The dust was rising behind a car a mile or so down our country road. I was excited, because it was most likely my Grandmother’s older sister Grace, and her husband Tom coming for their annual 3 week summer visit. I guess Grace was really my Great Aunt, and Tom was my Great Uncle, but I had been told to call them Aunt Grace, and Uncle Tom from the time I had been old enough to realize that these 2 summer visitors belonged to our family. Grace’s visit was something I had been waiting all year for. Aunt Grace wore the thickest glasses I had ever seen in my life, and ever since I was about 3 years old I had been fascinated by the way the lenses made her eyes all tiny and shrunken way back into her head. I wondered how she could possibly see anything through these lenses, and I was sure that she had the worst eyesight in the whole world. Of course, my 5 year old world consisted of a 100 acre farm that I could roam around on at will, and a visit to the closest town to attend church on Sunday. This town, which was only about 3 miles away, was a thriving farm community of about 600 if you counted the cats and dogs. Never having been to town at night, I almost believed my dad when he said they rolled the sidewalks up at 6 pm every night. To me it was quite a mystery as to why my Aunt Grace wore such thick glasses. Neither of my Grandma’s wore glasses except to read. Her younger brother, who was an insurance salesman in the village, didn’t wear glasses. My one grandpa had died when I was 3, and I think I remember that he wore glasses, but I am pretty sure they were mostly for reading, because he didn’t wear glasses in any of the pictures that hung on the walls of the old farmhouse we lived in. My mother didn’t wear glasses, nor did my father, or his father, my other grandpa. And, neither of my mothers 2 sisters wore glasses either. So there was no one else that I knew of in my immediate family who wore glasses. At first my dad had been helping grandpa on the farm, and recently my dad and mom had taken over the farm, although Grandpa still helped Dad most of the time. The farmhouse had a big living room, a dining room, a main kitchen and a back kitchen, a bathroom, and 2 bedrooms on the main floor. Grandma and Grandpa used one of the downstairs bedrooms because Grandma didn’t like climbing stairs anymore. The second bedroom was used by Grace and Tom on their yearly visits. Up the long staircase were 6 more bedrooms and a bathroom. That is where my parents, my 3 year old sister Molly, and I lived. The biggest bedroom had been turned into a family room, and often we sat in there reading before we went to bed. The dust grew closer, and finally I could see a grey car just in front of the dust cloud. I was even more excited now. Tom only kept a car for 2 years, and last summer and the summer before the car had been a big Buick with a straight 8 motor. The car that was pulling up in front of the house was a new Oldsmobile 98, dusty from its recent travel down our gravel road, but still big and shiny and powerful under that film of dust. Tom got out, and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for Grace. As she got out I could see that the car wasn’t the only thing that was new that summer. The new glasses that Grace wore seemed to be even thicker and stronger looking than her other ones had been. I watched her closely as she peered at us through these new lenses, fighting to bring her eyes into focus so that she could make us out. I could tell when she began to see each of us clearly, as her eyes seemed to open wider, and the squint disappeared. Tom and Grace greeted all of us, and Dad helped Tom carry their bags into the spare downstairs bedroom. I knew they were going to unpack and put their clothing away, but I hoped that I could get Grace to read to Molly and myself. I loved sitting there watching Grace bring the book that she was reading from up close to her face, and I loved to watch her eyes dart across the pages behind the thick lenses. I had never met Grace and Tom’s children. They were first cousins to my mother, but had not come to the farm for the summers since well before I was born. I knew from pictures that I had seen that both of their children, Charlie and Sue, wore glasses that looked just like their mother’s. Sue was married, and I had seen pictures of her daughter Karen the previous year, but when Tom and Grace were showing pictures of Karen this year I could tell that Karen, who was 4 years old, the same age as Molly, was wearing a pair of glasses with what appeared to be very strong lenses. Charlie, their son, had just married a girl named Linda, and from the pictures I saw, Linda wore glasses as well. In one way I wouldn’t have minded wearing glasses, but in another way I had decided it was easier for me that I didn’t. I did love to watch Aunt Grace though, and at my ripe old age of 5 I decided that I would someday marry a girl who wore thick glasses. My sister Molly was always stumbling over things. I didn’t think anything of it, as I just thought she was clumsy. But one day I overheard Aunt Grace tell our mother that she thought that Molly was very nearsighted. A few days later Molly and I were taken to the city, about a 30 minute drive away, to have our eyes examined. I didn’t need glasses, but Aunt Grace