Today on my way to work I passed a fruit stand teeming with beautiful bananas, and it got me to thinking about this silly story from my latest book, Beyond Bizarre.
When, in 1967, the small newspaper the Berkeley Barb published a satirical story claiming that smoking banana peels can get you high, nobody thought the claim would be taken seriously. But the story spread across the country, and soon the nation’s wayward teenager were “consuming” way more bananas, to the delight of clueless mother’s everywhere.
And while we are on the subject of bananas…did you know that Washington State is host to The Washington Banana Museum? It is an online museum dedicated to the beloved yellow fruit. The creator and curator of the webseum operates Banana Antiques in Auburn, Washington which houses an impressive collection of banana memorabilia. http://bananamuseum.com/
That reminds me of the song our dad used to sing when we were younger…
¨Yes we have no bannana´s,
We have no bannana´s today¨
Brought back some memories…
That was totally the inspiration for the heading of that story!