Bennie’s Optical was located in the last block of stores on Beecham Street, just before the street turned into a residential area that had certainly seen better days. The homes in the next block were owned mostly by retirees who had outlived their pension money, and while the owners tried their best to keep their places looking reasonably decent the sad fact was that they didn’t have any money available to spend on repairs. But Bennie didn’t really care as his main specialty was selling prescription optical items – for cash and sometimes without a prescription. For over 20 years Bennie had been catering to both men and women who wanted to wear very strong prescription glasses. It had caught Bennie off guard when he started to realize just how many customers he had that he was supplying strong plus or minus contact lenses to so they could wear the corresponding thick prescription glasses that they wanted over them. Most of his customers preferred the looks of being very nearsighted. Bennie cautioned those who wished to wear very strong plus glasses about the fact that their vision would not be quite as good as if they went for the plus contacts with minus glasses combination, but even so there were a few who wanted to wear the plus glasses. His customers were very grateful that Bennie was able to keep a close watch on their contact lens use and fit, and since they had no trouble getting a supply of new contacts they never had to wear their lenses for any longer than it was safe to do so. Also, Bennie was very proficient in testing their eyesight with their contact lenses in so that the very strong prescription glasses they wore gave them the best possible visual acuity that they could get. A number of years ago Bennie had noticed that quite a few school aged kids – mostly girls, were coming in to his optical store. The first girl came in with her mom, who was one of Bennie’s GOC customers. It shocked Bennie when he realized that the mother was actually suggesting that her 10 year old daughter could, if she wished, probably wear glasses with about a -3D stronger prescription than what her eye doctor had prescribed. He warned his customer that if he were to do that for her daughter that there would be no going back. The young lady would, if she were to wear -5D glasses for the next year or so, likely be a permanent -5D myope. The young lady was now 18, and her new glasses that she wore to go off to university had increased in prescription by -16D. Her now -21D glasses were not myodiscs, but were done with full field lenses in 1.74 hi index plastic, and Bennie thought they looked fabulous on her very attractive face with the sizeable cut in and the massive power rings. At first he had been very worried about the possibility that he could be caught doing what the mother and daughter wanted him to do, but he knew that the job of an optometrist was mostly objective, and as long as he could state that the prescription he had supplied as an optician was the one that the customer had told him was the best correction no one could really prove any differently. Even though Bennie was only an optician he had done what the girl and her mom had asked him to do, and back when the young lady was around 12 Bennie had asked her why she was ruining her eyes. She told him she loved the looks of her mom’s thick glasses and wanted to wear glasses that were just as thick. Bennie suggested that she could just do GOC like her mom did, but she refused, telling Bennie that she did not want to have to wear contact lenses all the time like her mom did. That young lady was one of Bennie’s earliest school aged customers. She must have told a lot of her friends about what she was doing, because the flood gates opened and Bennie had a fairly steady stream of young kids coming in. He knew what was going to be asked of him whenever a young customer would ask to speak to him in private. He or she would tell Bennie that they wanted stronger lenses than what their real prescription showed. Of course Bennie couldn’t do anything right then and there, but when the young lady or young man showed up with their mother or father Bennie was already prepared to add a diopter or 3 to their prescription. He would always make up a trial frame with the added power to their prescription and would ask the patient to wear the new prescription for a while to see how it felt. It was unusual for him to have to cut back the prescription after the child wore it for a while, and when they came back in to pick up their new glasses when they were ready they generally thanked him wholeheartedly. Bennie knew what he was doing was not really the proper thing to do. But the kids were so satisfied with their stronger glasses that he was unable to force himself to stop. Most of the kids came back year after year to get stronger glasses and he compared them to drug addicts that just wanted more drugs. But at least forcing themselves to become very nearsighted would not kill them like taking drugs could. And his customers all seemed so grateful to Bennie for providing his services without questioning them about why they wanted to wear thicker glasses. Some of the parents expressed concern that little Andrea or young Jason’s glasses had to be so thick, but most of their friends were customers of Bennie’s as well, so the questions were mostly rhetorical. . The front door opened one afternoon shortly after school was dismissed. A pretty little dark haired girl that looked to be about 12 or 13 came into the store and when Bennie looked at her he noticed that she was wearing a fairly strong pair of minus glasses already. “How may I help you young lady?” Bennie asked. “I want to be able to wear these glasses.” She said. “But you are wearing those glasses.” Bernie stated with a tone of confusion. “They are not mine, they are Claire’s. I want to wear my own, but I really want them to be just like these. My name is Anna and I need my eyes tested so I can tell my parents I need these