Occasionally I get a hankering for bananas. So, when honey was going to the grocery store the other day, I had them on the list. The trouble with letting honey buy bananas is he always overbuys. Regardless of the number of bananas I ask for, he somehow thinks that he cannot break a bunch in half and will buy the entire bunch. 

This time, as usual, he came home with enough bananas to last for a month. 

The trouble with bananas is they don’t last a month. They are highly perishable and seldom last even a week. There are tricks that supposedly make them last longer, like wrapping the ends in aluminum foil. It doesn’t help much. You can only eat so many bananas, so I always end up feeding the surplus to the garbage can.  

It was no surprise when after several days I ended up with bananas with brown spots on the verge of going bad. Sigh. But wait! I can make a banana pudding, I thought. I think I have everything I need, probably left over from the last time honey bought bananas. So, I got out a casserole dish and proceeded to assemble the ingredients.  

I used to be a purist and make my own pudding from scratch with real meringue for the top. However, that became too much trouble, and I became lazy. Now I think Jello Instant Pudding and Cool Whip work just fine. 

I peeled and sliced bananas, layered them with Nabisco Vanilla Wafers, poured on the pudding and topped it with Cool Whip. It was beautiful. I would put it in the refrigerator and when I needed a dessert, it would be ready. 

With the combination of ingredients and the ceramic casserole dish, it was a bit heavy, but I could manage. The refrigerator was full, and the only empty spot was on the bottom shelf. As I bent over to put it inside, something slipped. “Oh, no!” I tried to catch it and as I did, I lost my balance. The next thing I knew, I was laying on the kitchen floor and banana pudding was everywhere.  

I had fallen backwards and hit my head on the cabinet as I went down. I laid there for a while to make sure I was still alive. I felt my head to see if there was any blood. There wasn’t. I didn’t feel as if anything was broken this time. The older I get, the harder it seems to be to stay on my feet. I have been being super careful, but not careful enough apparently. 

About that time, honey walked in. “You fell? he asked as if it was not apparent. “Are you hurt?” 

“Help me up!”  

He got me up and even cleaned up the sticky mess made by the flight of the ill-fated banana pudding. “There is some left,” he said, peering in the bottom of dish where a small amount survived only because the dish did not fall upside down. He didn’t even tell me I should be more careful. I think he was only happy he didn’t have to call 911. So was I. 

So that’s the story of how I fell for banana pudding. Right now, I don’t care if I ever see another banana pudding. 

From now on I am going to be careful and try not to fall. I am, really, I am.

Copyright 2025 Sheila Moss