When I was in fifth grade, I was prescribed glasses. Didn’t get to officially start wearing them a few years after high school graduation. I believe I was afraid of being called “four-eyes.” (Oh, Elizabeth, your own glasses-wearing father doesn’t look stoopid in glasses?)
Urk! I think we missed the part of the story where the parents or the school figured this out. Just yesterday, Elly was talking about how the teacher claimed Elizabeth wasn’t paying attention in class and Elly was going along with the teacher’s opinion. She didn’t seem like she was close to realizing the problem was Elizabeth’s eyesight.
My 16-year-old daughter bought some glasses frames with plain glass in them. She has a quirk about how her eyes look (I think they look fine, but I’m only her mother; what do I know?) and feels she looks better with them.
I memorized the eye chart right before they tested me. Everything was fine as long as I could sit in the front row. Then calamity struck and I had to wear those ugly things.
I needed glasses at 18, plus was told, “did you know you have cataracts?” They stayed there until I was 36, the youngest in the cataract operation room that day. Doctor said her youngest was 25, I was her 2nd youngest. Now its just dollarstore readers that I use.
I had the same trouble as Elizabeth but back in the day (stone age), if I teacher suspected that a child couldn’t see the board (from squinting or copying things wrong), we were sent to have an in-house eye exam. I still remember that. And I couldn’t see the big “E” at the top of the chart. Hello coke-bottle glasses!
Yeah, that is a perceived problem with glasses, unless their cool sunglasses. I am a strong supporter of lasik or RK but glasses are cooler than squinting and crashing(car) into things.
This was my story too but I was told I only needed to wear them at school. My father said, “If she can’t see the blackboard, she can’t see a bus when it’s coming. She wears them ALL the time!”
I had cataract surgery a few years ago after more than half a century of coke bottle glasses. They did my prescription implants for monivision, which is one eye for near and one eye for far and your brain is supposed to sort it out. I hate it and wish both eyes has been done for distance and I could wear limestone readers. But I was truly horrified to find that the vision in my “near” eye, which is blurry more than a few feet away, is within the legal limits for driving in this state!! The idea that there are people on the road who can’t see any better than that with both eyes makes me very wary when I drive these days.
Both of my older brothers had glasses when they were only 4. I got to wait til I was 6. Glasses were ugly when I was a kid. I was called “Four Eyes” and I hated that. What a stupid name to call someone. I wish I’d known then what I know now, and just said to the fools who called me that “They help me read. They help me with my school work. They’re more helpful to me in my life than YOU are. So get lost turkey buzzard!” But no, they were “ugly” so when I got to be a teen I stopped wearing them at school. I’d take them off on the way to school and put them back on when I came home. My schoolwork suffered. It’s too bad people have to call others names over stuff like this.
A very good friend of mine, someone I’ve known since grammar school, struggled all his years in school. It wasn’t until he was in college that it was discovered he was dyslexic. Somehow, he’d managed to make it through 12 years of public and parochial school undetected and undiagnosed.
Like many people who are similarly afflicted, although it was a difficult obstacle to overcome, he went on to become a very successful businessman and best selling author!
I had the same reaction at age 8. However, frames were just plain dorky back then. In addition, it is hard for a grade schooler to look smart in anything. My granddaughter, who was comfortable with algebra at age 7, doesn’t wear glasses and normally looks like any girl her age… but when she is telling you the cold, hard facts her eyes burn holes in you. I have learned not to cross swords with her.
I beg your pardon, young lady! Some of us do beg to differ.Also, without glasses, working with monitors would be quite a doozy.There should be plenty of fashionable, affordable frames around.If that isn’t the case, you can always try contacts.
I can remember those days well. I wasn’t able to see the chalkboard, either, and since my last name was at the end of the alphabet, I had to sit in the back of the room. But I didn’t realize that I needed glasses until the day I walked to the front of the class and saw actual words on the board. (Back then, kids did not get routine eye exams…)
So true about children needing to wear glasses, what everyone said…in our case, it was the same. The teacher noticed that our oldest daughter was squinting, etc. when she was in grade six. Since she was going to have her eyes examined, we made an appointment for the other two at the same time. It turned out that all of the kids needed glasses. They inherited their father’s side of the family eyes. He needed them in grade three. They tried contacts in high school, but they didn’t work out either. The nice thing about glasses then, was that the new plastic lenses came in, and they had all the bells and whistles about non-scratch and non-glare surfaces, and the springs, and fancy frames, etc., that the kids didn’t mind wearing them. I remember that in the 80’s people wore blank frames as an accessory too…
I wasn’t “caught” until the second grade. Once fitted with corrective lenses, I discovered that my teacher was actually DOING SOMETHING on the blackboard in the front of the room. I was never disruptive, my attention would wander, visually, however. Though I could always repeat back to her, word for word, all her instructions. I don’t remember feeling “stoopid” wearing glasses, but, then, I’ve never worried what others think of me.
