Eyeglasses, Then And Now

I have worn eyeglasses for most of my life, since I was a young child. At about the age of eight or nine something prompted my Mom to take me to the eye doctor. He did an exam and found that I had extremely bad vision. He put me in some very ugly tortoise shell frames and sent me on my way. I was shocked at how different things looked with glasses on. The first time I went bowling after getting them I said “look, they put stripes on the bowling pins!”. That’s when we all realized just how bad my vision really was.

As years went by my vision never improved. By the time I reached my teens I’d grown very tired of wearing prescription glasses. I did not feel attractive when wearing them. I convinced my parents to get me contact lenses. I immediately felt better about myself once I started wearing contacts.

The only time I don’t wear contact lenses is before bed, because the eye doctor I went to when I first switched to contacts told me you should never sleep in contact lenses, no matter what the packaging or manufacturer says. Because of that, I still keep a pair of glasses.

One of the things that surprises me about eyewear now is that it doesn’t look anything like it did when I first started wearing glasses. Twenty some years ago most people were wearing frames that sort of blended with the face, in neutral, brown or gold tones. Today frames are bright and colorful, standing out from the wearer’s face. There are so many styles available now that shopping for glasses online is growing in popularity, because of the variety.

I love the color purple but don’t imagine myself ever wearing purple frames. For those of you that wear eyeglasses, do you prefer a more conservative or a more colorful frame?

Tags: contact lenses, eyeglasses, Glasses USA, here and there

Category: Me And Mine, This and That