One afternoon during the summer after I graduated from St. John the Baptist Senior High my younger sister Eva and I were home getting supper ready for when our parents got home. Janelle, our older sister was finished with her second year at university but she had a job and was staying in the city. I heard the front door bell and I went to the door and opened it. An older gentleman, maybe dad’s age stood there. He wore a very similar pair of glasses to mine, except that mine were blended myodiscs while his were just straight myodiscs. “Are you Dakota Thomas?” he asked. “I am. Why do you ask?” I queried. “Do you know a Frederich Schaefer?” was his next question. “Not that I know of.” I answered. “I think you do. Trade glasses with me for a minute and then tell me that you don’t know him.” I removed my glasses and handed them to him. He gave me his glasses and I put them on. I was amazed. Our glasses were exactly the same prescription and I could see perfectly through his. Obviously he could see just as well through mine. And then it hit me. “The guy in the park. He was Frederich Schaefer. I never knew his name, but he gave me a pair of glasses. Who was he?” I asked. ‘He was my father. He died 2 years ago and I have been hunting for those glasses ever since I discovered they were not with his belongings. There was a slip of paper with the name Dakota Thomas written on it and I have been looking for you ever since. Do you still have the glasses?” was his next question. I was going to lie to him, but I decided the best thing would be to just tell him the truth. “I do, but I still need them. I am in the final stages of getting my younger sister to a point where she can wear them.” I replied. “All she has to do is to wear them for 24 hours or so and she will be able to have her eyes tested and order herself a new pair of glasses. Then after 3 weeks her new glasses with their -21D prescription will come in and she has no more need for the old glasses. So at the most you will only need them for 3 weeks to a month. Can I have them back then?” he asked. “Well, it is not quite that simple. First I wore them and went from not needing glasses to being a -21D myope and wearing these glasses all of the time within 3 weeks. Then my older sister made the mistake of taking them from my room and wearing them for 5 or 6 hours. She became a -21D myope overnight as well. My younger sister wants to wear the same -21D prescription, but I have been bumping her up gradually by letting her wear the glasses for a few hours and then putting on a lower power pair of glasses. First we started with -5D, then we moved up to -10D and right now she is wearing -15D glasses. Our next step is the -21D glasses, but we need to wait a little longer before we make the move. Our parents are already suspicious about having two out of 3 kids needing very strong glasses all of a sudden, so my younger sister and I are trying to alleviate the suspicion by doing it gradually.” I told him. “That does make sense. Look, I am Karl Schaefer and I am the oldest child of Frederich and Elisse Schaefer. I have 2 daughters, Morgan and Tracey. Morgan is the oldest and she is the one who wants the glasses very badly. That is why I have spent so much time and effort to track you down. I would be willing to borrow the glasses from you and then return them.” Karl said. “Mr. Schaefer, I hope you understand, but I would rather not let them out of my possession until I am to a point where I am finished with them. I have nothing against you, but I just feel that it would be better if I didn’t lend them to you right now.” I said. “I do understand Dakota. But I think I could explain things a little better to you if we had more time. What are you doing tomorrow?” Karl asked. Karl and I eventually agreed to meet up the following day. When we parted company the next day most of my questions were answered. Karl Schaefer’s grandfather Herman had been a scientist for the Third Reich. He had been working on plastics, trying to develop a plastic that was bulletproof that could be used in tanks and other armored vehicles. They had developed a plastic that was able to withstand rifle and handgun fire, and they had tested it by using it to protect the tellers in banks, the cashiers in movie theaters, and anywhere else that people handled cash. In late 1944 the German forces were on the run, but Herman Schaefer was still working on this plastic. A disturbing effect had been noticed. Any teller or cashier that had worked behind the bulletproof plastic for any length of time had become nearsighted. The drivers of the army vehicles that had the bulletproof plastic installed had all developed myopia. The longer they had spent looking out from behind the plastic, the more nearsighted they were. Herman’s son Frederich, who was Karl’s dad was 15 years old, and was in danger of being conscripted into the German army. Herman took quite a few pieces of this plastic and ground a prescription into them that ended up being -21D. He made Frederich a pair of glasses and after wearing the glasses for a few weeks Frederich was so nearsighted that it was impossible for him to pass the vision exam. This worked and Frederich was deferred from army service. A few months later Germany fell to the Allies, but Frederich was now very nearsighted and had to wear his thick glasses to see much of anything. When the dust settled the American’s wanted to take Herman Schaefer back to the USA so that he could continue working with plastics. Frederich, his sister Hilda and their mother Gerda also were allowed to come or Herman was not willing to move to the USA. They settled in Deleware and Herman went to work for a huge multinational company. Eventually Herman was able to perfect the bulletproof plastic so that people who were protected by it no longer became nearsighted. But the real surprise was that his wife Gerda and his daughter Hilda also wanted to wear the same glasses that Frederich wore. So Herman made another 2 sets of lenses and now Gerda and Hilda and Frederich all wore -21D glasses with thick biconcave myodisc lenses. Herman must