The 9000 residents of my hometown, Latrobe, PA went bananas this past weekend! We had so much fun at our Banana Split Celebration, more than a century after apprentice pharmacist David Strickler of Strickler's Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pa. created the banana split! Latrobe is now the official birthplace of America's beloved dessert (among several other famous things!) I went to all of the events this weekend, compliments of DOLE! What an amazing company! The above picture is of the original Strickler's pharmacy where the split was created! Sadly the building is no longer there but we were presented with a fabulous historical marker to acknowledge this piece of the town's history! Here are some highlights and pictures of the weekend long festivities! :)
I took this photo at The Rose Style Shop, I loved there window displays, super cute!
These pics are some I took at the Latrobe Art Center, they are various pictures of Stricklers and part of the ORIGINAL soda fountain and glassware! How cool is that???
Here is Bobby Banana at the dedication of the historical marker! The man on the left is one of the DOLE representatives, Bob Ochsner, he was really nice as they all were! I hope they felt welcomed here! (Pretty sure they did!) Also, the blonde is my friend's daughter who won Miss Congeniality at our July 4th Celebration! Congrats Aubrey!
Do you know who this is? World famous golf legend, Arnold Palmer. This is his hometown, too!
Balloon drop at the presentation....
Latrobe's new historical marker! I was told we are pushing for more!
Banana Split Cake! It was layered and tasted like, what else? Banana split LOL!
The Westmoreland County Community College Music Dept Jazz Band! Fabulous job!
Some of the Yellow Tie Gala guests enjoying the evening in the street! Luckily we had great weather! You never know around here! ;)
Banana balloons....
Unfortunately this started to melt by the time we got to see it. It is an ice carving of a banana split!
Outside of Valley Dairy was Ice Cream Joe with the barber shop quartet, Heart And Soul and Banana Liz, she was part of the group that won the banana split jingle contest!
Car show in town on Saturday, Camaros are always a favorite!
Of course I did not get any pics of me or my family but I did snap this one of my pup! She stayed under the table while we ate at the car show and festival they held. Those of you who follow me know she is afraid of everything. :( I have been working on socialization with her. Btw, she loves DOLE bananas, too!
Hula hoop contest at the sock hop!
Fabulous food provided by Chef Mark's Palate!
Dancing to the oldies!
Oh Malt Shop Marty, you were TOO funny! I loved that he kept telling everyone to GET UP and MOVE because you can sit on your butt all winter long in Western PA!
Sunday's banana flash mob at St Vincent College, that was a BIG crowd!
The banana split bar inside the college, it was delicious! They also offered a frozen yogurt bar that was healthier than a traditional banana split that included fruit toppings!
“DOLE is America’s favorite banana – so it makes perfect sense for us to honor America’s favorite dessert and the now-official city where it was created,” said Bil Goldfield, DOLE’s director of corporate communications. “Of course, this being DOLE, one of our goals is to introduce healthier versions of the famously decadent sundae with less calories and fat. We’re out to show that it is possible to eat smart and still enjoy your banana split, too.” Bil and I had a nice discussion about bananas and nutrition!
I loved these inflatable Bobby Bananas, so cute! This is the traditional banana split recipe!
The crowd was dwindling...everybody enjoyed their ice cream and surely the weekend! It was so awesome to have this happen for our town! Although I didn't see a lot of familiar faces, I did make some new friends and that is always nice!
DOLE was so kind to donate all of the bananas, pineapples, t shirts and more to make this a fabulous event! It was amazing that they could even fly out here from California to party with our little town! I want to personally thank Collin Whitley, Bob Ochsner and Bil (yes, I spelled it correctly!) Goldfield for their generosity! I was told several times that this will be an annual event and they WILL be back next year to celebrate 110 years of banana splits!
Most of this celebration was free and open to the public, for more details you can go to www.cityoflatrobe.com.
For more information on DOLE Bananas, including recipes, serving suggestions and other information, go to www.dole.com/peelthelove or follow them on www.facebook.com/dolebananas or www.twitter.com/dolebananas
Very cool pics!!! Great post. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I hope DOLE likes it also!
DeleteCongratulations to our beautiful city of Latrobe for the official recognition of the FAMOUS BANANA SPLIT title of being the first. WE here in Latrobe have a lot of pride in our city and all of the wonderful accomplishments made her during the past generations, and am looking forward to making new strides in more fantastic things happening her. We are good people and take pride in claiming to be from Latrobe Pennsylvania. Thank you to the folks from Dole for helping making this celebration possible, you are greatly appreciated.! Keep up the good work Latrobe and the Latrobe art Center for your dedication and hard work in putting all of this together. also all of the other people and businesses that participated. . Also to all the people that came out and made this a great day! Keep up the good work and dedication. YOU DID IT!!!!!!!! <3
ReplyDeleteI am so honored to have been asked by DOLE to participate and blog these events. As great as this year's was, I look for it to get better and better each year! They promised me they will be back!
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