Date: 1967 My age: 8
Place: Driving home from eye doctor.
Participants: Father and Me
Father: How do you like your new glasses, Lorrie?
Me: I love them! I can see the leaves on the trees....
Father: I want you to take very good care of those glasses. You do not have to wear them at all times..
Me: But I want to! I can see so much better!!!
Father: I understand. But I need you to take very good care of those glasses. I'm a struggling PhD student and we don't have a lot of money to live on. If you lose or break those glasses, I will have to pay to replace them. If I have to pay to replace them, we will lose our home and be thrown out on the street, we will not have enough money to pay for food or any other basic necessities of life, and soon buzzards will begin circling our starving bodies waiting until we take our last painful breaths before diving in to begin feasting on our rotting flesh. Do you understand?
Me: OH YES FATHER!!! I DO!!!!!
And that is why I have them in my hands as I write this. I also have the 1/3 inch long scissors that were a reward from the dentist for no cavities when I was 5. I overheard my dad joking to the receptionist that he'd be surprised if I could find them one week later.
I had something to prove. (cough)
Anyway, back to the present.
Madeleine is experiencing eye problems.
She is me, a carbon copy of me. My clone.
"Wouldn't it be funny if she could even wear my glasses," I joked to Roger as I pulled them out from the bureau. "Don't be silly," he replied.
Do I even have to tell you what the result was? However, we're off the the optometrist to get her a pair that will not be quite so retro-chic.
Do you want to take any bets how close the prescription will be?
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12 comments:
Oh, she looks adorable in the retro-chic glasses!
So cute!
When I got my first glasses at 11 years old, I was also stupendously excited about seeing the leaves on the trees :D
When I got my first glasses at 22, I was stupendously excited to discover that one could actually read the exit signs on the interstate in advance and that they weren't just to confirm where you were going as you got off. And I seriously love those retro chic glasses of yours. I'd wear them now.
Retro-chic? Those are IN baby.
Mad ALSO has your narrative gifts and sparkling wit.
Love her in those....she would be the envy of her class. Can't wait to see her new ones and how close the prescription is : )
Love, love, love the specks! Miss Madaleine could so pull them off!
I got my first glasses at 10. Until then I thought everyone drew trees with green scribbles for leaves because that's the way everyone else saw them, too! Who knew that regular folks could see individual leaves? Must be a universal experience for the visually challenged!
Oh! I thought they WERE her new glasses. Silly me.
I'll just jump in line to covet your old/new glasses. Those are F-A-B!
my mother still talks about the look that came over my face as they put my first glasses on me. Complete amazement.
I wore the same pair from age 11 to age 17. They were AWFUL looking. I looked ridiculous. I never realized how goofy they were until I saw pictures much later.
I just want to say that the first day I got my new glasses (in 5th grade) I marveled at the fact that I could see the leaves on the trees. What a simple pleasure!
I thought for sure those were her new glasses. I think she looks great in them. Maybe slightly better if they were apple green...
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