Googly-eyes are just fun. Affixing googly-eyes to pictures of people or objects isn’t a new idea… Someone did so in 1969, out of boredom and invented Weepuls. But the objective in our was less about lessening boredom and more exercising the opportunities unleashed by a bagful of googly-eyes bought at Gale’s Wholesale.
I’d noticed that my mother'-in-law’s condo had signs with eye-less mask wearers and asked the kids if I should outfit them with googly-eyes. The kids said yes. The kids also said to take photo evidence.
I learned a new word earlier this year, when Mary Karr described herself as occasionally puckish. Puckish? Here’s the OED: “Of the nature of or characteristic of Puck; impish, mischievous, capricious.” This small act of “eyebombing”? Very puckish.
“I did this thing,” I told my mother-in-law during our visit. I brought her to the elevator and showed her the sign.
”Those signs have been there forever!” she said, the new eyeballs looking so natural…
”I added the eyes!” I said.
She looked again and started to laugh.
”Want to do the sign on the floor above?” I offered. She did!
Walking along the hallway, I felt more happiness watching her stifle her giggles than I did actually affixing the eyes. But then, isn’t that the nature of a trick? The whole anticipation we feel just imagining what reactions might be? It’s a lot more fun steering the imagination that way than it is listening to it after watching the news.
