This is the first part of a 6 part story. Unlike some other writers, I have made each story a stand alone story that is complete within itself. I will post the second part next Sunday, and will continue until the last part is posted in a few weeks.
Glasses From the Park: My name is Dakota Thomas, and when the events that I am about to describe happened I was 14 years old. I lived with my parents and 2 sisters in a house just north of the city that was surrounded on 3 sides by farmland, but it wasn’t going to be long before the farmland was developed, according to my dad. I was an honor student in grade 9 at Walter Evans Junior High. I wasn’t really into sports, and was more content to read a book and listen to music than I was in playing soccer or baseball. Some days when I had a chance I went to the library after school and when I did that I had to walk home through Butterfield Park, as that was the shortest way. I had done that 2 days this week already, and both days I had noticed a man in a trench coat sitting on one of the park benches. He wasn’t doing much of anything other than just sitting there, looking as though he was resting in the sunshine. The first time I saw him I noticed that he seemed to be wearing a pair of glasses that had a heavy black plastic frame, reminiscent of the ones I had seen in pictures of people back in the 60’s or earlier. My dad was a fan of both Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison and the glasses looked a lot like the frames those guys wore. I tried to get a good look at the glasses but as I looked at him he turned his head and all I could see was that he wore them very tight to his face. I didn’t want to look like I was staring at him, so I just walked on by. The following night I saw the same guy sitting at the same bench. This time he looked right at me as I walked by and I could see that the lenses in his glasses were extremely strong. I had never had a problem with my eyes, and as far as I knew I had perfect vision, however I had a bit of a thing for glasses. For the last two or three years I had been inordinately interested in glasses wearers, and while most guys my age couldn’t tell the difference between a minus and a plus prescription, I could spot the difference immediately. Because of all the reading I did my mom figured I would need glasses sooner or later, and while I was ambivalent about the idea of getting glasses I sort of though I wouldn’t mind wearing them. I had seen a few people that wore what I considered were strong glasses and I just wasn’t too sure if I would still want to wear glasses if they needed to be as strong as his glasses looked. The third night I couldn’t resist coming over the bench and asking the guy if I could sit down. He told me it was a free country, and I had every right to sit there, so even though all I really wanted to do was to get a good look at the lenses in his glasses I sat down beside him. “They are a little stronger than -20D son. If you look close you can see that the front of my lenses are dished in, and that means that the lenses are placed closer to my eyes than they would be if they had flat fronts.” He volunteered without me asking him anything. “I didn’t mean to stare Sir.” I stammered. “Oh I am used to it. I have worn these glasses for 60 years now, and I have had lots of stares during that time.” He replied. “Those same glasses?” I questioned. “Not always these same glasses, as I have 4 or 5 other pairs I wear from time to time. But these are the glasses that started it all, and I do like to wear them frequently. Would you be interested in hearing a story about these glasses?” He asked. “Yes, I would.” I replied. “I was riding the subway home during the summer of 1962 I sat down in a seat near the back of the car, and I noticed a glasses case on the floor of the subway car just under the seat in front of me. I reached down and picked it up, and when I had it in my hands I pulled the glasses out of the case and looked at them. It was this same pair of glasses I have on right now, and when I looked at them I knew that they were so strong I would never be able to wear them. I debated turning them in to the lost and found, but part of me wanted to keep them and that part won out. I took them home with me.” He said. ‘So how did you get to wear them/” I asked. “I had a 30 minute walk from the subway to the house, and while I was walking I put the glasses on just to see if I could see anything through them. As soon as I had the lenses in front of my eyes I found I could see perfectly. Colors were intense and everything was super clear. I couldn’t believe how well I could see street signs and billboards. I couldn’t understand it, as I had always thought I had great eyesight, but with these glasses my eyesight was superb.” He told me. This had to be a fictional story. I wasn’t stupid. No one could lose a pair of glasses that were this powerful. And no one could just put on glasses as strong as those glasses were and be able to see perfectly. He was bullshitting me big time and I wasn’t going to fall for it. “I can tell, you don’t believe me. But it is true. I have a spare pair of glasses with me, so I will get them out, put them on and then let you wear these glasses.” He said. He got out his spare glasses and put them on. Then he handed me the pair he had been wearing and I put them on. It really was simply amazing. Everything looked a little smaller, but colors were sharp and distinct. I could see further and better than I ever thought was possible. I just couldn’t believe