The ‘Scary’ toy…Christmas Memory

When I was about 4 or 5 years old I went through several obsessive fazes, which drove my family crazy because I was pretty intense about it. I loved bicycles, (especially my older brother’s bike), and my older siblings would have to set me on the seat and wheel me around the yard on the “grown up” bikes for hours. Then there was the ‘football faze’…a neighbor kid had to surrender his new football to me for several weeks and I took it everywhere I went…and finally (though not exhaustively) I was obsessed with my sister’s stuffed Ernie toy. (Ernie being the Sesame St. character of “Bert and Ernie” fame.)

My older sister did not want me ruining her toy so my Mom decided to give me my own stuffed “Ernie” for Christmas one year. I opened the box and was so excited. There was only one problem. This particular version of the stuffed toy had it’s felt eyes pasted on too close together and it made poor Ernie ghoulishly cross-eyed. I was so pre-occupied with the wonder of Christmas as a 4 year old that this did not really bother me until bed time. Tucked into bed that night I reached for my Ernie toy and by the glow of the night light it was revealed that this usually friendly Sesame St. resident now looked freakishly evil and wouldn’t stop staring at me with his crazy cross eyes. I could not sleep. Eventually, I emerged from my room, crying and terrified and related how scared I was of my Ernie toy which I loved and hated at the same time (conflicting emotions for a 4 year old).

My Mom, ever patient and wise, grabbed the Ernie toy and performed cosmetic surgery by ripping off the felt eyes and pasting them back on correctly, producing a much more happy look on Ernie’s face than the scary face that it had before. I took my Ernie toy in hand and never had trouble sleeping again…