Sometimes when I am traveling and have a bit of free time I like to stop and walk around antique stores or thrift shops. I have found some really neat items in the antique stores, as well as some very decent bargains in the thrift stores. I really like to collect old glasses, and price wise the thrift stores are generally the best place to go for them. But lately I had been finding that the selection of eyeglasses in the thrift stores was very poor and I wondered if the glasses had been going to one of the service clubs that help people in disadvantaged countries. Now the only time I seemed to be able to find a pair of decent powered glasses was in an antique store and the prices were a whole lot higher than they were in the thrift stores.
One day I was passing through a small town off the beaten path in the heartland of the USA. I had plenty of time to myself that day and the idea of jumping on the interstate that morning had turned my stomach. Since I retired I had found that the fast pace of the interstates just were not what I wanted. There were a couple of antique stores that were almost side by side and there was a parking spot not far away, so I pulled my car into the parking spot and went into the closest store. I walked around for a while, and although the prices were far more reasonable than I had seen in an antique store for quite a while I hadn’t seen anything that really caught my fancy. There were no old glasses on display either. So I walked a little further down the street and went into the other antique store.
I am no spring chicken anymore, but the lady at the till of this store appeared to be quite a few years older than I was. If I could have purchased the glasses she wore on her face for my collection I would have been pleased, because they were a typical pair from the mid to late 70’s and were a pair of plastic framed drop temple myodiscs. I didn’t even bother asking if her glasses were for sale, because I knew she couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her nose without them, and if she had a newer, nicer looking pair of glasses she likely would have been wearing them. I walked around the store for a while looking at the various objects and as I came upon a display case I could see that the case contained a few pairs of glasses. Most of the glasses were definitely late 60 or early 70 men’s glasses but one pair was a round plastic horn rim type frame that could have been worn by either a man or a woman. The lenses appeared to be glass and the glass had a smoky grey tint to it. I picked them up for closer inspection and saw that the glasses appeared to be a fairly strong minus. These were right up my alley and the $20.00 price tag was no higher than I expected for an antique store. I put the glasses on my face and brought them tight to my nose. I was disappointed. I could see perfectly through these glasses so I knew that the prescription was next to nothing. I almost put them back, but something was drawing me to those glasses. I put them on again and walked over to a mirror. Something just wasn’t right. There appeared to be a considerable cut in of both sides of my face in the lenses.
I took the glasses up to the cash register and paid the old lady with the myodiscs for them. As I walked out the door I heard her say something and I turned around.
“What was that?” I asked. “Be sure you don’t wear them too much or you could end up with eyes like mine.” she mumbled a little louder so that I could hear.
If only she knew that I would love to end up with eyes like hers I thought to myself as I wandered to my car and got behind the wheel. Just for the fun of it I took the glasses from the paper bag she had given me and I put them on. My eyes felt very relaxed and my vision seemed to be perfect so I decided I would leave the glasses on while I drove further west.
As I drove on I kept thinking that my eyes had never felt so relaxed and I wondered what the prescription in the glasses could possibly be to help my vision out so much. As the day went on I found myself forgetting that I was even wearing glasses and that night when I stopped at a motel I caught sight of myself in a mirror and was surprised to see my image wearing glasses. I went for supper, and then after supper I watched some television before showering and getting into bed. I took the glasses off and set them on my bedside table and went off to dreamland.
The next morning I woke feeling more rested than I had for weeks. I wasn’t going to put the glasses back on at first but I remembered how relaxed my eyes felt yesterday and I ended up putting them on and wearing them all day. I hadn’t really noticed any difference in my vision without the glasses than I had when I put them on, but I did notice that I had absolutely no eyestrain wearing them.
In the past I had driven about 900 miles a day, but in doing this I usually arrived at my destination worn completely out. For this trip I had set myself a more realistic goal of 600 miles a day but if the glasses I had worn yesterday helped my eyes as much as it seemed I could possibly increase my driving time. I wasn’t going to make that decision this early in the morning so I left the motel after breakfast and headed on down the road.
Again I had chosen a route that kept me off the interstate. I was going to put in more hours, but at a relaxed pace. As the day went on I marveled at how much better my vision was when I was wearing these glasses. I made my mind up to have an eye exam and get new glasses as soon as I got home. I hadn’t really realized that I was having problems with my eyesight as I had my annual eye exam the previous year and my eye doctor told me I was seeing just fine. Now after wearing these glasses I knew I needed to get myself a new pair of glasses.
I spent my 4th night of the trip at a motel that was only 350 miles from my house. I could have driven further that day as my eyes felt so completely relaxed I could have gone on forever. I had an early dinner and I walked around the town just looking at everything. I was surprised that I was still wearing my glasses when I got back to the motel and I realized I had forgotten to take them off. I had my shower, and after getting ready for bed I got under the covers and put my glasses back on to watch the news. I didn’t feel that I really needed them to see the television, but they sure did relax my eyes.
