You Have Geen Eyes...You Have Yellow Eyes

"You have geen eyes....you have yellow eyes...Close your eyes!....Open your eyes!!!! You have GEEN eyes!!!"

"Oh no," my sister, Linda, said when I spoke those words.  "Do you remember that game?"

Those words are some of my first memories.  I remember sitting on my dad's lap, facing him, and saying those words.  I figured it was a little game we played that he so kindly tolerated.  It never made any sense to me though....he had hazel eyes...and why would I say yellow eyes? 

Now Linda was about to solve this mystery for me.   She, being two and a half years older,  was able to fill in the holes of this story.  (It's great having an older sister with such a good memory.) 

My mother worked at a small boutique a couple evenings a week.  She was in her element there, helping women pick the right dress for a gala and spending all the money she earned buying clothing for herself or her two little girls.  My memories of this are fuzzy.  I do know that my dad would drive her there and pick her up, since she did not drive. (at that time...but that is a whole other Maxine story...getting her driver's license)  Of course, Linda and I would go with my dad as we were too young to stay at home.  I remember stopping at a nearby ice cream parlor...so those trips to take and pick up my mom were fun.

When we would go pick up my mom, it was usually dark.  Sometimes we'd get there early, or sometimes she would be with a customer and would be late.  That is where this little game was invented.  Linda said that there was a flashing neon sign nearby. (I am not sure what it was advertising....maybe Linda remembers.)  It was flashing yellow and then green...yellow and then green.  The light would reflect from my dad's eyes. 

Linda said that she got so tired of listening to me play this game, but my dad patiently opened and closed his eyes, entertaining his two year old daughter.

"You have geen eyes....you have yellow eyes...Close your eyes!...Open your eyes!!  You have GEEN eyes!"  Such a simple way to pass the time and show love for your daughter.

Thank you, Linda, (the best sister in the world) for making this story complete for me.