. My best friend, who lived in the L.A. Zoo (her step-father was the chief zoo keeper), had bananas in a bowl with a couple of other offerings (that zoo animals ate). Her mother saw me eyeing some in the fruit bowl on their dinning rm. table, and asked me, "Ann", would you like a banana? (WOULD I?!!)
My family was passing an upscale area in L.A. near our house, and my grandfather asked him to stop for a moment, as a peddler had a bunch of bananas to sell those passing by--and low and behold, I couldn't believe it when he bought some for us.
But, for the average Joe, no one else could afford them--even if they had access to some.
It is. I'd never seen that before, but it was the first link that came up. Not a great recording, truth be told.
There is a live concert performance that is a better recording, but it is several minutes longer, and it was kind of a comedy bit. That kind of grates for me, because locally it was a huge tragedy at the time. My uncle was the manager of the produce company making the shipment. My classmate's dad owned the trucking company. It was a young, new driver, who worked heroically to keep anyone else from being killed.
I get it. Tragedy plus time = comedy, and 30,000 pounds of bananas smeared down the road is admittedly kind of a comical image, which is why it came to my mind with this thread. But still, fifty some years later, it still makes me flinch a little.
I once passed a semi carrying meat that had crashed and split open. Vehicles were stopped about a half a mile each way as people were grabbing as much as they could carry and load.
Part of me was repulsed at the blatant greed. On the other hand, why let all that food go to waste?
My dad worked in Seattle - Magnolia - the rail station was called Interbay, I worked there during my college years. Dad was the chief clerk, he had a hand in expediting shipments.
across from the yard office there was a stub track where rail cars were loaded with bananas for shipment East & ?
About every week, a ship arrived in Seattle with a load of bananas, I watched it go past my childhood home @ Richmond Beach southbound on Puget Sound.
sometimes the shipment had more bananas than a boxcar would hold, they ended up in our basement to ripen.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2020 11:57AM by GNPE.