Without thinking much about it the next morning after I dressed I slipped my glasses onto my face and left them there for the rest of the day. I was home in the early afternoon and I had stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for the refrigerator. That night I didn’t remove my glasses until I crawled into my own bed.
The following day at lunchtime I realized that I had put my glasses on as soon as I had gotten up. Since finding that these glasses relaxed my eyes so much I had worn them without even thinking about them. But the old plastic frames were likely a little fragile, so I figured I had better call my eye doctor and set up an appointment.
I was a little disappointed when I called the receptionist at my eye doctor’s office. My doctor and his wife were away on a holiday and wouldn’t be back in the office for 2 weeks. He was completely booked for the first week he was back, and while there were some open appointments for the next week none of them suited my schedule. That is how I ended up with an appointment for a Tuesday afternoon that was 4 weeks away. It wasn’t going to be a problem really, because I was quite satisfied to continue wearing my antique store glasses. I did wonder what my doctor would say when I showed up wearing these glasses though.
I think it was sometime during the third week that I took my glasses off to clean them and noticed that I could hardly see a thing without them. I couldn’t understand this, because it had always been so easy to slip these glasses on and off, and this was the first time I had noticed that my vision was different without them. I didn’t worry too much though, because I only had a little more than a week to go before I could have my eyes examined.
The week passed by in no time. I had tried to take my glasses off a few times during that last week, but now the blur without them was intolerable, so I found it much better just to leave them on. My eyes felt great behind the grey tinted lenses, and I was pretty sure I was going to get tinted lenses in my new glasses.
The receptionist at the eye doctor’s office was a new girl that I had never seen before. I sat in a chair in reception until she called my name and when I came up to the desk she asked me to follow her over to the room with the auto refractor. She sat me down behind the machine and she had me give her my glasses. While the auto refractor was doing its thing she checked the power of the lenses in the glasses with another machine. The auto refractor gave her some sort of a printout, and after giving me back my glasses she took me into an examination room to wait for the doctor.
The doctor didn’t say much as he changed the lenses in front of my eyes. He reached a point where everything was very clear and finally he decided that he had gotten me the best possible prescription he could get. Then he handed me back my glasses.
“What happened to your eyes over the summer Jim?” He asked.
“What do you mean Doctor?” I asked.
“Last year at your annual vision exam you tested at 20/20 with no glasses. Now, only a year later you require a prescription for almost 26 diopters of myopia. Something happened over the last year and I am just curious as to what that might have been.” He said.
I explained to him that I had been experiencing a lot of eyestrain all year, and I told him about buying the glasses I was wearing in an antique store and wearing them almost constantly for the past 5 weeks. He was incredulous, and I really don’t think he believed me. But my prescription now was -25.75D for both eyes so he had to write me out a prescription slip for new glasses.
After I left the eye doctors I went to a nearby optical store where I ordered myself 2 new pairs of glasses. The girl who was helping me told me that with my prescription I really had no choice but to order myodiscs lenses. I told her that my own glasses weren’t myodiscs, so she took them and checked the prescription. After she checked she returned and told me that my own glasses were weaker than my new prescription called for, as they were only -20D. This really mystified me because I felt I could see perfectly wearing them.
It took about 3 weeks before my new glasses were ready. When I picked them up and put them on I found that they felt fantastic. My eyesight was as good with my new myodiscs as it had been with my old glasses. A few weeks after I started wearing my new glasses I put the original antique store glasses on for the first time since I had my own glasses and was very surprised that they seemed to be way too weak for me.
I spent the rest of the winter wearing my almost -26D myodiscs. Soon the winter turned into spring and it was getting to be time for me to return to my summer place up in Northern Michigan so I packed my car and headed out. As I got closer to the area where I had purchased my glasses from the antique store something caused me to leave the interstate and get back on the 2 lane through the town where the store was. The main street looked exactly the same, and I parked my car. I took the old glasses which were packed in the same paper bag they had come in and walked into the store. The old lady wasn’t behind the cash register, but a lady who was about my age and was almost certainly a younger version of the older lady was. The younger version wore glasses with the same type of myodisc lenses that I had on.
“I bought these from an older lady last fall. I have no more use for them so I thought I should return them.” I replied.
“Oh, that would have been my mom. She passed over the winter. But we don’t give any refunds.” The lady said.
“They were well worth the price I paid for them so I wanted to get them back to someplace where someone else could make use of them. I thought they were too important to just put in one of those collection boxes.” I replied.
“We wondered where they had gotten to. A few people were looking for them, but mother wouldn’t tell anyone where they had gone. I wonder why she decided to sell them?” she asked.
