A friend of mine and I had a conversation about nightlights, and how a Jewish member of their household felt that one was unnecessary to acquire, in spite of the fact that they have two young children. Ultimately, I’m in the camp that believes that nightlights aren’t just something to help kids cope with the fear of darkness through their formative years, but simple aids in the middle of the night to be able to see where one is going, regardless of age.
Somewhere in the conversation, I reminisced about the nightlight I had growing up, which was this little Bugs Bunny clip-on head. All throughout my life, the nightlight was simply referred to as, translated from Korean would be “bunny light.” As far as I was concerned, bunny light was the phrase that translated into “nightlight.” I vaguely remember a time when the original light fixture died at one point, and I said that we needed to get another bunny light; fortunately, the Bugs head fit like a glove to that as well, and bunny light lived on. During one of the several moves my family endured, the Bugs head went missing for a period of time, and regardless of its absence, the light itself was still referred to as bunny light, and went into the upstairs hallway sans Bugs head.
Naturally, I went through the childhood phase where I was afraid of the dark, and bunny light was what got me through it. Even as I got older, bunny light remained in the house, because my dad habitually woke up in the middle of the night and peeked his head into my sister and mine’s bedrooms. Bunny light wasn’t so much of a tiny light to fend off the fright of nighttime, but simply a useful tool for people in my family to have the ability to see at nights.
The above photo was taken the last time I was at my old home. My dad still has the light, and still has it plugged in, in the upstairs bathroom. There aren’t a lot of windows in the upstairs rooms, and the hallway itself is completely shielded from any windows. There’s no chance for the occasional full moon light to creep into that hallway, meaning when night falls, the hallway is pitch black. Except it’s not, because of bunny light’s soft tiny glow emanating from the bathroom, so that anyone who needs to use the bathroom at night, or like in my case, sneak quietly back into the bedroom without turning on the light and waking my dad, is vastly more easier to do.
One of these days, I’m bringing bunny light back home with me, and plugging it into my own home. At this point, bunny light is a family heirloom, and I want it back when my dad doesn’t need it anymore.
