Rotten Bananas Butte is not located, as it sounds, in a Richard Scary town. Oh, no, you can visit Rotten Bananas Butte on the Navajo Reservation here in Arizona, by Chimney and Castle Buttes.
Merry was so delighted by Rotten Bananas Butte that she began illustrating a story right on the spot. On hotel stationary, you can follow the sordid story of Banana Boy. Or you can just ask Merry to tell you:
"One day two little girls were baking a banana. They put it into the oven, and the biggest little girl said, "Oh, I think it's done."
[Merry breaks in: Originally, she says, this story isn't really true. The banana dies in the oven, right here. He doesn't really run away.]
But then the banana jumped out of the oven and said, You can't catch me! He began to run away, and came upon a river."
From here, the story sounds strikingly familiar. Banana Boy meets a fox, so wily and charming that he convinces the banana to climb upon his twitching nose; and then Banana Boy is devoured poste haste. But Merry is again quick to remind you that Banana Boy doesn't really get gobbled up by the fox but perishes at the beginning of the story, in the oven. "Bananas don't run away," she points out. "They just lie there."
Tomorrow we'll see the Grand Canyon. More later. The sun is strong, I just devoured a rich chocolate pudding, and I feel like sleeping.
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I've been standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. Such a fine sight to see.
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat bed Ford. . .or Martin rocking with Don Henley.
Where to next?
