Back in the day when I was married, my wife “bedopted” a little girl, Lindsey, almost from birth. We really did not have custody of her, but her mother had issues she was working through. The child was in our home nearly as much as she was in her mother’s for several years.
We also had a cassette tape (remember those) of children’s songs by Raffi. Lindsey loved Raffi and we would play it for her whenever we were in the car. Me being who I am loved to sing along on the Banana Boat song, probably because I could bellow “day-o” at the top of my voice. Lindsey began to call be Papa Deo.
The name stuck and now all my grandchildren call me Papa Deo. At the time we had not seen the lyrics written, and did not know how to spell day-o. The song seemed to have Latin overtones so a Spanish spelling of deo was given to it.
I never really thought much about it until the other night when I made my regular once a decade pilgrimage to church. It was one of these semi-mega churches with the multimedia presentations. With it being Christmas they were singing a cantata by Bach when the words “Gloria in excelsis Deo” appeared on one of the giant screens. I realized then that Papa Deo could mean Papa God… hmmmmmmm. I might have to reconsider the spelling of the name my grandkids use. Either that or rename my son Hay-sus.
For a very funny rendition of the Banana Boat song by Harry Bellefonte with the Muppets go to this link: Banana Boat Song
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