My great grandmother, who I called Gaga, passed away when I was 14. She had been living at my grandma’s house until she died, and I was sorry to see her pass on. She was a really neat person for an old lady and was very nice to me. We often talked about our nearsightedness because our prescriptions were all fairly high, and she figured that all the ladies in our family, such as grandma, my mom and my 2 younger sisters, had all inherited their myopia from her. I was with my mom the day we went over to grandmas to help her clean out her mother’s room. The bureau drawers were all empty and I was asked to take out the drawers and vacuum behind them. When I got to the bottom drawer there was a pair of quite thick looking silver framed glasses lying on the plywood bottom below where the drawer would have closed. I took them out and went to the bathroom to wash the dust and grime off of them, as no one would have known how long they had been there. By this time mom and grandma had come back upstairs and I showed them the glasses I had found. “Well, isn’t that a kick. Mom would have loved to have found those glasses. She looked all over for them a few years back, but never could figure out where they had got to.” Grandma said. I took my own glasses off and put them on. They fit well, and almost felt as if they had been made for my face. I looked through the thick lenses and was really shocked. “I can see a whole lot better with these glasses. Everything is so clear and crisp. I think I will wear them for a while.” I spoke. “No, you won’t young lady! Those glasses were not designed for your eyes, and they might hurt you.” Mom said. “ Now Elaine, don’t you remember when you were 18 or 19 and you took a pair of my old glasses that I was using for reading the cookbooks off the kitchen shelf, put them on and then ended up wearing them for a month before we could get you an eye appointment with Doc Slinger.” Grandma said. “I had forgotten that mom. But now that you mention it, I do remember. I also remember Doc Slinger with his real coke bottle glasses. When I showed up wearing your old glasses, he told me that it looked as if I might end up wearing glasses as strong as his were if my myopia kept increasing as much and as fast as it was.” Mom replied. “I recall that day. Your eyesight was pretty close to requiring the prescription in my old glasses if I am correct in my thoughts. I also remember how upset you were at the idea that your glasses might end up as thick as the doc’s were.” Grandma said. We worked away for a while finishing cleaning Gaga’s old room. I kept her old silver framed glasses on for the rest of the time, and I thought the prescription in them was just perfect for me. I looked out the window and I could see the buds on the trees, which I guarantee I couldn’t have seen with my own glasses on. And my glasses were considered pretty strong with their -9.00D prescription. I had gotten the thin lenses, but they still had flat fronts and lots of cut in at the sides. While I didn’t really want to have to get stronger glasses it looked as though that was already written in the cards for me. “Hey mom, didn’t Doc Slinger try to court you after dad died?” Mom asked. “He asked me out a few times. I went out with him once, but there was something wrong with that guy.” Grandma said. “What do you mean by that grandma?” I asked. “He was far too interested in my glasses and my eyesight. He wanted to take me back to his office so he could test my eyes and order me a new pair of glasses. He was willing to pay for all this just because we went out on one date. And I am pretty sure that he always wore stronger and thicker looking glasses than he needed. His glasses looked to be as thick as if they had safety lenses in them. And then when he got to be somewhere around 50 his glasses rapidly got thinner. I knew one of his receptionists and when I asked her about what happened to Doc Slinger’s eyes, she told me that all of a sudden his eyesight improved considerably.” Grandma told us. “Is that not possible?” I asked innocently. “Not really honey. What mom is saying is that when a person reaches the age that your ciliary eye muscles will no longer force your eyes to focus through stronger lenses than your eyes require, which is about the time you need reading glasses, wearing stronger lenses than you require is no longer possible.” Mom replied. “Does that mean that when I get older my glasses might get weaker?” I asked. “It is possible, but your myopia is natural and genetic so I doubt that you will be wearing stronger glasses than you need by age 50. Mom is 65 now, and she is long past the age where her prescription might take a drop. She might develop cataracts and require lens replacement surgery, which could eliminate, or lessen her prescription though.” Mom told me. We had finished cleaning the room by now and we headed downstairs for a cup of tea. I still had Gaga’s silver framed glasses with the thick lenses on and I was enjoying how much better my vision was. I hoped that mom would not tell me to take them off. While we sat having tea she did ask if I was going to put my own glasses back on, but I told her I could see so much better with Gaga’s glasses I wanted