Among the many interesting people living in Randolph was Wayne Huth. Everybody called him by his nickname, Wiener. As with many American men of that time Wiener was drafted into the army and was later injured in combat, his injury causing the loss of one eye. Upon his discharge the government furnished a new eye for him made of glass. As a kid I was fascinated by this glass eye since it was so realistic. I asked my dad how we could tell the glass eye from Wiener’s real eye. He told me the glass eye was the one with the honest look!
Wiener had been a very good athlete in high school and the mere loss of an eye didn’t prevent him from doing everything a normal person would do, including playing on the town baseball team as a catcher.
It also didn’t stifle his orneriness.
This glass eye was removable. One had to pay attention at the ice cream parlor if Wiener was present or suddenly the glass eye would appear on top of an ice cream sundae where the maraschino cherry would normally reside.
This also held true for people sitting at the bar in the local tavern because sometimes when an unsuspecting patron finished his beer there would be an honest-looking eye in the bottom of the glass staring back at him.
After the laughter subsided Wiener would calmly retrieve his eye, lick it off, and poke it back into his head.
I cringe when I think of what Wiener would have had to do to get his eye back in case someone accidentally swallowed it. I don’t think he would have been licking it off!