My troubles started when, after the Stanford- Benet I.Q. test everybody had to take in either the third or fourth grade, the principal wanted to bump me up three grades – my mom raised holy heck and they didn’t, so, bottom line I skated through school, never having to ‘work’ at all. Need for glasses is not the only thing parents need to be on the look-out for!
Nobody at school noticed that I couldn’t see, it was my dad who saw me the summer before 3rd grade holding comic books right up to my nose. And my mom who stuck me with the pink cat eye frames that I detested. Of course, looking back I realize I was born nearsighted, thus the scratch marks on the bottom of the TV cabinet from sitting as close as I could get in my mini-rocking chair while watching Captain Kangaroo…
3. Yes, tiny pink glasses with rubber things that went around the ears to keep them on at Age 3. 33 yrs later, still cannot see any definition without contacts or glasses. I’d be lost with them!!!
Templo S.U.D. almost 5 years ago
When I was in fifth grade, I was prescribed glasses. Didn’t get to officially start wearing them a few years after high school graduation. I believe I was afraid of being called “four-eyes.” (Oh, Elizabeth, your own glasses-wearing father doesn’t look stoopid in glasses?)
howtheduck almost 5 years ago
Urk! I think we missed the part of the story where the parents or the school figured this out. Just yesterday, Elly was talking about how the teacher claimed Elizabeth wasn’t paying attention in class and Elly was going along with the teacher’s opinion. She didn’t seem like she was close to realizing the problem was Elizabeth’s eyesight.
Wren Fahel almost 5 years ago
My 16-year-old daughter bought some glasses frames with plain glass in them. She has a quirk about how her eyes look (I think they look fine, but I’m only her mother; what do I know?) and feels she looks better with them.
SusanSunshine Premium Member almost 5 years ago
First grade…. I kept asking to sit closer to the board…
Teacher thought I just didn’t like sitting in back.
She also teased me about writing with my nose….eyes so close to the paper the tip of my nose almost touched it.
It only took her most of the school year to realise I couldn’t see, and send me to the school nurse.
The nurse sent a note home to say I needed an eye doctor….
Got my first glasses at barely seven. In those days, that was early…. nowadays “early” might be seven months.
The doctor said I might outgrow the need for them….
I don’t know why he said it…. most people don’t outgrow nearsightedness or astigmatism.
In fact, at eight, I already needed a stronger prescription.
My Dad grumbled, and told me I’d better outgrow them soon… because ladies who wear glasses will never get married!
Took me years of fretting over stronger and stronger prescriptions to realise…
my mother wore glasses when he married her.
8ec23d5228da33aa2115003c92d0fe83 almost 5 years ago
I memorized the eye chart right before they tested me. Everything was fine as long as I could sit in the front row. Then calamity struck and I had to wear those ugly things.
Spacetech almost 5 years ago
As I predicted
keltii almost 5 years ago
I needed glasses at 18, plus was told, “did you know you have cataracts?” They stayed there until I was 36, the youngest in the cataract operation room that day. Doctor said her youngest was 25, I was her 2nd youngest. Now its just dollarstore readers that I use.
dlkrueger33 almost 5 years ago
I had the same trouble as Elizabeth but back in the day (stone age), if I teacher suspected that a child couldn’t see the board (from squinting or copying things wrong), we were sent to have an in-house eye exam. I still remember that. And I couldn’t see the big “E” at the top of the chart. Hello coke-bottle glasses!
jpayne4040 almost 5 years ago
LOL! Elizabeth doesn’t even realize Daddy is wearing glasses!
vaughnrl2003 Premium Member almost 5 years ago
Yeah, that is a perceived problem with glasses, unless their cool sunglasses. I am a strong supporter of lasik or RK but glasses are cooler than squinting and crashing(car) into things.
JPuzzleWhiz almost 5 years ago
I’ve always wondered why some people insist on spelling “stupid” that way…
Diat60 almost 5 years ago
This was my story too but I was told I only needed to wear them at school. My father said, “If she can’t see the blackboard, she can’t see a bus when it’s coming. She wears them ALL the time!”
