Mom called last night and sounded surprised that I picked up the phone. When I asked why, she said, "I thought you'd be out banana-grassing." I said "What? Did you say 'banana-grassing'?" Mom confirmed that she had said "banana-grassing." I asked her what that meant, exactly. She said, "You know, wallowing in the grass eating bananas." I said, "You thought I was lying in the grass eating
bananas?" "Wallowing in the grass," she corrected me. "Banana-grassing. It means socializing." I asked Mom where on earth such a term came from. "I just now made it up," she said. So let's spread it around, people. Banana-grassing! It's the great new hyphenated word for socializing in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. It might be that Mom was kidding me. I may have misheard her, and she decided to have some fun by pretending to have said "banana-grassing," just as I had erroneously inquired. It is equally possible that the term "banana-grassing" just popped out of my mother's mouth unbidden and that she retrofitted it with a definition on the spot. However it happened, it's in the world now and we're going ahead with it full steam. I'm aware that referring to money as "Stang" has never quite caught on, although we have made some real headway in California. Still, I have high hopes for banana-grassing.
