Wednesday, December 2, 2009
7:03 PM
Geepers Creepers, Where'd You Get Those Peepers?
When I was a preschooler, I loved the idea of wearing glasses. Bernie wore glasses and so I wanted to wear glasses so badly that I could hardly stand it. I wanted them so badly that I would have settled for any style or color but if given the choice, the pair I most wanted was the ever-popular (in the 60's and early 70's) silver, square, wire-framed glasses. As small children do, I imagined my life with silver, square, wire-framed glasses and surmised that I would surely be the hippest preschooler in the world with that one important accessory.
Somewhere around the age of 3 or 4, my mom, feeling sorry for my pitiful plight, lol, had my brother's optometrist take the lenses out of an old pair glasses that Bernie no longer wore, and gave them to me. Major score. I had SO much fun playing with them and I wore them with tremendous preschooler pride. I was convinced that no one outside of my family could tell that there were no lenses in the frames. LOL As you will read in later posts, I often imagined that the adult world was totally oblivious to my make-believe games. Remind me to tell you the silly, charming story of how, when my mom had company during the day, I would often grab a stack of books, head out the front door, and yell, "I'll see you after school mom! I love you!". I totally thought my mom's friends believed that I was going to school. At the age of 3 and 4. By myself. In the middle of the day, hours after school had gone in session. LOL The imagination is a wonderful thing when you're age is still dancing in the single digits.
But I digress.
I also used to buy sunglasses and wear them around the house and neighborhood in attempt to pretend I had to wear real glasses. And of course, as always, I thought I was the only one who knew my little secret. LOL I mean, children's multi-colored, plastic sunglasses look exactly like real prescription glasses, right? LOL I must have bought a 100 different pairs of cheap sunglasses between birth and 6 years old, but the one pair I remember the most is the solid white pair, similar to the ones in this picture. One Saturday afternoon, after the annual Armed Forces Day Parade in our city, my family was invited by our close family friends to tour the local Navy Base, which was having all kinds of family-friendly activities that particular day because of the parade and coinciding celebration. It turned out to be a great deal of fun because they had all kinds of special booths, etc. set up for the kids. They had snacks, cold drinks, and various kinds of souvenirs for sale. My parents told me that I could pick one toy of some sort to purchase so I looked all around for just the right thing that would make my special Saturday complete. Surely you can guess how the rest of the story goes. I found the beautiful white sunglasses just laying there, waiting for me to pick them up and take them home. I had never had a white pair of sunglasses. Actually, I had never had an adult pair of sunglasses up to that point. All of mine had been children's sunglasses. So as you can imagine, I had to have them. My toy search ended the minute I put those hideous things on my face. LOL Of course, I didn't think they were hideous back then. I thought they were beautiful. I was sure that fashion icon, Twiggy, had a pair exactly like them or at least, if she didn't, she would certainly want a pair if she ever saw mine. They were tre chic. LOL
My beautiful white sunglasses didn't last very long as I recall. I wore them constantly. Because they were adult glasses, rather than children's glasses, I was absolutely certain that this was the pair that definitely fooled people into believing I was wearing prescription glasses. Why I was so obsessed with the idea of getting real glasses, I do not know but I really was and I worked hard at making my dream a reality. LOL
A few years later, I went with my mom and brother to the optometrist because it was time for my brother's annual check-up. I begged and begged my mom to let me get my eyes tested too, hoping against hope that the doctor would say that I needed glasses, too. Finally my mom relented, though she warned me that I shouldn't get my hopes up because I had no observable vision problems whatsoever and would likely just get my heart broken when all was said and done. That didn't deter me, though. I went for it with all the confidence in the world that my day had finally arrived. LOL
Never underestimate the power of a young child with a burning dream.
God is no magic genie but He's also not completely removed from the business of granting frivolous miracles to the least of His kingdom. Case in point:
I got my glasses. I picked out some of the ugliest cat eye glasses the world has ever seen and I was totally in love with them. (The wire framed glasses didn't come until later) My mom talked me into the cat eyes and I was so excited that she was allowing me to get glasses that I would have worn glasses made of donkey dung if that's what it took to prevent my unbelievable dream from unraveling at the last minute. I did love them, though and I almost spontaneously combusted trying to get through the two-week waiting period before I could actually bring them home with me. Nowadays, you can get glasses made in an hour but back in the 60's, the optometrists had to send the frames and your prescription off to another city or state because they had no way of making them in the local offices. That was one of the longest two-week stretches of my life.
Optemetrically (I think I just made up a word) speaking, I didn't really need glasses in the 2nd grade. I could see just fine and in fact, a couple of years later, when I went for a check-up, the same eye doctor told me that I didn't need glasses at all. (Make up your mind, will ya?) But all these years later, I am practically blind. I can't hardly see a thing without my glasses and even WITH my glasses, I have trouble seeing some things. Be careful what you wish for, right? I hate wearing/needing glasses now and if our budget and technology allowed, I would jump at the chance to have my eyes surgically corrected so that I never had to wear them again. I guess the grass really is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Still, whenever I see a retro pair of white sunglasses, I think about how much I once loved my own and I smile remembering all of the ridiculous things I once did as a child in pursuit of my glasses wearing dream. Clearly the eye-related frustrations and inconveniences I experience today are not exactly that which I had planned but hey!
A dream's a dream.
square, wire-framed glasses
Armed Forces Day Parade
Taken sometime in the 60's. Not sure which year but I'm pretty sure it was after I was born.