was correct. Molly was apparently fairly shortsighted, and was going to have to wear glasses. Once Molly got her glasses, which were no where near as thick looking as the ones Aunt Grace wore, she was a different person. She wasn’t as clumsy anymore, and she was no longer scared to do things. Sometimes when Molly and I were off in the woods playing I would make her let me wear her glasses, but she would only let me wear them for a few minutes before she started to cry and wanted them back. The first couple of times I wore them I couldn’t see much of anything, but then I discovered that I could sort of pull my eyes back into my head, and then I could see things fairly well. But it seemed that now Molly couldn’t see a thing without them. At the end of the three weeks Tom and Grace would return to their home, and things soon returned to the normal routine. I was very sorry to see them go, as I enjoyed looking at Aunt Grace’s glasses a lot, but now I could look at my own sister’s glasses, so that was almost as good My parents had been told that Molly should have her eyes checked again after she had worn her glasses for about 6 months. My mom took Molly back to the eye doctor, and a couple of weeks later a package containing a new pair of glasses for Molly appeared in our mailbox. I could tell that these glasses were a bit thicker than Molly’s old ones. Now, if I was lucky enough not to have Molly tagging along I could sneak Molly’s old glasses out of their case that she kept in her dresser drawer, and I could take them with me out into the back woods. It always took a while, but eventually I could make my eyes see fairly well through Molly’s glasses. When I took them off and went back home my eyes would come back to normal, and I could see quite well without them again. I didn’t know it at the time, but if I had been able to leave Molly’s glasses on constantly, my eyes would have probably adapted to her glasses, and I would have become quite nearsighted. But, even if I had known that, there was no possibility that I could have done this without my parents finding out. When Molly got her next pair of new glasses I tried to take the second pair to the back woods with me, but there was no way I could force my eyes to see much of anything while wearing them. With that I returned to my original plan of taking her first glasses again. I got into the habit of spending a lot of days by myself, back in the forest, wearing Molly’s glasses and reading books. The more I wore Molly’s glasses, the harder it became for my eyes to go back to normal after I took them off. I did not realize it at the time, but I was gradually making myself a little bit shortsighted. And now I was not returning her old glasses to the case in her dresser drawer, but was taking them into my room with me, where I would read as long as I could every night while wearing Molly’s old glasses. In the country we didn’t have kindergarten, so I had gone into first grade when I was almost 6 years old. I had been wearing Molly’s glasses so much that year that by the time the summer holidays came I realized that I was unable to see things that were very far away. I didn’t know how to bring up the subject of my needing glasses to my parents and I was prepared to wait until Aunt Grace and Uncle Tom showed up. I hoped that Aunt Grace would notice that I couldn’t see very well, and would tell my parents that I needed an eye exam. Before that happened Molly broke her glasses, and she needed to go for another eye exam, so Mom took me along as well. Mom wasn’t too surprised when the doctor discovered I was nearsighted as well. I chose a frame, and I was told that I would have my glasses within a couple of weeks. Molly had broken her glasses so badly that the frames couldn’t be taped up. That meant she was now wearing her old glasses until she got her new ones. Fortunately I had put the pair I had been wearing back into the case in her dresser drawer, and she had gotten them out to see if she could see through them, but of course she couldn’t, so they went back into the case in the drawer. Her third pair of glasses ended up being thrown into the trash and I managed to rescue the lenses, even though I didn’t expect to be able to ever figure out a way to use them. After I got my glasses I wore them constantly. I loved the feeling of having them on my face. Every once in a while I would take out the lenses I had saved from Molly’s broken glasses, and I would hold them up to my eyes and try to see through them. It wasn’t possible. They were too strong. But what I did discover was that I could now force my eyes to see through Molly’s second old pair of glasses. And, I also found out that if I took the lenses out of Molly’s second pair of glasses I could put them into my frame. Her lenses from the broken glasses also fit into my frame, as well as back into her other frame, but they still were a little too strong for me to be able to see through. I was very apprehensive the first time I came downstairs for dinner wearing the lenses from Molly’s second pair of glasses in my frame. But, no one noticed anything. By now they were used to seeing me wearing glasses and no one even bothered to look to see that my lenses were stronger. It was a chore to make my eyes see well enough through these lenses