glasses.” Anna said in a rather demanding and determined voice. Once Bennie heard the name Claire he knew the glasses. Claire was a 15 year old girl who had an amazing amount of accommodation. She had started 6 years ago at the age of 9 with a real prescription of -1.50D. She had left his store wearing glasses that were -6D, and had returned 6 months later with a new real prescription of -5.50D. She had left his store that time wearing glasses that were -10D. Her latest prescription, at the age of 15, was -20D and Bennie was pretty sure that the glasses that Anna had on were Claire’s old -17D ones. Claire had gone up higher and faster than any of his other customers and he was pretty sure that her new -20D glasses were not going to last her much more than 6 months before she came back in looking for an increase. “I can’t really write you a prescription because I am only an optician. But let me test your eyes Anna. Claire’s old glasses are pretty strong for a first time prescription.” Bennie said. Bennie was amazed. When he checked with his phoropter Anna was able to see perfectly through Claire’s former -17D prescription. “You have worn glasses before haven’t you?” Bennie accused Anna. ‘Not really, these are the first pair I have had to wear.” Anna replied. “How long have you worn them? Claire only got her new glasses about a month or so ago.” Bennie said “Claire gave them to me when she got her new ones and I have worn them ever since.” Anna replied. “Have your parents not seen you wearing them?” I asked. “That’s why I need to be able to wear them. I have to take them off when my mom comes home and then I go around in a blur all evening. Sometimes I can go up to my room and do my homework so I can put them back on then. You have got to make it so they think I really need them. Please Mister Bennie can you do that?” Anna asked with tears in her eyes. “All I can do is call your mother and explain to her that you have been wearing Claire’s glasses. I will tell her that I have checked your eyes as to how well you can see and you can see extremely well with them on.” I said. Anna gave me her mother’s number at work so I called her. “Mrs. Slocum, this is Bennie over at Bennie’s Optical. I have your daughter Anna here. She came in wearing a pair of her friend Claire’s glasses and asked me to check her eyes. As an optician I am not supposed to prescribe glasses, but I did check hers, and she can see perfectly through the glasses she is wearing.” I told her. “Claire is my older daughter, not Anna’s friend. And you say that she can see perfectly well wearing Claire’s old glasses?” Mrs. Slocum questioned. “Yes, Anna is obviously very nearsighted. And if she is Claire’s sister then so is Claire. I have made Claire’s glasses for the last 6 years and I know Claire has an extremely strong prescription. It appears that Anna needs very strong glasses for her age as well.” I said. “Should we take Anna to an optometrist?” Mrs. Slocum asked. “I can’t legally advise you on that. But if you do not have vision insurance my personal thoughts would be to just let Anna wear Claire’s old glasses until she complains that she can’t see through them any longer. If she is anything like Claire her eyes will likely get worse fairly rapidly.” I answered. Mrs. Slocum agreed that that might be the best course of action. After I hung up the phone I told Anna that her mom said she could wear her sister’s glasses now. And having found out that Claire was Anna’s older sister I had a pretty good idea why Anna was able to wear such strong glasses for her first pair. “You have been wearing Claire’s old pairs of glasses as often as you could for quite a while now haven’t you Anna.” I stated. “I have been wearing them to school every day for the past 4 years. After Claire got her second pair of glasses she let me wear her first pair, and then after she got her third pair I wore her second pair. But when I took them off when I heard Mom come in the door my eyes always went back to being able to see without them. It is only when I started wearing this pair that my eyes wouldn’t go back to being able to see without them.” Anna told me. “Obviously you and your sister both like wearing strong glasses. How strong do you eventually want your glasses to be?” I asked. “I don’t know. I like this pair a whole lot. They are nice and thick, and I like that the prescription part doesn’t go all the way to the frame at the side. And I really like the feeling that my eyes are trapped behind a wall of glass.” Anna said. “Both you and your sister now have very strong glasses at a very young age. It is quite likely that your prescriptions will become a lot stronger. How will you feel if your glasses have to be a lot thicker?” I asked. “I guess it will be all right as long as I can see.” Anna said. Anna thanked me for helping her out and she went home. I didn’t see her again for a couple of weeks and when she came in to the store again it was to ask me if I minded if she hung around after school. She even offered to help me clean up the place, and although she was only13 years old I found she was quite willing to take a broom and sweep the hardwood floor every evening. I found I rather enjoyed having this very nearsighted young lady hanging around. And she brought me some more business. I never cease to be amazed at the number of young kids who want to wear glasses full time as well as the number of young kids that want to have thicker and stronger looking lenses. They do not even consider getting hi index lenses until their prescriptions are into the mid-teens. As time went on I really got used to Anna being around almost every day. She was never underfoot, and she did an excellent job of unpacking the new frames and setting them out on the display racks. Her sister Claire came in about 6 months after Anne started hanging around the store, and she told me that she thought she needed a new prescription. I examined her eyes, and her already strong -20D prescription