Mid-century. That’s what it is being called; that warp in time so many of us, now of a certain age, grew up in. It was as magical and idyllic as it was frightening and confusing and many of us, we baby boomers, had a playmate of sorts that we grew up with. The television. Big cabinets with little screens, three or four channels in shades of gray that went off the air at midnight, when the pictures would start to fill with snow and the national anthem would play, signing off for the night. When I was old enough to stay up that late, I always stood, in my pajamas, at sign off time.
We of the mid-century club watched Romper Room and Howdy Doody, Bonanza and Dr. Kildare, along with those commercials with jingles that still linger, like the one I started singing the other day as I cut up a banana for Kezzie.
I’m Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say
Put some rubber in your blubber
And you’ll bounce away!
“Mom” cried Katy, “I always thought that was the song until friends said it wasn’t”.
Well, it really wasn’t the jingle, but, we all sang it that way and it became real to us. We would put our hands in the air or on our hips and belt it out like Carmen Miranda as we walked across the narrow bridge over the Eisenhower Expressway, giggling at the thought of all that blubber bouncing on the trucks speeding below us on the Ike.
When bananas, just being introduced into our midwestern stores, were in season, it was a rare treat to have one, carefully peeling so as not to bruise. That first bite, each time, so rare and delicious, was like visiting a foreign land . . . and then someone would start blubbering and we’d try not to bounce.
I don’t really remember if I saw this commercial on television or at the movie theater, where the jingle aired and whose purpose was to teach us all how to eat a banana. My sister and cousins would pile into Aunt Christina’s black and white Plymouth. The car always reminded me of saddle shoes. We would spend a hot summer day or Saturday afternoon watching double features at the Lido Theater.
As Kezzie ate her banana, Ezra cuddled in his mommy’s arms, and Yia Yia washed some berries. Suddenly, mid-century music escaped out of that little device we call a cell phone, which is not only a phone but a typewriter and a tape recorder and a camera and the repository of all YouTube has to offer. There was Ms. Chiquita Banana, teaching us how to eat a banana.
Do you remember this jingle? Are there others you remember from your childhood? Did you or your friends do your own interpretations of commercials?
I’m not sure what year that aired, but we didn’t have TV until 1961. The first commercial I recall was for, I think, Spaghettios, and the tag line was “Talk, talk, talk, when do we eat?” I said that for years, probably still do every now and then….
I remember well the days of sign off and only three channels. The first cartoon I recall was The Flintstones, and I loved Wagon Train and Rawhide.
One night, when I was probably 14, maybe 15, my parents wen to bed and let me stay up and watch a late night movie. After the news at 10:30 It was “Splendor in the Grass,” so risque and I loved that movie! I was such a Natalie Wood fan. Had paper dolls of her, too.
Those were the days my friend…. 🙂
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Oh, oh – Spaghettios! I remember that talk, talk line. Fun memory.
We watched both those westerns, Teresa, and I remember what a big deal it was when The Flintstones first aired.
Splendor in the Grass is risque and raised social issues in its time, didn’t it? Quite a film for a 14 year old to watch. Natalie Wood was so beautiful. I remember watching the movie and feeling so sad for her character. Thanks for bringing it up, Teresa.
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Hello!
I find that I can comment again on WordPress today!!!
I have been reading but couldn’t comment for days now. It’s a problem with my ready for a museum computer. Anyway, yes I do remember this song and loved to sing it as you did. Also remember the big piece of furniture that held the TV with the tiny screen. My favorite commercial was for Alka-Seltzer and the men from Texaco on Jackie Gleason I loved Captain Kangaroo and Roy Rogers. Gunsmoke and Bonanza were favorites but my dad watched the Fri. night fights.
So glad you got to spend some time with the precious grandchildren. They are both growing up fast. If I can’t comment again until I get a new computer, I am still reading.
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I was missing you, Marilyn. Glad to see your words today. My computer is aging as well – still pretty reliable, but, I know she’s wearing down.
Weren’t those old televisions something? My folks bought it the year before I was born! Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is – Alka-Seltzer – and I remember now the Texaco men. Janet, the Country Mouse below, and I were Texaco gas pumps for Halloween at our dorm in college. Fun to remember, isn’t it?
I’m so glad I’ve been able to spend some time with them as well. In the three weeks I didn’t see him, little Ezra filled out and looks like a little boy. Kezzie – she’s all girl and full of wonderment.
Thanks, Marilyn. It is good to know you are there reading. Take care.
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Because of that song, I still can hardly put a banana in the frig even though it really doesn’t hurt it a bit especially if you’re going to use it for cooking or smoothies. (I haven’t watched the video here yet, but I remember ‘never never put a banana in the refrigerator’ as part of it.)
Anyway, yes, those old jingles still stay with us….I definitely remember this one from the movies, not TV (I’m older than you are — and out west and in my house TV was slow to arrive…I was already in high school by the time we owned one.)
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Maybe that’s way I’ve never put a banana in the refrigerator, Sallie. I have frozen them when they are very ripe to use in banana bread when I had time. That is a part of the jingle.
Isn’t it interesting how we are old enough to remember the TVs like this? I wonder what my parents would think about the flat screens of today or that we can actually watch things in the palm of our hands.
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I love the way you capture time in this story, Penny. Something to savor with Kezzie and Ezra.
Coke is it! Is the big jingle I remember from growing up. And, Be a Pepper. Sad, isn’t it?
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Thanks, Andra.
I was in high school when that Dr. Pepper jingle was out and kids would sing it across the halls during passing period.
