THE MAGIC TELESCOPE
It so happened in the mid-Sixties when "Esso" was having the "Put
a Tiger in your Tank" campaign and would stuff a tiger tail in your gas-cap
when you pulled in for a fill up. It was also around the time when my brother
Kim was a budding kleptomaniac. He would swipe the Tiger Tails from parked cars
only to surreptitiously insert them into the gas caps of unsuspecting Police
cars.
I was in Grade seven at the old limestone School house on Bruce Street and was
witness to one of the most unusual spectacles in Acorn's history. Mystical Drifters
in a wagon drawn by a white horse had stopped in front the school and were enticing
children to look into their "Magic Telescope."
"Magic Telescope, Magic Telescope, see the star that gives everyone hope,"
the man with the handlebar moustache barked, "Only one nickel." I
thought it must be magic to see a star in a bright blue sky, so I lined up to
take a look with my measly nickel in my hand. When it came my turn I paid the
Mystical Drifter woman and was handed the Magic telescope. I should have known
better because everyone who looked at it was frowning in disgust.
When I looked into the telescope I was in for a shock. It was just a cheap cardboard
telescope with the outline of a star drawn on the far lens. "You cheated
me," I protested, "This is just a star drawn on the lens!"
"You are looking through a star", the Mystical Drifter woman said.
"Did you ever dream that you would be able to see through a star?"
I was just about to ask for my money back when a police car pulled up with a
tiger tail in its gas cap. The Mystical Drifters jumped into the wagon and raced
off the school property. I don’t know if was the police car itself or
the fact that there was a "Tiger in the Tank" that terrified the Mystical
Drifters into bolting away.
To this day I let people look into the "Magic Telescope" for free
and it has never failed to put a smile on their faces.
© 2006 S K des Lauriers