was a little too weak for her so I ordered her new glasses with a -22.50D prescription. I thought that Anna would then start wearing Claire’s old glasses again, but she did not show up after school wearing them, and after a month I asked Anna if she intended to wear Claire’s old glasses. Anna surprised me when she told me that she didn’t plan on wearing Claire’s old glasses right away this time, and when I asked why not she told me that she thought that the -17D glasses she had been wearing were nice and strong, and she didn’t plan on forcing her eyes to accept stronger glasses. She did say that if her eyes got worse on their own she would get new, stronger glasses, but she liked the looks of her present glasses, and there was no sense in ruining her eyes any further. I liked hearing this from Anna. Here was a girl that had an agenda, and she knew exactly what she wanted. And she was correct. A -17D prescription was a very strong one and the lenses of any pair of glasses with that prescription could be made to look extremely thick and strong by using the cheaper regular plastic lenses, or they could be made with very high index glass with a 1.9 index, and they would look nice and thin. There were other choices that Anna could make as well. She could have her lenses made as myodiscs, either blended or with very distinct circles. She could have the front surface made slightly biconcave, or else perfectly flat. But if Anna reached the same -22.50D that her sister Claire now wore her options became a little more limited. As an optician I thought that glasses with a prescription of between -17D and -19D were just about the most perfect prescription anyone could have. Anna never seemed to tire of coming by the store to help out. By the time she was 15 I looked forward to seeing her come by every day after school, and I had offered to pay her for her help. She had refused my offer every other time, but this time she accepted. I kidded her that she must have something that she wanted to buy, even though she had never shown much interest in anything fancy. She agreed that she did want something, and then she told me that unfortunately she thought her eyes had gotten a little worse and she needed to get new glasses. I told her that if that was the case, I would examine her eyes and she could have any pair of glasses in the store for free, complete with whatever lenses she wanted. Claire had stopped wanting glasses with a stronger prescription than she required a year earlier, when her real prescription reached -23.50D. She recently had her eyes checked and her prescription had reached -25.00D so she decided she would order her first pair of myodisc lenses. When her new glasses came in I thought they looked fantastic on Claire’s face, and so did Anna. That is why, when Anna had her eyes examined and she was prescribed with a -18.00D prescription, she wanted me to order her myodiscs that were very similar to Claire’s. I agreed that this type of lens would look as good on her as they did on Claire, but I suggested that she should increase her prescription by -0.50D as by doing this her new glasses would likely last her a bit longer. It took a bit of convincing, along with her wearing the trial glasses with both the -18.00D prescribed, along with my suggested -18.50D before she agreed that her vision was sharper with the -18.50D. Anna chose a frame with a lens shape very similar to the frames Claire chose, and when her new myodisc glasses arrived she was thrilled with both her vision, and her appearance. Over the next 3 years Claire’s prescription had climbed to the point where she was very close to -30D in both eyes. She was almost 21and while she still loved her very strong glasses she had discovered that her corrected vision with her now biconcave myodiscs was not really very good. She had not been able to pass the eye exam for her driver’s license, and although this didn’t seem to bother her I knew that Anna wanted to get her license as soon as she could. This wasn’t going to be a problem for Anna, because her visual acuity with her glasses, which were still the same -18.50D ones she had gotten 3 years earlier, was right between 20/20 and 20/25. I had checked her eyesight and although an increase of -0.50D gave her acuity of 20/20, she did not seem to have any desire to get new glasses or increase the power of her lenses. Anna was in her last year of high school, and she seemed determined to go on to school to become an optometrist. I was very pleased about this because I was seriously thinking of retiring, and if I were to sell my business to Anna I was sure I would be able to work for her part time. By the time Anna graduated and was going on to finish her apprenticeship prior to becoming an optometrist her sister Claire had been working as a teacher at a school for blind and visually impaired children. Claire had, by age 25, reached what I felt would be a final prescription of -36D. Claire was now considered to be a low vision patient as she could no longer be corrected beyond 20/50 and she was perfect for working with the children that she taught. She had been evaluated and had been told that they could remove her natural lenses and lower her prescription considerably. They could possibly even do lens implants that would bring her prescription to a point where she might only need to wear very weak glasses. But Claire was quite content with her job, her existing prescription and her status in life, so she decided that she would leave things as they were for a few years. I do think that part of the reason for this was that she was engaged to a fellow that wore glasses himself, and adored her wearing her very strong double myodisc glasses. Anna did eventually take over my business. As a licensed optometrist she could do eye exams, and although she was very careful about which patients she gave slightly stronger prescriptions to, certain patients still ended up with exactly what they wanted. Specs4ever March 2018