My oldest grandson just got glasses. He is only in the second grade, but I am surprised it took this long. His DNA on the paternal and maternal side is chock-full of bad eyesight genes. Those bad genes sure do dominate those good genes, don’t they? I mean take Mr. Perfect with all good genes who marries Miss Bad Eyes/Crooked Teeth…..he is guaranteed to have children who spend the rest of their lives visiting orthodontists and optometrists.
I entered Junior High School with both glasses and braces (Thanks for the genes, Mom). It was pretty traumatic. I heard it all….”boys won’t make passes at girls who wear glasses” and “You better not kiss a guy who also has braces because you will get locked together”.
I will never forget the day I got my new glasses. When I got outside I started looking around and I couldn’t believe it! There were LEAVES on the trees and WORDS on signs! I felt like breaking out in refrain:
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.
At least I was lucky enough to miss the cat-eye specs phase, but my sisters weren’t (tee hee)
A few years ago I decided to shed the glasses and contacts and have lasik surgery. It was really an easy process. It only took about five minutes. I found out later that they have a TV in the hallway where people can stand and watch your surgery. I thought that was a little weird until I heard an ad the other day stating that you could post a video of your Lasik surgery on Facebook. What’s next….colonoscopies?
Don’t worry….I am not going to put in a pic of that!
Over the years glasses have gotten cuter and more socially accepted. It’s not just nerds who wear them now. You see a lot of famous people proudly wearing their specs.
Tina Fey
Julia Roberts
Johnny Depp
Glasses have even made some people famous!
Sally Jessy Raphael is quoted as saying, “You go to school, you get a master’s degree, you study Shakespeare and you wind up being famous for plastic glasses”
She has a point, but a stereotype does still exist that pairs glasses with intellect. That may be true in a lot of cases, but there are always exceptions.
But in the case of my g-son…..smart and cutelicious all the way!
wayfaringandwanderlust 