have felt left out, so he ended up making another pair of glasses for himself and now the whole family was a very nearsighted family. Frederich married Elisse, a pretty blond haired German girl he met at a German American club dance. Frederich didn’t know it at the time, but Elisse had the hots for guys who wore glasses and she was more in love with the strong glasses that he wore rather than just being in love with him. Hilda, Frederich’s sister had just gotten a new pair of more modern looking glasses, so Frederich took Hilda’s old glasses and allowed Elisse to wear them. Soon Elisse was as nearsighted as Frederich. There were 4 original pairs of glasses with the special lenses. Gerda and Elisse wore the two ladies pairs, and Herman and Frederich wore the men’s frames. Hilda married a good looking recently discharged American soldier, and they moved out west to California, where they raised their family. Hilda wore her strong -21D glasses until the day she died, but since she no longer had her old pair of the glasses with the special lenses she was not able to offer the chance to wear glasses to any of her children. Frederich and Elisse had 2 children, Karl and Betty. When Karl was 13 his grandfather passed on and Frederich asked Karl if he wanted to wear glasses like his grandfather had worn. Karl ended up wearing his grandfather’s old glasses and he became a -21D myope. When her grandmother Gerda died Betty ended up wanting to wear her old glasses, so Betty also became a -21D myope. Over the years 3 of the original pairs of glasses ended up going astray. The only one of the original pairs that was left was the man’s pair with the heavy black plastic frames that I now had in my possession. I was quite amazed that Karl’s father had told me a cock and bull story about how he had found the glasses on the subway. But I realized that the real story would have taken far too long to tell, and I would not have believed it any better than I believed the one he told me. I found Karl’s real story fascinating. I loved wearing my glasses so much that it was fantastic to hear the story of how it had been possible for me to become very nearsighted. Karl also told me of searching high and low for the glasses after his dad died, and of only coming up with my name on a piece of paper. During our conversation he did tell me that he had emptied his father’s safe deposit box at the bank and he had found 2 new lenses protected by paper covers, but he had Morgan hold them up in front of her eyes, only to have his hopes dashed when she did not experience any indication of super clear vision like what happened to me when I put in the glasses that Frederich gave me. I thought about this for a while before I ventured a guess that possibly the lenses had to be properly positioned in front of your eyes in a frame before they would work. After all it made no sense for Frederich to have saved these 2 lenses if they were not from the original batch. Karl thought my idea made sense, so he called his sister Betty, who had trained as an optician and was still working as one to see if she could have the lenses put in a new ladies frame for Morgan. Karl invited me to come and meet him at the optical store where his sister worked the next day. He suggested that if I wanted to I could bring his dad’s old glasses along and he would pay to have his sister put the lenses in a new frame. If everything worked out then we would have a pair of ladies glasses and a pair of men’s glasses. By now I trusted Karl enough that I was willing to do this. The following day I met Karl and his daughter Morgan at the opticians where his sister worked. They had a lens lab on site so they were going to fit the lenses to a frame that Morgan chose. When I saw Morgan I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was stunningly beautiful, what most people would call knockout gorgeous. She was so perfect I could not understand why she would want to wear very strong glasses. But then again Eva’s friend Jessica was extremely attractive and she not only loved wearing her strong glasses, she was adored by a lot of men. Finally the lenses were inserted in the frame that Morgan chose. She put them on and she looked at her dad and smiled. “I can see perfectly with them on Daddy.” Morgan said. “Thank Dakota for having the idea that the lenses had to be in a frame to work.” Karl said. Morgan stood up and kissed me on the lips. I think I blushed red when she did that, and I knew I was in love. The frame that Morgan had chosen was one that had the ear pieces set well back from the front of the frame so that the side lens thickness was well hidden. I had seen the lens blanks before they went back to be fitted in the frame, and they seriously looked like a pair of hockey pucks. They had to be at least an inch and an eighth thick, and the guy in the lens lab said he had never seen such thick blanks before. He had a hard time getting the part around the lens that fit into the frame straight, and the outer edge of the front of the lens had about 3/8” sticking out on the temple side, and about ¼” sticking out at the nose side. These lenses were just like the lenses Frederich’s old glasses had in them, and they were pretty deeply dished in on the front. But they looked great on Morgan. Heck, anything would have looked fabulous on Morgan. The lab guy took Frederich’s old glasses and he popped out the lenses. Then he and Betty searched for a new frame, which they finally found. Once the lenses were in the new frame they looked almost like a new pair of glasses. “Morgan will wear her glasses for a while before she orders new ones. Then when she gets her new ones your sister can borrow those glasses.” Karl said. “That is wonderful Karl. And if you ever need a pair of glasses for a guy, you know where they are.” I said. As I was leaving Morgan pressed a piece of paper into my hand and said ‘Call me.” When I got outside the optical store I looked at what was written on the piece of paper. It was a phone number. And I did call her. Specs4ever. July 2018
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