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I remember your “rubber in my blubber” version, and I remember the banana lady singing – but don’t remember all the instructions and information she sang! I was probably too young to pay attention to the details. I’ll bet Kezzie loved the song and she will be another generation who knows it! Someday historians will study these songs and their origins!
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I wouldn’t have remembered all the instructions if Katy hadn’t looked it up. Like pin money, “rubber in my blubber” always just was. Haha. I wonder if she’ll remember her yia yia singing it.
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I remember Carmen Miranda…with her head dress of fruit singing
Aye Aye Aye I like you vey much…
An
df how rare tropical fruit was when I was a child in the U.K. after the war.
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When our Katy first googled this, the first thing to come up with the Carmen Miranda number you recall, Helen. You might enjoy seeing it again. I love those old musical extravaganzas. Oh, how precious that fruit must have been to you after the war and harships, Helen. We take so much for granted here, I am sad to say.
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I remember Carmen Miranda and will watch an old movie if I find that she is in it. Her musicals were pure fun. I remember the song from this commercial. My Dad was famous for butchering song lyrics. We thought the words for Speedy Alka-Seltzer were..”Down, down, down the stomach too, round, round, round, your system too. With Alka-Seltzer you’ll surely say. Relief is just a BUR-URP away.”
I remember Oh oh Spaghettios! I still say that, especially when talking to little ones.
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She was so beautiful and talented, wasn’t she? There is a youtube cllip of her doing this number that is fun to see. Oh, Janet, that is soooo funny about your dad. My dad did some of the same things. Took me into eighth grade or so to figure out that Monkey Ward really was Montgomery Wards.
Now I want to give Kezzie some Spaghettios, which I don’t even like, just to say that. tee hee
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Who remembers…”You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” or ‘He’s fabulous Frankie, that great big living dream, but in the close-ups he’s kind of yuck –
his breath is bad and man, that’s sad, ’cause he could be the greatest lover the world has ever had.” (and maybe this was part of the Pepsodent jiggle??/
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How nice it is to see you here, Susan! You made my day. I do remember the Pepsodent words. We always used Crest and I wanted to try Pepsodent because of the jingles, which, of course, was the intent of the ad in the first place. Thanks for commenting.
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And the parody of that used to be
You’ll wonder where your teeth all went
when you brush with Pepsodent’
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Ha! Maybe it is a good thing I didn’t try it, Helen.
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This was delicious in every way, Penny! They really knew how to do public information with style back then, didn’t they?
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I hadn’t thought about it in that way. Indeed they did, Kate. Now that you mention public information, I recall a local Chicago station that would give groups and individuals opportunities to express public opinion on air. Now, everyone does it through social media.
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“Pop, pop,fizz, fizz, Oh what a relief it is!” –Was that Alka Seltzer? Fun to think of those old jingles. I’m surprised more didn’t immediately come to mind, but they will as soon as I sign off! I do have fond memories of watching the test pattern at the end of the day. And I loved the peacock unfolding feathers on NBC. I remember Chiquita and the jingle, but for some reason I don’t recall any instruction about eating a banana. But we always had bananas on the west coast, and maybe we didn’t get the same commercials. What a fun post, Penny. I like to sing funny little songs from my past to Sophia and Karina, too. Lots of fun memories! Thank you, Penny.
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Yes, that’s for Alka Seltzer. I wonder how many people tried it because the commercial was so fizzy. Not things we generally think of but that suddenly pop out of our mouths, especially around children, I think Debra. Oh, that NBC peacock – indeed. I can remember someone showing us how to peek and eat a navel orange when they were introduced to our area and there is California with its very own Orange County. Oh dear, I could go on and will end up with another post. tee hee. I’m glad this was fun. It was for me, too. Thanks, Debra.
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This is one of those posts that remind me that you and I grew up in very different countries, Penny. 🙂 We had our own selection of jolly commercial jingles back then, but not Ms Chiquita Banana. I don’t really remember having bananas when I was very young, presumably because of post-war shortages.
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I’m sure the shortages you experienced made it all the harder to get bananas, Perpetua. Since they were being exported from the tropics at first, we didn’t see them here in most of the US until the forties. Now, we can buy them year round. I found it funny that we had to have a cartoon to show us all how to eat them. Today, I’m not thinking of bananas, but, instead soup, thanks to your hearty blog.
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Dear Penny, so many memories–even of saddle shoes–in your posting and in the comments and responses to them. This is all, for me, a trip down memory land. I do remember Chiquita Banana and the commercial and one I also especially remember is from Dinah Shores’s show–which I think was about 15 minutes in length and she sang, “Drive your Chevrolet in the USA, American is asking you to call.”
We seldom had a new car, but when Dad did buy one when I was about 10, it was a Chevrolet. And I still buy General Motors cars because my brother worked on the assembly line here in Missouri for General Motors. He doesn’t ask much of his family, just two things: don’t go to fast food chains that don’t support unions and don’t buy any car but American-made. I’m not sure what that means any more, however. Peace.
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Dinah Shore would sing that tune, convincing us all to see the USA, and then she would blow us all a great big kiss. I watched the show just for that, Dee. A nice memory to recall, and I’m sure why we had a few Chevrolets. Good for you for honoring your brother’s wishes, which are good ones.
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Some good memories here, but no one mentioned Ho,Ho,Ho, the Jolly Green Giant. It was fun to listen to the Chiquita Banana song again, you find the cutest stuff, thanks.
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Ho, Ho, Ho, Sharon. We were just waiting for you to mention it. I’m glad you found Chiquita Banana fun again. Thanks, Sharon. It’s so much more fun to share with you all.
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