that there could be such a difference, and that I could actually see through such a thick pair of glasses. “See what I mean? Right now you can take them off and you will be able to go back to the normal way you were seeing. But, this will only work for about a year or so. I walked home wearing the glasses most of the way the day I found them. When I got home I walked in the door with them still on my face, When my mom saw me she was upset that I was wearing them, but I told her I had my eyes examined and I had very poor eyesight so I had to wear glasses now. My family thought they were terribly thick, but since I seemed to see very well when I was wearing them they just figured that these glasses were what I needed to wear. They didn’t know anything about eyesight, or glasses and to them they were just a pair of thick glasses.” He said. “And you have worn them ever since?” I questioned. Yes, I have. These glasses are likely one of the first pairs of plastic lensed biconcave lenticular myodiscs ever made. Plastic was first used for eyeglass lenses after the Second World War, and they didn’t have the lens choices that are available now. I don’t know what it is about the plastic in these glasses, but they just seem to adapt to your eyes and you can see perfectly through them. I wore them full time for about 5 years, and then I got another pair of the same type of lenses. By then I could no longer take my glasses off and have my eyesight return to what it was before I started wearing the first pair of glasses. During the first year it would take at least 48 hours without glasses to have my eyesight go back to normal, but I only tried that once and that was when I was sick for a week. When I was feeling better I could see just as well as I could before I wore the glasses, but I immediately put them back on. Ever since then my eyesight without glasses was the same as it is now – nonexistent.” He told me. “These glasses look pretty well used. If I was able to talk you into selling them to me, and if I wanted to start wearing them, how would you suggest I go about it?” I asked. “I wouldn’t sell them and I am not even sure I would even consider giving them to you. If I were to consider that I would first want to know that you would wear them. And I would want you to realize that if you did wear them after about a year your eyes would need to have those thick lenses in front of them all of the time and you would never be able to return to having the same eyesight you have now. Would you even want to wear strong glasses? Would you want to be completely dependent on those two pieces of plastic in front of your eyes to see anything more than a couple of inches away from your face?” He asked me. “I don’t know. Part of me wants to wear glasses, but part of me doesn’t” I answered honestly. “Think about it overnight. I will return to this bench tomorrow afternoon. Give me your answer then, but make sure you think carefully about what you want. This chance for you will only come once in a lifetime.” He said. “Could I borrow them overnight?” I asked. “No. Overnight won’t make any difference. You have worn them as long as you need to. You can make a decision. But one thing I will tell you is that if you do decide to become a glasses wearer, you will likely wear the same prescription for the rest of your life. Your eyes will not ever change.” He advised me. “How can I tell my parents I need glasses? And how can I get away with wearing such strong glasses?” I asked. “That is really your problem, not mine. But I will suggest that you first tell your parents that your eyesight has gotten very bad and you need to have an eye exam. Do you think they would let you go for an eye exam by yourself?” “Probably, especially if it was on a Tuesday morning because that is the one day my mom really has to be at her work. What good would that do for me?” I asked, “If you were to wear those glasses for at least 2 hours before your eye examination it will take over an hour before your vision will go back to normal. It would be better if you could wear them for longer, but 2 hours is about the minimum. If you have your eyes tested within that time your new glasses will be the exact same prescription in those glasses. It would be better if you wear them for 4 or 5 hours, but a couple of hours will work. Then once you order your new glasses you can go home wearing those glasses. Tell your parents your eyes are so bad that the eye doctor’s office searched high and low for a pair of glasses that was close enough to the prescription you needed and these were the best they could come up with from the donation box. And of course you can tell them how much better you can see with them. They will believe you because no one really knows much about glasses. Then after you wear them for about 3 weeks you will be able to wear normal looking glasses most of the time. You might want to put those glasses on every once in a while just to make sure your eyesight stays the same, but that probably isn’t necessary.” He told me. “I will think about it and I will meet you here tomorrow.” I replied “Give me back the glasses then. But once you take them off it will take a few minutes for your vision to return to normal.” He said. I took off the glasses and handed them back to him. He was right. Everything was really blurry. I could see big things that were fairly close, like trees and such. But the houses across the field were just a blur. I wasn’t sure I could find my way home. I did rather like the effects of the blurriness though. He knew what