I understand. You are puzzled and a bit confused. What, pray tell, is a Banana Bowl? If you know me personally, it would puzzle you even more, since you know that I do not like bananas. So why would I have a bowl that seems to be designed for holding them? I am asking myself the same question and other than the fact it is difficult to hide things in a small car, I have no explanation for my present possesion of this lovely item.
This picture might help you understand a little:
These sandals belong to Lauren. I think they make a statement all their own and need no editorializing on my part. They were given to her by Steve’s Grandma a couple years ago. I should take pains to assure you that Lauren is very fond of Steve’s Grandma. And further, I should tell you that the last two years, Steve’s Grandma has sent us a generous supply of very good oranges she picked herself. She’s a nice person with many fine qualities but a rather curious sense of style and questionable taste in both footwear and home decor.
But even given her previous experience, Lauren was somewhat mystified upon seeing this label when opening her Christmas gift from her Grandma-in-law the year before last. 
Closer inspection revealed that it is a bowl, not necessarily for holding bananas
We have this thing we do sometimes in our family, with items that have become iconic to us. Once, when we were visiting Louise and Scott, my sister and brother in law, Larry discovered that he had neglected to bring his hat with him. Since we were planning to spend the day in Boston and it promised to be hot and sunny, he ran up to a variety store a few blocks from their house to remedy the situation. He came back with the absolute worst hat any of the rest of us had ever seen. A ball cap of a sickly greenish color, oddly shaped, with a particularly ugly fish embroidered on the front. By unanimous vote, he was forbidden to wear this eyesore if he planned to go into the city with any of us. Even given men’s tendency to stick together in matters such as this, Scott could not bring himself to be seen in the company of this monstrosity. The hat stayed home and sat around the house for the entire week of our visit and when we left, I tucked it under the pillow in our room.
After Louise and Scott’s visit at Thanksgiving time it appeared in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. It made it’s way into their box of Christmas presents that year and for several years it whizzed back and forth between NY and Massachusetts with clocklike regularity. At some point I forgot about it, until 6 years ago when we were packing to move into the new house and it turned up in a drawer I obviously had not looked through in awhile.
So, Lauren brought the lovely Banana Bowl for all of us to admire when we got together for Christmas and when she and Steve went home, she stashed in the spare room closet at Ellyn’s house. Unfortunately, she left something at Ellyn & Jason’s that she needed so when Ellyn mailed it to her, the Banana Bowl went back to Georgia.
This year, when Lauren and Steve were here, a couple days before we all went back down to Virginia, I was checking to make sure that there was enough toilet paper in the guest bathroom and there the darned thing was, in the cabinet! I made sure that it made it to the van before we left, but unfortunately, Lauren and Steve were driving a smallish car and though I tried, I was not able to successfully hide it in there. [I can’t prove anything, but I am pretty sure that Steve told Lauren that he saw it in our van, even though I threatened to withhold his Christmas presents if he told her, so I expect she was looking for it. He will be dealt with at another time] They left before we did and as expected, the bowl was sitting on the seat of the van when we went to leave.
I am pretty sure there are international laws about shipping really really ugly glassware into a war zone, where they have enough to deal with already, so I can’t get it back to Lauren until she is home from Iraq. Since I am stuck with it, I thought I should see if I can make use of it. Not liking bananas, we don’t have any around, so I tried oranges.
They just don’t look right in there though. The worst thing is that the more I look at these pictures, the more I actually ……………… like the Banana Bowl. 
I am not a well woman.
That is quite an interesting bowl you have there. I’m not sure what would look right in it.
I love the story of hiding tacky gifts in family members homes and cars, that’s great.
Oh, dear, the banana bowl is horrible. When I first started reading, I thought you were poking fun at the Super Bowl, and I was trying to figure out what you meant. Your blog is lovely (much lovelier than the banana bowl.) Thank you for visiting my blog. Please come back soon.
This bowl is so ugly it’s beautiful. Have you tried walnuts in it? Or chocolate truffles? Maybe office supplies, like paper clips and push pins. Oh! Fresh cherries!
Thanks for popping by my blog! And I love the game y’all play with your ugly stuff. :)
Well, it is simply horrible but I’d keep spare change in it. Or car keys. Or whatever else always gets left lying around on a shelf somewhere.
But I would definitely find a new owner for it in the future. (Remind me never to tell you where I live…) :-)
I guess I’m a weird woman too, because I kind of like the Banana bowl. It’s different. It’s unique. And it’s probably one of a kind. I would serve up a lovely fruit salad in it. :D
Janis
That thing is even worse in pictues than it is in person. I am calling the nut house if you say you like that thing again.
Hi :o)
Thanks for stopping by my site please come visit anytime :o)
Oh my goodness that banana bowl story and the hat story are too much fun! I think the bowl is uniquely beautiful…I agree it did grow on me too.
Oh and your photos on your blog are beautiful (the flowers…amazing!)
My BFF and I do that with a Celine Dion magnet – we both hate her so she jokingly bought me a magnet. Now the magnet mysteriously shows up at each other’s house or in the mail!~!
Hallie
Hallie – Celine Dion is definitely worthy of this treatment, LOL!
Ellyn, don’t give me any trouble or you-know-what will show up you-know-where. I have the technology.
Jules – what – you don’t want me to visit you now?
Any bowl would look good with truffles in it, flea!
thanks dee, christy and Janis – glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I have to say that the bowl resembles Majolica. A more recent version, and not antique, but still. Look up Majoica on Ebay. You’ll see some very interesting vegetable serving pieces.
Ya know, after all those pictures, it’s kinda growing on me, too! Can I have it, can I have it? just kiddin’ :-)
Thanks for visiting my blog! I had never heard of the 30 Hour Famine before Daja asked if the kids wanted to do it. We’re a very small group (only about 10 kids) but they have lofty goals for their fundraising. I’m proud of them!
Have a blessed day!
Amy – I love Majolica. I have one bowl that my Grandmother gave me a long time ago that is shaped like a head of cabbage and a few years ago I bought a contemporary Portugese cabbage bowl. Maybe that is why the banana bowl is growing on me? Andy why-oh-why did I go to eBay? [i don’t need any more cabbage bowls, i don’t need any more cabbage bowls, i don’t need any more cabbage bowls…] thanks for stopping by!
claire – I will send up some prayers for the kid’s effort to pay off in a big way! tahnks for stopping by my blog – hope you come back again.
Nice to meet you dlyn! Nice bowl you have there too, hmm!
x
Dyln,
LOVE that bowl (in a strictly plutonic-and-glad-it’s-not-mine way). I think you should play on the banana theme and find some monkey-shaped soaps to fill it and put it in your guest bath!
Thanks for stoppin’ by my humble little blog. It’s fun to meet other PW fans! Might be tryin’ your mushroom cous-cous soon, too!
How funny– the way you ended this blog– because after I scrolled through the pictures, it was actually growing on me too! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the nice comments, I love your photos you have out here.
Hmmmmm, you like that….I’m with you Ellyn, to the nut house with her.
D, I think you will not visit us until Lauren is back and the bowl is safely back in Georgia! As for the hat,(with evil grin), Scott misses it.
Well Weezee – I said it was at my house, not that it still is at my house. ;)
that bowl is great!
That bowl is kinda scary, lol. And yet? I could see how it might grow on you after spending a while trying to figure out what would ‘work’ in it;).
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I had stumbled onto your blog somehow, and this post made me laugh!
My family has a similar tradition, but ours involves a really hideous things made of shells. It’s been given as a “gift” on many occasions! Good luck with the banana bowl!