Going bananas

Last Tuesday, I crossed two items off of my bucket list: I bought dozens of bananas from a store while wearing a banana suit and I gave away dozens of bananas to random people while wearing a banana suit.

That day started off like any other Tuesday. Well, actually it didn’t. I woke up early and put the banana suit in my backpack before biking to school.

Once at school, I put on my banana suit, left my backpack in my English classroom, and walked across the street to Trader Joes.

I grabbed a cart, headed inside, and made a beeline for the banana section. I started transferring bananas from the shelf into my cart. Before too long, I heard snickering to my left, “The banana is buying bananas. That’s like cannibalism!” After a short chuckle, I resumed shovelling bananas into my cart. I wasn’t counting the number of bananas, but eventually I thought I had enough and made my way to the checkout line.

While helping the customer in front of me, the cashier looked at me and made a face that told me that wondered the purpose of the tomfoolery in front of him. So, of course, I smiled at him like as if nothing was strange about my attire.

Once the previous customer was finished, it was finally time to buy all of those bananas. The cashier asked me a one word question, “Why?” I gave him my only possible response, “Bananas.”

He prodded for more information which I gave to him. I was buying bananas for the purpose of giving away to advertise for shareabanana.com, the website a friend and I made half a year before. Mr. Cashier seemed confused. He looked at me and said, “So it’s a joke, right?”

No, it wasn’t a joke, but class was going to start in five minutes and I didn’t have time for a discussion. My answer was the English language’s only double positive with a positive meaning delivered in a completely non-sarcastic manner, “Yeah, right.”

After completing the purchase, I walked back to school. Upon entering the English classroom, I gave my teacher a banana and a piece of paper with the following image:

Throughout the rest of the day, I repeated this banana sharing and ended up giving away fifty-two more bananas.

People often ask me why I like the banana so much. My answer is simple: I like the banana because it has appeal.