in order for me to function. They were pretty strong, but after a few weeks I began to feel like I was doing all right. About that time Aunt Grace and Uncle Tom came for their visit, and of course Aunt Grace noticed that I was wearing glasses now as well. She commented that my glasses appeared to be fairly strong, and fortunately the doctor had told my mom that I needed a pretty strong first prescription, so Mom just said that the doctor had told her that my prescription was quite strong as well. I had been very fortunate that I was able to get away with my little trick. By the time Aunt Grace and Uncle Tom left that year I had become very dependent on my new, stronger lenses. I tried the lenses that the doctor had given me, just by holding them in front of my eyes, and I could not see very much through them. I was convinced that wearing these strong lenses from my sisters glasses were going to give me what I now had decided that I wanted for myself. I didn’t know why I wanted to wear strong glasses; I just knew that I did. By the time I was 9 I was starting to notice that things were not nearly as sharp as I thought they should be, so I put the lenses from Molly’s broken glasses into my frame, and I returned the other lenses to their proper frame. After wearing these lenses in my frame for about 6 months I didn’t know what I was going to do if I had to put my own lenses back into my frame, as I couldn’t see a whole lot better wearing my own lenses than I could with no glasses on at all. And now, with no glasses at all, I was more helpless than Molly had been before she got glasses. Finally the day that I had been dreading arrived. Molly and I had to go for eye exams. Molly went in first, and when she came out she told us that she needed stronger glasses. Then I went in. The doctor was shocked to see how much deterioration there had been in my eyesight since my original exam, and when he lead me back out to the waiting room he told my mother that my eyesight was every bit as bad as my sisters was. Apparently I had somehow managed to make my eyes see through the same lenses than my sister had required. While we waited for our new glasses to come from the city my mother let me wear the old pair of Molly’s glasses that I had worn the lenses from in my own glasses. No one noticed when I switched those lenses for the next stronger pair, the pair that I had been wearing in my glasses right up to the day of the exam. I was happy to see my own glasses arrive in the mail though, as I really didn’t like wearing a girl’s frame to school. I could tell that my new glasses were stronger than the ones I had been wearing, and I wondered how I had managed to do that. But then I realized that I had used my old trick of pulling my eyes back into my head when he was making the lenses stronger with the machine. Obviously that trick had worked, and now Molly and I could switch glasses and see well out of each others glasses. Even though I had gotten the doctor to prescribe me with lenses that were the same prescription as my sisters, I now decided that I wanted my glasses to be just as thick and strong as Aunt Graces. I had no idea how strong her glasses were, I just knew that my now -10D prescription was not strong enough to satisfy me. I had found out that Molly’s first pair of glasses had a prescription of -5.50D. Then her second pair was -7.00, her third pair which she had broken had been -8.50D and her 4th pair was -9.00. Now we were both going to be wearing -10D lenses. I had not realized that wearing strong glasses would create problems for me at school. However, because I was now wearing glasses I was not allowed to play any sports, and in a small town everyone lived for sports. I became a bit of an outsider, and this resulted in more than my fair share of teasing as well as some attempted bullying. Fortunately I was big for my age, and quite strong from helping my dad on the farm, so I was able to hold my own in a fight well enough that people mostly left me alone. Molly, being a girl didn’t seem to have that problem, so her strong glasses didn’t really affect her school life. Molly and I had gotten our latest glasses when I was 9, and she was 7. The eye doctor had suggested that our parents bring us in for yearly checkups, but money was scarce enough that my parents didn’t want to do that. Instead they kept a watch on both Molly and I to see if we were having any problems seeing things. Both Molly and I went for 3 years before our next eye exam. I don’t know if Molly was having trouble seeing things clearly, I just knew I was, and I told my mom so. This time I ended up with a prescription that was stronger than Molly’s. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to do this again, but as I sat in the doctors chair with the lenses that the doctor was putting in front of my eyes increasing in power with every click of the machine I pulled my eyes back into my head as much as I could. Finally I could no longer force myself to see through the stronger lenses he used, and he then reduced the power slightly until I told him that things were very clear now and I could read all the letters and numbers on the chart. My prescription ended up at -13.50D, and Molly ended up with -12.25D. But when I got my new glasses they still didn’t look as powerful as I wanted. That following summer was the last summer that Aunt Grace and Uncle Tom would be able to visit. Uncle Tom was having trouble seeing things properly himself, and when they returned home he was going to have cataract surgery. Back then the glasses that people had to wear after cataract surgery were very thick looking, and apparently they didn’t enable the wearer to have really good eyesight anymore. Uncle Tom would still be probably be able to drive, but his eyesight would not be good enough for him to go on a long trip. And Aunt Grace had never driven. She had not even tried to pass the eye exam for her license, and I had heard her comment that she likely would have failed anyway. I didn’t think that her eyesight was all that bad, because she had always seemed to be able to see almost everything that she looked at, but I wasn’t sure. That statement scared me a little, because I loved cars, and wanted to get my drivers license as soon as I was 15. Because I was a farm boy, I was allowed a drivers license a year earlier that the boys who lived in town. Upon seeing Molly and I wearing our new glasses Aunt Grace had asked us what our prescriptions were. I pretended I didn’t know, and Mom went into the house to get the slips that the doctor had given her. Aunt Grace pulled each slip fairly close to her eyes and peered at the numbers. “My goodness Dale, your prescription is stronger than Molly’s. Are you able to see fairly well?” Aunt Grace asked. “Oh yes Aunt Grace. I see just fine with these glasses.” I replied. “That is good. I hope your prescription doesn’t get to be as bad as mine is.” Aunt Grace said. “How strong are your glasses Aunt Grace?” I asked. My prescription is a lot stronger Dale. It is -19.00 x -4.50 x 95 and -19.50 x 4.00 x 80. The second numbers are for astigmatism. I have a lot of astigmatism, and that is why my eyesight isn’t as good as it should be.” Aunt Grace answered. I was really happy to now know the strength of Aunt Grace’s glasses. And I knew I didn’t have any of that astigmatism stuff, so I hoped I could still get thicker glasses and still have pretty good eyesight. But I knew I had better be content with the prescription I had for a while, because Aunt Grace had told me that my eyes could keep getting worse until I was around 25 years old. That would be a little more than 12 more years from now. When I was 15 and I needed to pass the eye exam for my driver’s license my mom took Molly and I back to the eye doctor. I didn’t try to make my prescription any stronger this time, but I still ended up with an increase of -1.00D. Molly had another -1.50D added to the strength of her glasses as well. I asked the doctor if I could pass the eye test for my license and he assured me that I could, so I was happy about the fact that I got stronger glasses, and that I could pass the test. I did pass the eye test, and got my beginners license. And before winter came I was able to get my full license. Now I had to run into town and pick up feed supplements and other supplies for dad, so he often let me drive the truck to school, and pick up the feed on the way home. It was much nicer being able to travel this way because the bus ride took at least an hour longer. I did hear a few snide comments about how it was surprising that I could get a drivers license when I had to wear such strong glasses, but I didn’t let the comments bother me much. I loved wearing my strong glasses, and wouldn’t have changed a thing. Another couple of years passed by, and I discovered that I needed stronger glasses again. I went off to have another eye test and this time I ended up with a -16D prescription. Now the frames all seemed to be quite large, and the girl in the glasses area of our doctor told me that my glasses would be really thick unless I chose a lens that had the prescription on both sides. I didn’t like the sound of this, especially when she told me that this type of lens had to be positioned exactly in front of your eye, or things would look a bit distorted. I really didn’t want to get this type of lens, but she told me that my only other choice would be a lens called a myodisc, and that didn’t sound very good either. Finally I decided I would try the biconcave lens type, so I ordered my new glasses. When I had gotten to the doctors office there was an attractive young girl of about 16 or 17 sitting there. She was called in first, and then she came out a few minutes later and sat back down. Then I went in for my eye exam and when I came back out to wait for Molly to have her eyes tested I noticed that she was also wearing glasses that were fairly thick so I started to talk to her. By the time Molly came back out I had decided that I liked this young lady a lot. She was pretty, and was easy to talk to. She had told me that her name was Jackie, and that she had worn glasses almost forever. She had to wait for a while because the doctor had put some special drops in her eyes so he could examine them very carefully, and she was going to be going in again right after Molly was finished. Molly had not had much of an increase this time, and her glasses were only going to be 0.75D stronger, making them -13D. She probably could have gone a while longer without getting new glasses, but she wanted new frames. I had