It all happened out of the blue.
It was 2012, and I was driving around with my then six-year-old, Claire.
Suddenly, she seemed to remember something. Something concerning.
She rolled the window down…
And, without explanation, yelled:
That’s right: You owe me a banana.
Punk.
I was like, “What the heck, Claire! What are you saying?”
But she just laughed and laughed.
Then, whenever the car got close to someone, she would get serious and yell it again: “You owe me a banana, punk!”
She shouted at joggers.
She tried to collect from parents and kids.
She even accused a cop of owing her this alleged banana.
This went on for several days, whenever I forgot to lock Claire’s car window. And my eight-year-old, Kate, was no help at all. She would notice that we were driving up to someone and shout, “Claire! Doesn’t that person owe you a banana??”
Indeed they did.
Finally, we went a week without any yelling about bananas. I thought we were in the clear, but no. Every so often, she would get that look…
… and I knew she was going to try and collect on the damn banana.
Personally, I never believed anyone owed her any fruit–and I tried to thwart her attempts to yell at innocent bystanders.
But who knows? Maybe I was wrong all along. Maybe there was a punk rocker out there who’d accidentally forgotten a deal he’d made with Claire…
It would be funny if someone called back to her, “I NEVER MET YOU BEFORE, PUNK!” so, no banana.
Oh, Jacqueline, I would’ve LOVED that!
OMG ! I AM LAUGHING SO HARD THAT I CAN BARELY TYPE MY COMMENT.
I HAD FIVE BOYS AND I DON’T KNOW WHY I DIDN’T WRITE DOWN MY ADVENTURES WITH THEM.
Thank you, Isabel! I wish I’d written down MORE! I realize now that I can’t remember a thing! But luckily I had a blog going when they were little, so I did capture a few things. Thanks for your comment! I’m so happy you liked the story! Lol!
PRICELESS!!!!!!
Loved the expression on the cop – glad he did not stop you and gave you a ticket for harassing an officer with oddly shaped fruits.. Not to mention calling him a punk!
😉
What if there was a ticket specifically for “accusing an office of owing you fruit, without any supporting evidence.”
Me: You have a ticket for that??
Cop: Yeah, we get this all the time. Mostly from six-year-olds.
Best. Story. Ever. I’m in tears from laughing!
I love it, Shannon! Thanks for the comment! : )
Oh that is hysterical!! Your kids are something else ?
They’re too much!
One for the books! So cute! Kids, man, they do unimaginable things. Those things sure do make us smile afterward though! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! : )
You’re welcome 🙂
Then the punk kid remembered he owed her a banana.
Exactly. : )
Haha … loved this. Thanks for the laugh!
I absolutely love this, and “you Owe me a banana, punk” has now become a thing in my department at Work. It’s a phrase that Works surpricing well in a multitude of ways… like handing over an assingment done, or asking a colleauge to go get a cup of coffee…
That is AMAZING! I love it! I need to start incorporating it into my daily life too! : )
My husband and I are dying! LOL
I love to hear that! : )
Did anyone ever find out where that even came from?
We never did figure that out. After a while, she started yelling “Big bowl of soup, man!” (also out the window) and we didn’t figure that one out either. But then she started yelling “Hello, ladies of the future” and told us that it was from the show Phineas and Ferb (which it was). She is a mystery.
Did she even like bananas at the time?
She did like bananas… but not to the level that you’d expect her to demand them from “punks.”
The images aren’t showing up properly.
Thank you for letting me know! I’ll check this out!
There is a Huffpost article that has all of the images. It’s called “Anyone else’s kid yell at strangers about bananas?” or something along those lines, and it’s on Huffpost. 🙂
Oh, that’s right! I forgot I published that on HuffPost! Thank you so much!
I saw 2 punks when I was on vacation, and my Dad dared me to shout “YOU OWE ME A BANANA, PUNK!” at them. (I didn’t, but sometimes I wish I did.)
🤣
This is my favourite by far! You are amazing.