The Absent Uncle: The banana box

I don’t know how it worked at your house, but at ours when you left home for good (it was hoped) you were given a banana box. 

That banana box (obtained from the local grocery store because of its heavy cardboard, capacity, and durability (my DelMonte banana box is in my closet in perfect condition after 52 years!). 

That banana box held the roots of your existence. A birth certificate, confirmation documents, baby pictures, pictures of people you may not even recognize, school documents and report cards, and any art type stuff you may have created up to that point in life. 

In short – your life. 

Today, everything is digital or available online. But I love my banana box. It is real; I can touch it; I’ve touched it over the years when I needed documentation for life’s requirements. To get married; to get a passport; to prove something or other for somebody. The stuff needed was in the banana box. 

But for today’s kids – what pleasure do they get opening up a digital file? Nothing like opening up that old banana box. You can’t but help looking at the old report cards, pictures taken sometimes before you were born, and the keepsakes.

My grandmother was a crochet artist. I have crocheted soap turtles, uniforms on dolls, and doilies I wouldn’t dream of using. And the pictures! I challenge myself to recognize each and every distant relative, grandparent, uncle and aunt at all stages of their lives.

And that is just the start of my DelMonte banana box. I open it up – and it takes hours to close it