selected my frames quickly, but before Molly had gotten her new glasses ordered Jackie came out from the examination room with her new prescription. “How strong is your new prescription Jackie?” I asked. ‘I am -15.50 x -2.00 x 75 and -15.75 x -1.75 x 90 this time. My eyes got quite a bit worse again Dale.” Jackie said. “It looks like we will both be wearing biconcave lenses in our glasses then. That is unless you want to get myodiscs.” I answered. Jackie hadn’t heard either term before, so I explained what they were. She didn’t like the idea any more than I had. I went over to the frame selection and helped Jackie and Molly select new frames for their glasses. Jackie did order the biconcave lenses for her glasses, but Molly was still able to have her glasses made with flat fronts on the lenses. Jackie was 16, but would soon have her 17th birthday. I was almost 18, and didn’t have a girlfriend, so I was very interested in this pretty, but very nearsighted girl. She lived on the outer edge of the city, about a 20 minute drive from our farm and that wasn’t too far for me to go. I asked her if she had a ride home, and when she told me that she was taking the bus I offered to drive her home on our way back to the farm. She accepted, and Molly let Jackie sit next to me in the old pickup truck so we could talk. By the time we got to Jackie’s house I had arranged a date with her for Friday night as she had mentioned that there was a dance at her high school that night. When I got to Jackie’s house to pick her up that Friday night I could see where her myopia had come from. Both her father and her mother wore fairly strong glasses and her younger sister seemed to have glasses that were even stronger than Jackie’s. When we were driving to the dance we talked a little about our vision, and I told Jackie that the only person in our family who wore strong glasses was my grandmother’s sister Grace. Jackie told me that her grandfather on her mom’s side was nearsighted, and her dad’s mom was also very nearsighted, but her 2 other grandparents just wore reading glasses. It was probably a good thing that Jackie and I had chosen to go to a dance for our date, because neither of us could have seen well enough to enjoy a movie until we both got our new glasses. My prescription had jumped -1.50D and I really shouldn’t even have been driving, especially at night. But I made it into the city and back and Jackie and I had a wonderful time. We talked a bit about our eyesight and I found out that Jackie had gotten her first glasses when she was 8 years old. Her prescription had climbed rapidly and her latest increase had been over -2.00D in both eyes. With her astigmatism her eyes were quite a bit worse than mine were, although her spherical was a little lower. In farm communities like ours most of the farm boys dropped out of school by the time they were 16. I didn’t want to drop out until I finished high school so I planned to keep my grades up until I graduated. Jackie was a year behind me in school, but she also wanted to get her graduation diploma. At the time she could still go to teacher’s college for a year and become a grade school teacher, which is what she wanted to do. I graduated that spring, and then went to help dad on the farm. But now, instead of working for a pittance I became a partner and was getting a salary. I was pretty sure I was going to marry Jackie, She was a really nice person, and Molly, as well as mom and dad liked her a lot. I managed to bank most of my salary, although I did spend quite a bit on an engagement ring along with taking Jackie on dates. I could hardly wait for her to finish her year at teacher’s college so that she could start teaching and we could get married. My grandfather and grandmother were now almost in their eighties. Grandpa still helped us around the farm as much as he could, but most of the time all he could do was to drive the tractor. If Jackie and I did get married we would either have to build a house for ourselves on the farm, or else my grandparents would have to move into town. But they didn’t want to do that so we got a building permit for a second house on the farm and dad and I built a fairly small three bedroom house for Jackie and me in the lower corner of the farm. I consulted Jackie every step of the way, and I think she was pleased about this as this made her feel as if it was our house. As soon as Jackie graduated we were going to be married. Tom, and Grace, who were now in their 80’s and both still fairly healthy, flew up to visit and for the wedding. Even though Jackie, Molly and I all wore very strong glasses my Aunt Grace still had the strongest prescription around – unless maybe Jackie’s younger sister Linda was pretty close. Linda was going to be Jackie’s maid of honor and I was quite enamored by her myodiscs. The wedding was fantastic. Everyone had a great time, and at the end of the evening Jackie and I slipped away to go to christen our new house. We had decided that instead of going somewhere for a honeymoon we would stay home and see if we could get a start on making a family. We were pretty sure that once we had our kids we would be able to get a little more of a handle on the strange genetics of myopia. Specs4ever 2016 01
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