Like other
common water toys such as
noodles,
floaties, and
moJoe^H
^H^H^H^H
rafts, banana boats are a
lesser know entity, though much, much more
frinky.
Banana boats are approximately 5-7 feet long and are made out of
plastic, like an
inner tube. They are colored
yellow and
brown (like a
banana). They are best described as approximating a
demented cross between a
malformed canoe and a
banana split without the
ice cream. The
people who ride the banana sit in the split in the banana. It all sounds
fairly normal up to this
point. However, the
evil creators of this
contraption designed the banana
boat in such a way, that it was
more tipsy than a stereotypical college student on their 21st birthday.
Honest.
(This was a
fond memory from childhood, so
forgive inaccuracy in my remembering. I mean,
when I was 7, my Dad was 10 feet tall, right?
*grin*)
Forgive my personal digression, but
I had a lot of good memories about those banana boats. My
fambly and I used to drive to
Minnesota to visit my
cousins at their
house on a lake. My cousins,
sisters, and I would all try to get in banana boats, one or two at a
time, and try to paddle out to a
raft out on the lake. I say "
out on the lake" because
that's what the 7 year old in my head tells me, but in reality it was probably
twenty feet from the shore. We tried
again and again to make it from the shore in our not-so-
seaworthy boats.
We never made it. Not once. I wonder if we ever made it five feet. We were so small that to
paddle, we had to lean over to the side of the banana boat to dip our
hands in the water to get the boat to go. But...by leaning over...tip...tip...
*splash*.
*mgrin*. And that was only if we could get in the bananas. I wouldn't have played
10 to 1 odds on any of us even getting in a boat, let alone getting anywhere in it. Much much fun...and like all good things, was
utterly useless. I look back now and I
realise that
I wish I could have the same childhood innocent joy. That I could realise that it didn't matter that the
banana boats didn't go anywhere, and that you
tipped and fell every few
seconds, that it was just about
enjoying the moment.
I wish I could have taken more of that attitude with me.)