Seeing is believing

the wire frame years - I was about 15. I believe Mom was wearing her wiglet. Note - I'm the only seester with short hair, because I wasn't born with the hair handling gene.


I blame my eye doc, Don McKim for allowing me to wear these huge frames. Guess I can't blame him for the bangs. Look how reddish baby Juddy's hair was - no wonder his beard is that color.


Just like most kids I was excited to get glasses in 6th grade. I went to see classmate Sherry Smith's (our grade - there was a Sherry Smith a grade below us too so we always had to distinguish) father Dr. Ralph Smith. And I was shocked an dismayed at the clarity my new lenses provided. Trees had leaves again!

Soon it became evident that my brown plastic framed specs were a hassle! I had to either wear them all the time - slipping down my nose, getting dirty or leave them behind and then need them later.

In middle school I got wire framed glasses - the latest rage! Unfortunately they caused my classmates to call me Mrs. Beasley of Family Affair, Buffy and Jody fame. Sis Betso had one of the dolls who too had "granny glasses". Not a nickname a middle schooler seeks out while trying desperately to fit in.

By 10th grade I got contact lenses - the original hard ones. They were hard to put in, but were great for sports and it was great to have eyes again instead of corrective lenses sitting on my face. I was never one able to keep the lenses in 24/7. As I said before, I had allergies so the lenses sometimes caused irritation. I had to remove them at night.

I wore contacts for the next few years - through college. This was before the time of disposable lenses, so each one was precious. My junior year in college, I got new lenses at Christmas break just before heading to party with Moose and Steve at a night that included a stop by the big ISU Dance Marathon. I drank a bottle of cold duck and ended up staying in the guys' dorm floor - (Stevenson house was also hosting a party) rather than driving home. (One wise choice that night).

I didn't have my contact case with me so I put my contacts in a Hardee's cup (hmm safe place huh). In the morning, I found that one of my new lenses was gone (hope nobody drank it) and the other was missing a pie shaped wedge. Another time I lost a lens in the bathroom of our apartment. The lost was found when we had a male visitor who finally lifted the toilet seat and the precious treasure lens was perched on the rim. Don't think I ever put that sucker back in my eye!

By the time I got out of college, soft contacts were the rage. I tried them, but found that my vision - looking at computer printouts was not good enough. Fuzzy didn't cut it. I began to wear glasses again, starting a long string of pretty ugly frames - you know - the 80's and 90's. I know, someday the red framed number I'm now sporting will someday look like cat eye frames from the 50's. Probably about the time granny glasses are in again!

I've got a trial pair of contact lenses in my drawer right now, but just haven't dredged up the courage to pop them in. I considered Lasix surgery - my left eye is much worse than my right and even with glasses my vision is not the greatest. I hate driving at night especially. But the cost of surgery and the belief that anything that could go wrong would keep me from it. Plus I don't want my eyeballs to dissolve when I'm 90 - that surgery isn't yet proven out over time.

So I'm a four eyes. There are worse things...