Bob Newhart-Stop It!!

The Eyes Have It

I have been wearing eyeglasses since I was in the 6th grade. (should have probably been the 4th, but whatever.. it's ok that i couldn't see the ball to play baseball with the other kids and then never got picked to be on the team...no really, it's fine. I am so over it.) Back to the point.

Hasn't eyewear been a fun way to know what decade it is? Alot of us have old photos of our grandparents or parents with the cateye glasses with all the rhinestones for the ladies and the heavy black horn rim glasses for the men from the 50's and 60's. We saw hippy wire frames in the late 60s and seventies, and then my very personal favorite time, the HOW BIG CAN WE MAKE THEM style for men and women in the 80's, and then in the 90's Rimless frames for those trying to appear as if they weren't really wearing any.

Because I wore glasses for such a long time, I became quite conscious of the people who didn't wear glasses that were "current" with the styles of the day. I used to "note" people who hadn't updated their look in quite awhile. I probably made fun of some until my time came and I got a new perspective. This came when I got married and my husband and I were responsible for the expense instead of my parents! I was still accustomed to buying the latest style in fashion and when I chose the latest fad "How BIG can we make them" glasses in the early 80's, never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I would be wearing that same pair for years and years. Surely I would have chosen something a little more conservative but who knows. All I do know is that year after year, I am seen in many a photo wearing that same giant plastic frame that Liz Claiborne made famous so long ago. (I think she is still wearing them, except she might be dead). My children love to make fun of that look and I just remind them that because I was willing to sacrifice my style conscious pride and probably my precious eyesight too, they had shoes on their feet and food on the table. It is all about perspective.

And the big perspective for me is that I am so hugely thankful for the invention of eyeglasses. I am quite blind and back in the olden days would have been known as the ugly spinster sister who squinted. Because of glasses, I was able to snag a man and have it all! Thanks to Salvina D'Armate the inventor of eyeglasses. You helped make me (see) who I am today.