Human banana of 'Big Brother,' Casey Turner, returns home

ST. PETERSBURG

For the first time in two months, Pinellas County teacher Casey Turner was hanging with a bunch of people who weren't out to get him.

They weren't out to evict him. They didn't twist his words into evil intent.

It was a welcome home party for Turner, who had just returned from a stint on CBS's Big Brother 11.

For the uninitiated, a dozen strangers are locked in a house together. They are allowed no contact with the outside world and no diversions. Each week, they vote to kick out one of the housemates. The last one left wins.

Turner wasn't the last one left by any means — he was the third to get the boot — but to the 50 friends gathered Tuesday night at Gators Café in Treasure Island, where Turner moonlights as a DJ, it didn't matter. Fifteen minutes of fame is still fame.

But Turner, 41, said fame isn't the reason he tried out for the reality show.

"I'm already famous," he said. "I went on it for the adventure — and, of course, the half-mil (prize purse) is nothing to laugh at."

The surveillance cameras that were trained on the Big Brother housemates 24 hours a day showed things about Turner his friends didn't know, or didn't want to know.

It will be interesting to see what his students will have to say when he gets back to his teaching job at James B. Sanderlin Elementary School in a couple of weeks.

"It was pretty cool seeing my old teacher on TV," Bobby Williams, a high school senior and former student of Turner's, said.

"He did a couple things his students wouldn't want to know," Williams said, "like his smoking and talking about his DJ life."

"I represented teachers well," Turner said. "I'm not a saint, but hey, a lot of teachers aren't saints.

"I'm expecting a lot of kids making fun of me for being in a banana suit, though."

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The banana ribbing isn't going to stop with his students.

It could haunt him forever because he spent his last week in the Big Brother house in a banana suit as the consequence of a game the housemates played.

His friends here have glommed on to the idea. Many at the party wore T-shirts emblazoned with some sort of banana image. A college friend even started a Web site, maninabananasuit.com, where visitors can watch Turner's TV exploits and order banana-related gear.

Turner said that once he could see he was likely headed for eviction from the Big Brother house, he decided to tell his housemates what he thought of them.

"Part of my exit speech was to get through to those people. I was trying to be a teacher to the end," Turner said.

And though he didn't win the $500,000 grand prize, he may have come home with something more valuable: an appreciation for the life he has.

"I missed my wife and baby. The first day I got back, I cried all day.

"You want to be happy about the opportunity, but you miss your wife and kids."