You know one right? Someone in your community or circle of friends who is known by the things over which they obsess?

Say for instance…my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. She is known as “The Cow Lady.” Her room is covered in things painted in black and white splotches. Jersey cows show up on her clothes, on her desk in ceramic form, and on her stationary she uses to send notes home to parents.

Or, perhaps you know a “John Deere Tractor guy.” My grandfather became one of these people. He purchased a couple of collector renditions in John Deere yellow and green, and before he knew it THAT was the THING that people gravitated toward when buying him gifts.

When we cleaned out his garage after he died I knew things were out of control. There were John Deere clocks still in their package. John Deere miniatures still in their boxes. A John Deere combination thermometer and barometer hung on his garage wall.

So, you know one right? Well, you may know another very soon…and it may be me!

For some strange reason, I think I’m becoming “The Googley Eyes” lady. True story.

I think it all started with the Weepuls. Weeples? Pom Poms…right?

In the 70s they were yellow and emulated the Yellow Smiley Face “Have a Good Day” craze. In the 80s, they turned red, white and blue and held little flags. Some had antennae, and some had sunglasses. But they ALL had ridiculous tacky feet to stick on any surface, and…googley eyes!

The foot residue is probably still on high school lockers installed in the 80s to this day. It’s probably carcinogenic and eats young children when no one looks.

But the googley eyes? Ah, they’re actually kind of funny. They wiggle when you tap them and if you take them off the Wepuls-Weeples-Pom-Poms you can stick them on other things and make your friends laugh.

I used to HATE Weeples, but love the googley eyes. And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is where my downfall began.

Flash forward thirty years.

One night I’m sitting in my living room watching Saturday Night Live.  I’m more than a little excited because their guest star is Christopher Walken.  Everything he does on SNL is funny to me.  He stares straight at the cue cards, he has ONE tempo, ONE voice, and ONE approach and he cracks me totally up.  But my Walken fandom meter rose even higher after I witnessed this:

I giggled myself to sleep that night and told Hubby right before I drifted off that, “at the very least, I’ve got to put some googley eyes on my watering can just to have a little fun.”

Flash forward three months later.  My children spied a tree very close to our house with googley eyes.  They were laughing about it at dinner one night.

“What? Really?  Oh, MAN…I have GOT to drive by there and see that tree!” I got a little more excited about it than my children expected, and they peered at me curiously throughout the rest of dinner time.

The next day I did indeed drive by the googley-eyed tree and smiled.  Then a weird thing happened.  About two months later, Edmond was ravished with a bona fide flood that caused considerable damage.  Among the casualties were bridges, livestock, homes and…the eyes off the tree!

This is how goofy I am…I stopped by the owners of the tree, knocked on their door, and told them I was sorry their tree lost its eyes in the flood.  They were actually quite nice, were surprised that someone noticed their antics, and about two weeks later…the tree had eyes again. Ho HO!

So, I posted the photo on Facebook with a short version of the story.

Two weeks later, my friends were still chiding me about being the Googley Eye Lady. And now? They send me photos…

You know…I try to resist engaging in “googley eye” banter.  But it is something over which I can exercise zero control.

Take for instance today…”texasbeth” on BlogHer posted a “Wordless Wednesday” photo of her child’s Pinewood Derby car. WITH googley eyes…uh oh.

Did I comment?  Of course I did.  Did I “share the Christopher Walken gospel of googley eye humor?”  Of course I did.

I think I need help.

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Best, Red Dirt Kelly

 

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