I was going through and he told me to wait 15 minutes and things should go back to almost normal. I didn’t want to wait though so I headed out for home. It was pretty cool, having to guess at things, but I was really liking my struggles with the blurred vision I had. He was right, things cleared up a lot by the time I got home. That night during supper I brought my face down close to my plate when I was eating. My mom noticed and asked me what I was doing so I told her my eyes were getting really bad and that I should probably have them checked because I thought I really needed to wear glasses. Yes, I had already decided what I was going to tell the old guy the next day. My parents suggested I should see the eye doctor at the mall, but I told them there was one right near school and I would be able to make an appointment and not miss a whole day of school. My mom said she would meet me there if I could get my appointment any day but Tuesday which is what I knew she would say. The following day I called and made my appointment for the next Tuesday at 11 am. Later that afternoon I walked through the park and the old guy in the trench coat was sitting there waiting for me. He was wearing a pair of glasses that didn’t look quite as thick, and that had a nice silver metal frame. He asked me what I had decided and I told him I had already told my parents that my eyesight was really bad and I got permission to have my eyes tested. I told him my appointment was on Tuesday of the following week. With that he took out a case that obviously must have contained the glasses. All he said was that I should wear them wisely. I didn’t really have much of a chance to wear the glasses before Tuesday morning. Of course I had put them on quite a few times, and I did manage to wear them at night while I was reading in bed. It really was amazing. I could see the print so clearly that I wanted to wear them forever. Then on Tuesday morning I got up and walked to the subway. I put the glasses on as soon as I left the house. I killed as much time as I could, and finally I showed up at the eye doctors at 10:30. They had me fill out a bunch of paperwork, and then one of the girls took me into a side room and had me look through a machine without my glasses on. She did tell me that she knew I was pretty nearsighted when she saw how thick my glasses were, and she did take my glasses to read the prescription in a machine. I asked her if my prescription had changed much and she told me it was still the same as my glasses were. So far the old guy had been right on with everything he said. After the doctor examined my eyes he gave me a slip with my prescription written on it. Then I went out to the reception and the glasses display area and I looked at different frames. One of the girls was pretty cute, and she helped me choose a frame. She told me that since I was already wearing biconcave myodiscs I could get the same lenses in my new glasses, but I asked her if there was anything that looked a little nicer. Finally I ended up ordering a blended lenticular myodisc, but the myodisc circle wasn’t going to be as noticeable. Just as the old guy told me, it was going to take at least 3 weeks for my own -21D lenticular blended myodiscs to come in. Now all I had to do was face my classmates first, and then my parents while wearing these really thick old glasses. No one at school could believe how bad my eyes had gotten. But I finally got through the afternoon and I walked on home. When I got there my sisters were both home and I got a lot of flak from them about how awful my glasses looked. My mom really freaked out, but so far they believed my story. Dad didn’t say too much and I was happy about that. Maybe the $600.00 bill for my new glasses shocked him too much to say anything. That day I had worn very strong glasses for 15 hours and when it was time to go to bed I took my glasses off and put them on the table beside my bed. When I woke up the next morning I almost panicked. I could barely see anything in my room until I grabbed my glasses and put them on. That was when I knew for sure that I was going to be a glasses wearer for the rest of my life. And the best part was that I was happy about it. It was a little over 3 weeks before I got a call telling me that my new glasses were ready. To the people at the optical store a customer picking up a new pair of glasses was an everyday occurrence. To me, this was the first pair of glasses I had ever gotten, but I couldn’t tell them that. Once the glasses were properly fitted to my face they felt great. I looked in a mirror and I liked my appearance. The frames the optician had chosen looked very good on my face, and the blended lenses hid the myodisc circle a little. And the front of the lenses were totally flat so they didn’t look as obvious as the deep dish had looked in the biconcave lenses. I liked them a lot, and by now I realized that I could not exist for a minute without my glasses on. But that didn’t even bother me. I had worn glasses for just over 3 weeks now, glasses that were stronger than all but a very small portion of the population wore, and I loved every minute of having them on my face. It gave me a real thrill to wear them, to clean them, to take them off and look into the blur, to realize they were mine and I would be wearing them the rest of my life. I still walked home from the library through the park almost daily, but as often as I looked I never saw the old guy again. Specs4ever July 2018
https://vision-and-spex.com/glasses-from-the-park-t1214.html