“Maybe she realized I would make good use of them, even if I didn’t know what I had purchased.” I replied.
‘That could be. My granddaughter will be glad they are back. She wanted to start wearing them this spring.” The lady said.
A door at the back of the store opened and a young lady who was about 20 years younger than the one at the cash register walked into the store. She wore glasses with similar myodisc lenses as the older lady did and I was willing to bet this lady was her daughter.
‘Look what I have here Janice.” The cashier said to her.
“Where did they come from mom? Katie will be thrilled that you have them back.” Janice replied.
“Your gram sold them to this nice gentleman, but he brought them back.”
I was having a hard time getting my thoughts around this. It seemed that all the ladies in this family either were, or wanted to become very nearsighted. That was very strange. And how was it possible that wearing these glasses would make someone end up highly myopic? I couldn’t argue with the fact that it did though.
I was quite attracted to the lady who was behind the counter. Even though I had not been able to wear glasses until I had purchased the pair at this store I have always had an affinity for strong glasses, and for the wearers of strong glasses. She had a very pretty face, and although she looked older than I would normally choose for a date I was willing to bet that if I looked in a mirror at myself I would look just as old as well.
“I’ll watch the store for you for lunch mom.” Janice said.
“If you are off for a while I am looking to get some lunch myself. Would you care to have lunch with me?” I asked.
“Oh, I couldn’t. I have to be back here by one because Janice has a few things she needs to get done today.” She replied.
“Go ahead mom. I will be fine.” Janice replied.
So the older lady, who introduced herself to me as Carol, and I had a nice lunch at a diner down the street. Everyone in town seemed to know her, but that wasn’t surprising because it was a small town. What did surprise me was that there were a fair number of ladies who wore similar high minus myodiscs.
“What is the story behind those old glasses Carol?” I asked.
“I really don’t know where they came from Jim. Mom got them years ago in a box of stuff from an estate sale. She put them on and found that they really helped her eyes, so she kept on wearing them and after a few months when she decided she should have her eyes tested it was found that she was very nearsighted and needed to get her first pair of myodisc glasses.” Carol explained.
“How long ago was that Carol?” I asked.
“I was about 20 when we moved here and I am 62 now. So that was around 42 years ago when mom was about 43. She was 85 when she died last winter.” Carol told me.
“I am having a hard time figuring out why everyone wants to wear those glasses if they make you very nearsighted and require you to wear myodiscs. Can you help me out here?” I asked.
“Mom had no sooner started wearing glasses when a good looking man came to town. He took one look at mom and fell in love with her. They married and lived happily together for about 40 years. My step father died about 2 years ago and mom was heartbroken.” Carol told me.
“And what about you Carol? Why did you start wearing the glasses?” I asked.
“I just couldn’t believe that my mom had put on a pair of glasses and they had ruined her eyes. I tried the glasses myself and they were so easy on my eyes I just kept wearing them. Within a few months I couldn’t see a thing without them, so I had to get my first pair of myodiscs when I was 21. But then the most amazing thing happened. A young man came to town, took one look at me and fell in love with me. We were married and we had Janice.” Carol said.
“That had to be just coincidence.” I replied.
“I thought so at first but then one of my friends wore the glasses for a couple of months. Soon after she got her own myodiscs she met a man, they fell in love and got married. Once the story got out that these were special glasses other girls wanted to try them, and in every case soon after they got their myodiscs they met a man and got married.” Carol said.
“I take it that your daughter did the same thing.” I said.
“Yes she did when she was 22. And soon after she got her myodiscs she met her husband, who has been a wonderful husband and father to Katie.’ Carol said.
“So that is why Katie wanted to wear the glasses then. She wants to meet a man and get married.” I replied.
“She does. But her great granny didn’t want her to wear the glasses and ruin her eyes, so I think that is why she sold them. She didn’t count on you returning them to us though.” Carol answered.
Carol and I chatted for a while longer before she told me she really had to get back to work. She had mentioned that her husband had passed away last year, and she was now a widow. This got me thinking. Was there a bigger picture here than me just buying a pair of glasses that gave me what my hearts desire had always been? Is it possible that Carol’s mother sold me the glasses in the hope that I would come back and marry her daughter? I didn’t know, but I liked Carol a lot, and she wore a pair of glasses that suited me perfectly. I had never married because I could never seem to find a very nearsighted lady. But now I had found a whole town full of them.
I stayed around for a few weeks and got to know Carol a little better. I was planning to go back to the Upper Peninsula and sell my place there before I returned to town and married Carol. Her granddaughter Katie had started wearing the glasses the same day I had brought them back and she had just gotten her new myodiscs a couple of days before I left. As I was leaving town I saw a pickup truck with a handsome young man pull up in front of the antique store where Katie was working cash that day. Was he the guy who would marry Katie?
Specs4ever March 2013