to keep them on. She didn’t say anything more, and grandma told me that I might as well keep them, so it looked as if I was going to be allowed to wear them for a while. I wore them all day Sunday, and I had them on when I went to school Monday. All my friends went apeshit over my cool new glasses, and I told them that they had belonged to my great grandmother, and I could see perfectly with them on. There were a few comments about their thickness, but for the most part my friends thought they were a very cool pair of glasses. And I thought they looked really neat. They were made of silver metal and the lens shape was what was called a cat eye shape. Around the bottom of the lens was a wire band that came up to where the point where the screw holding the band closed was hidden by the thicker silver part. That silver eyebrow also fastened the temples to the front as well as the gold piece of metal that held the nose pads was also fastened to the silver eyebrow piece. By now I loved these antique silver glasses, and I was willing to wear them forever – or at least until people started laughing at me for wearing glasses that were so ancient. Mom did get me an appointment with our eye doctor the following week. He tested my eyes and told us that Gaga’s old glasses were as close to what I now required as he had ever seen. The only thing he said was that the pd in those glasses was 60mm and I required a pd of 62. I asked him if that was a problem and he told me that it was possible that the slight decentralization of the lenses might cause me to need a little bit of base out prism added to my prescription in my next pair of glasses. He then asked me if I noticed a little bit of double vision when I took the glasses off, and I told him no. I didn’t tell him that I never took my glasses off except to sleep though. With that he told me that it was up to me if I wanted to wear them or not. I told mom that the doctor said the prescription in Gaga’s old glasses was perfect for my eyes and mom asked me if I wanted to get new glasses. I didn’t say a thing about what the doctor had told me about the prism thing, and I just told her I was fine wearing gaga’s old -11.75D glasses until I needed another prescription change. The way things were going that could be anywhere between 6 months and a year, but I figured a year was stretching it if the past performance of my eyes was any indicator. I loved wearing the old silver framed glasses, but as it got closer to a year from the time, I first started wearing them I began to notice that I couldn’t see things as clearly as I could before. I knew what that meant. Even though it had only been 11 months since I last had my eyes tested, I needed new glasses again. I had been a bit worried about what the doctor told me about prism, so I checked every night before I went to bed to see if I noticed any double vision, but I hadn’t. And now I wasn’t the only girl in school wearing a cool pair of old glasses. Yes, there were new copies of the old-style glasses around, but the actual antique glasses were scarce. But one of the girls in my grade had bid on an actual old pair of antique glasses that were for sale on eBay. She had her lenses put in them and now she was wearing them around school. Now I wasn’t so unique, but my glasses had the thickest lenses, and my glasses were part of our family history. This time when I went to the eye doctor I was wondering if I should buy new frames and lenses or if I should have my new prescription put into gaga’s frames. The doctor tested my eyes and told me I had gone up to -13.00D and needed new glasses. He did come out with me, and he talked to his optician. He mentioned that I had been wearing the wrong pd for the past almost a year and although he had not noticed any need for a bit of base out prism there was the possibility that I might notice that I was having problems with my correct pd in a new pair. His suggestion was that I should get a new pair from the free frame section with a large enough eye size to the lenses that if I had a problem, they could recut the lenses and either place them in the old silver frame or in another new frame. The optician and I selected a frame that would allow the lenses to be sized down and would allow for the pd for each lens to be moved closer to having my correct pd in Gaga’s old glasses. Even using the 1.67 index the optician told me the lenses would be thick, but I figured I could live with that as that meant my parents wouldn’t have to spend more money on new lenses if the pd was wrong. And she was correct. When they came in and I looked at them they looked thick, but I put them on my face, and everything was very clear again. I wore these glasses for a few weeks, but I really missed wearing gaga’s old silver frames. I went back to the optician, and I told her that I had not noticed any double vision, nor had I felt any tugging on my eyes. I asked her if they really could resize my lenses to fit the old silver frame and she said they would even do it for free. When I left there that day, I was again wearing Gaga’s old silver framed glasses, but my own new plastic lenses were a bit thicker than Gaga’s old glass lenses had been. Specs4ever April 2020