You Stupid Banana Head

Last Thursday I learned that my Uncle Walt had died. Over the past two days I attended his wake and funeral. My cousin, Tony, did give a wonderful eulogy. Uncle Walt had been having some health problems for a while. I thought I would take this time to share some of my more favorite memories of my Uncle Walt. Uncle Walt was always an intimidating figure. Growing up I was always a little afraid of him. As I got older, I learned that behind his rough exterior he was no more than just a big teddy bear. I can still recall seeing him cry at my cousin, his son, Tony’s wedding. It was in that moment that I saw the true Uncle Walt. Thinking back to when I was a kid and I would be at family gatherings, I would run past him yelling and screaming as kids do, and he would bark at me, “What the hell do you kids think you are doing?”

In my high school and college years at family functions, I often found myself at the same card table as Uncle Walt. There were times where I made questionable plays and he would say “Why the hell did you do that, you stupid banana head?”

Uncle Walt also used some fairly colorful language. I can recall a time when were again at the card table, and my sister in law, Jody, was also at the table. Uncle Walt was going on about some story and I don’t even recall what it was about, but at some point the story went on like “….and I told the F’ing son of a b*tch, if I ever see you around here again, I am going to sew your ass to your face.” I said to Uncle Walt,”You really said that to him?” He replied, “Well not in those exact words, I cleaned it up a little bit because there is a lady present.” Even though his story was incredibly laced with profanity as he told it with Jody around.

Another time we were playing cards and my brother, Jeff, was talking about one of his friend’s wife’s. He said, “She is generally alright to be around, but she can be kind of anal.” To which Uncle Walt replied without skipping a beat, “That is the kind of girl that I would like to meet.”

The loss of my Uncle Walt was hard to take. He was one of my favorite uncles. It will never be the same sitting around the card table during family functions. I will truely missing being called a "Banana Head".
Here is my Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Walt at a wedding this past fall.
This is at another wedding two years ago. Uncle Walt with Ginger, Kim, Megan, Andrea and Erika.One final note, I was at the service Monday night and not once, but twice during the service someone in attendance, their cell phone went off. So disrespectful. If you can't remember to turn off the ringer before walking into church for any service let alone a wake, you are an absolute moron. You are an even bigger moron if you don't remember to turn off your ringer once someone else's phone goes off. And if you think that you are that important that you have to field calls while at a wake, then maybe you are just too important to be there to begin with.