As I said before, while in Taos, while cleaning my glasses, I was overcome with a surge of Herculean strength and twisted my glass frames so that one of the thingies became noticeably wobbly. I tried to be careful with them for the rest of the week, but the thingy broke off in the middle of a workshop session. Several people scrambled to find glass repair tools in their purses or bags. But,alas, it was for naught. The problem wasn't a lost screw, but structural damage. So I spent the rest of the week holding my glasses up to my face so I could read.
I had an old pair with me, but they didn't help much with the reading.
Just before I left for Taos, I got a prescription for a new pair and I knew they would be ready when I got home, so no Biggs.
I picked them up today. There was a family ahead of me that was picking up a new prescription for one of their little girls--her first pair. She was a pretty little girl, 11 or 12. When she tried her new glasses on and looked in the mirror, tears filled her eyes and she began crying silently. She hated the way she looked with glasses. Her mother and the girl at the counter tried to comfort her. The lady helping me had the same prescription, so she also turned to comfort the girl. The mother began explaining to her that, if she earned the money, she could get contacts and show her how to put them in. But, in the meantime, she would have to wear the glasses.
The counter lady offered to go back and have them tinted for her. When she came back, the girl liked them better that way and stopped crying.
Ah, how fragile the psyche of the pre-teen. Oh, the pain of growing up.
6 comments:
Aaawww... (sniff...)
You said it brother!
I had to get glasses when I was in third grade. They took me into a room and sat me down at a table. A guy came in and put this HIDEOUS pair of glasses on me and said, "How's that?" I said, "Fine." And that was it. Those were my glasses. I had no idea that there were other styles available, no idea that I had any kind of a choice.
I know just how she felt.
I don't remember you ever wearing glasses.
I don't think I really needed them back then. I really hated school and never did the work so they thought I couldn't see the chalk board. I almost never wore them.
Wow, I'm remembering stuff as I'm writing. I got my glasses in FIRST grade. My kindergarten teacher was the sweetest woman in the world. I LOVED being in her class. My first grade teacher was an A#1 bitch on wheels. No wonder I started to hate school. No wonder I wouldn't perform for her. The first day I wore my glasses to school she saw me sitting there and said loudly, "YOU GOT YOUR GLASSES!" in front of the whole class. Then later she saw me cleaning them with a paper towel and she yelled, "Don't do that! You'll scratch the lenses!" I didn't even know what a lense was. Nobody told me anything about these stupid, fucking glasses.
I found the picture of me with glasses.
Wow! Those glasses had wings!
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