grandpa would pull out the bed from the davenport (their terminology) in the red room (it was called red because of the red shag carpet it bestowed for many years of my childhood).  Then my Grandma would put sheets on the bed and get blankets and pillows to make it all comfy.  That bed was so uncomfortable, especially if you laid incorrectly (which was very easy to do).  There were bars that lined the mattress, and they stabbed in my back and side no matter which way I would turn.  Then there were the areas on either side of the bed where the arms of the davenport.  Grandma would shove pillows or other things in them because she was worried that we would fall in the cracks during the night.

One night I was having a particular difficult time falling asleep.  No matter how much Grandma rubbed my back, I couldn't fall asleep.  The figure eight, the three taps, nothing seemed to bring on sleep.  Then my Grandpa brought in a large, stuffed, yellow banana.  It was nothing special, but it seemed huge to me.  Just a simple yellow banana stuffed toy with the Dole label on it.  It was like this one:

And believe it, or not, this was just the thing that worked!  It became the one thing that had to accompany me to bed each night.  I called it - The Yellow Banana.  Not especially creative, but pretty much spot on with the name.

The banana stayed with me throughout my life.  When Zoe was a baby and Evie was on the way, we put her in a big-girl bed.  I found The Yellow Banana in a box and it looked a bit more tattered than it had when I was younger.  I also had to remove the label because it was falling off.  However, it was the perfect solution to stopping Zoe from rolling off the bed.  Years later she still has to have the banana taking up the space between the wall and the mattress.

I did a bit of research today, because of course Evie wants her own banana.  The banana was an advertising promotion from Dole, most likely from the 60s or 70s.  In later years the banana became a character named Bobby and often sported tennis shoes, a cane, and a top hat.

How did my grandparents obtain this little gem?  I have no idea.  But what matters the most is the magic contained in that stuffed toy.  It brought many nights of quick sleep for myself, and now for my Zoe.  When I asked my Grandpa where it came from, he simply said, "The attic."  A mystery for certain.  But I do know that sleep in our family would be quite different without The Yellow Banana.