As the 75-76 school year was coming to an end I was 15 year old male finishing my Sophomore year in Indianapolis. For the first time ever I was going to Summer school but only for Drivers Ed. The only thing a 15 year old had to do for a permit restricted to Drivers Ed was take an eye test. Both my Parents and both Brothers wore glasses but I was the one in the family with good eyes so I thought. I had had a complete exam in November and was 20/20 in both eyes and read a few letters on the 20/15 line. No problem right? Wrong! When we went to the License Bureau I was told to read whatever they used at the time for 20/40 at the time and couldn’t. I was sure there was something wrong with the machine since I had such good vision in November. I had always minor astigmatism in one eye but it was not bad enough for glasses unless I started having trouble headaches while reading which I didn’t. When I went to the Eye Doctor before going back for a permit test I did notice I couldn’t read some lines I had read before. I don’t remember if the auto refractor existed then but I think it did. I was taken to the exam room where the Doctor came in and said did you fail the permit exam? I said yes but it can’t be right. He looked at my height from the previous (don’t know why an Eye Doctor would note that but he did) which was 5'6 He then had be stand against the wall and marked my height. He then took out a tape measure and measured it said you have joined the 6 foot club. The reason your eyes have changed is they have not kept up with your growth spurt and I see this all the time. We went on with the exam and I prescribed glasses with a script of R -1.50 -25 30 left -1.75 0 0 in the last 2. I still have this as My Mom kept all this stuff and gave it to us years later. The Doctor was surprised I hadn’t noticed trouble in school but with a last name starting with A I sat in the front most of the time. He said I had to wear them when driving or in school to see the board. He even said I could wear them full time. No way was I wearing them all the time. I went ahead and wore them just when driving and at one class in school when I sat at the back of an oversized classroom. During my Jr. year I got my license as soon as I could and a car. I wore the glasses as mentioned. I did have to squint to see some of boards in school. As Summer approached the short track stock car racing season opened. I went to the Indianapolis Speedrome a little short track on the Southeast side of town still to this day famous for figure 8 racing. The track had changed ownership for the 77 season and a big scoreboard was put up which from my seat was a blur. I was so far away I didn’t think I could see it even with glasses. A funny thing happened when I went to the track toward the middle of May. I accidently left my glasses and went to my usual seats and could see the scoreboard clear as could be. I forgot had good the details on the cars could be when my natural eyesight was still good. I started wearing glasses more in and by the end of Summer I was wearing them full time. I even had my senior picture taken with them on. I went right at the end of Summer for my yearly checkup and was given a script of R -2.00 .25 30 L 2.25 0 0. The Doctor was happy I was wearing them full time. He even suggested I try contacts which I did. With such small astigmatism he did not include that in my script. I could get them in and out and stand wearing them fine. The problem was I felt naked without my glasses. I only wore contacts on special occasions such as weddings. The only other time I wore contacts is when my nose may have been broken when I was hit in it by a thrown football. Lucky I had taken my glasses off to put a sun clip on. I went onto a 2 year college. When computer became common place in accounting offices in the late 90’s I was already in progressive as I had needed them early. Last year when I had cataracts taken off both eyes I had 20/20 distance vision for the time in over 40 years. I still need reading glasses. I was told by the Doctor I could use over the counter readers sometimes known as cheaters. I did not care for either the full eye or half frame cheaters. I couldn’t see distance with the full eye and the half frame didn’t fit me too well. At the suggestion of a coworker I checked out Zenni Optical to order a pair of progressive glasses with my desired near correction. I was told by my coworker I should order the blue light blocking glasses which I did. I had another appointment just before I ordered the glasses and the Doctor said it I was going to write you a distance prescription it would be a -25 which is the lowest you can get and almost no Eye Doctor would write that unless his only purpose was to sell glasses. I told him of my plans to order from Zenni and he said it’s fine if you want to put the -.25 in it won’t hurt anything. I did and I am back to wearing glasses all the time even though I don’t need them for distance.
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