Catmom almost 5 years ago
I had cataract surgery a few years ago after more than half a century of coke bottle glasses. They did my prescription implants for monivision, which is one eye for near and one eye for far and your brain is supposed to sort it out. I hate it and wish both eyes has been done for distance and I could wear limestone readers. But I was truly horrified to find that the vision in my “near” eye, which is blurry more than a few feet away, is within the legal limits for driving in this state!! The idea that there are people on the road who can’t see any better than that with both eyes makes me very wary when I drive these days.
Alondra almost 5 years ago
Both of my older brothers had glasses when they were only 4. I got to wait til I was 6. Glasses were ugly when I was a kid. I was called “Four Eyes” and I hated that. What a stupid name to call someone. I wish I’d known then what I know now, and just said to the fools who called me that “They help me read. They help me with my school work. They’re more helpful to me in my life than YOU are. So get lost turkey buzzard!” But no, they were “ugly” so when I got to be a teen I stopped wearing them at school. I’d take them off on the way to school and put them back on when I came home. My schoolwork suffered. It’s too bad people have to call others names over stuff like this.
Linguist almost 5 years ago
A very good friend of mine, someone I’ve known since grammar school, struggled all his years in school. It wasn’t until he was in college that it was discovered he was dyslexic. Somehow, he’d managed to make it through 12 years of public and parochial school undetected and undiagnosed.
Like many people who are similarly afflicted, although it was a difficult obstacle to overcome, he went on to become a very successful businessman and best selling author!
flagmichael almost 5 years ago
I had the same reaction at age 8. However, frames were just plain dorky back then. In addition, it is hard for a grade schooler to look smart in anything. My granddaughter, who was comfortable with algebra at age 7, doesn’t wear glasses and normally looks like any girl her age… but when she is telling you the cold, hard facts her eyes burn holes in you. I have learned not to cross swords with her.
asrialfeeple almost 5 years ago
I beg your pardon, young lady! Some of us do beg to differ.Also, without glasses, working with monitors would be quite a doozy.There should be plenty of fashionable, affordable frames around.If that isn’t the case, you can always try contacts.
asrialfeeple almost 5 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-SC890E75g
Argy.Bargy2 almost 5 years ago
I can remember those days well. I wasn’t able to see the chalkboard, either, and since my last name was at the end of the alphabet, I had to sit in the back of the room. But I didn’t realize that I needed glasses until the day I walked to the front of the class and saw actual words on the board. (Back then, kids did not get routine eye exams…)
1JennyJenkins almost 5 years ago
So true about children needing to wear glasses, what everyone said…in our case, it was the same. The teacher noticed that our oldest daughter was squinting, etc. when she was in grade six. Since she was going to have her eyes examined, we made an appointment for the other two at the same time. It turned out that all of the kids needed glasses. They inherited their father’s side of the family eyes. He needed them in grade three. They tried contacts in high school, but they didn’t work out either. The nice thing about glasses then, was that the new plastic lenses came in, and they had all the bells and whistles about non-scratch and non-glare surfaces, and the springs, and fancy frames, etc., that the kids didn’t mind wearing them. I remember that in the 80’s people wore blank frames as an accessory too…
Scoutmaster77 almost 5 years ago
Except for you, of course. On you they look great!
wellis1947 Premium Member almost 5 years ago
I wasn’t “caught” until the second grade. Once fitted with corrective lenses, I discovered that my teacher was actually DOING SOMETHING on the blackboard in the front of the room. I was never disruptive, my attention would wander, visually, however. Though I could always repeat back to her, word for word, all her instructions. I don’t remember feeling “stoopid” wearing glasses, but, then, I’ve never worried what others think of me.
My troubles started when, after the Stanford- Benet I.Q. test everybody had to take in either the third or fourth grade, the principal wanted to bump me up three grades – my mom raised holy heck and they didn’t, so, bottom line I skated through school, never having to ‘work’ at all. Need for glasses is not the only thing parents need to be on the look-out for!
Catmom almost 5 years ago
Nobody at school noticed that I couldn’t see, it was my dad who saw me the summer before 3rd grade holding comic books right up to my nose. And my mom who stuck me with the pink cat eye frames that I detested. Of course, looking back I realize I was born nearsighted, thus the scratch marks on the bottom of the TV cabinet from sitting as close as I could get in my mini-rocking chair while watching Captain Kangaroo…
Wooded trail almost 5 years ago
3. Yes, tiny pink glasses with rubber things that went around the ears to keep them on at Age 3. 33 yrs later, still cannot see any definition without contacts or glasses. I’d be lost with them!!!