Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Zany Zappers


For my fourteenth birthday, I had received a pair of Zany Zappers--toy sunglasses with a small flashing red light attached to each lens. The lights had to be flashed manually by pushing the button of the small hand-held device connected to the sunglasses by a thin wire ("batteries not included"). I had unwrapped them with great delight and expectation, inside Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour.

Zany Zappers were a good toy to use for scaring the crap out of yourself, as Prince, my most-recent-favorite-playwright-to-stalk (although I still haven't seen or even read any of his plays, yet), had reminded me in his own post, today.

Remember "The Amityville Horror," the original film? And remember those creepy, glowing red eyes that belonged to Jodie the pig, and when those eyes entered the doll's head? That's the image I would scare myself with, while wearing my Zany Zappers.

I would shut myself in the family bathroom at night with my Zany Zappers in place. Standing in front of the mirror and in complete darkness, I would keep my thumb pressed on the button and stare back at the pair of ghostly red eyes gazing at me from inside the mirror's reflection. I could practically fool myself into imagining that Jody the pig was right in front of me, and it freaked me out.

It was my version of "Bloody Mary! Bloody Mary!"

Happy Halloween season!

3 comments:

golfwidow said...

I freak myself out now, for nothing. Just comb my hair downwards over my face, look in the mirror, and I'm the creepy girl from The Ring. Eep.

Peter Varvel said...

Cousin It!

quin browne said...

and i thought i was odd because i feared the blessed virgin mary appearing in my bedroom at night.


i'm a lightweight in the fear department.




ps. peter, you should see gw's hair. she pulls more out of her brush in a week than i've had in my life.