New Specs - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

New Specs

While playing tennis last week, my eye glasses fell off and the frame broke. My prescription had just been updated last fall but they didn’t carry the frames, so I went online to find a replacement. Fortunately, eBay had a pair listed at half the price I paid several years ago, so I put in a low ball offer and sure enough, they accepted. The replacement frame arrived a few days later and today, I had the lenses installed in the new frame by my local eye doctor.

So all is well. However, the whole process brought to mind my eyeglass encounters as a kid on the farm, where it seemed I’d break my glasses about every few months. I can recall our family optometrist Doctor Connor in St. Marys giving me an eye exam during the spring of 1959 at age 11 after carelessly breaking my frames. Meanwhile, Mom was observing the exam and worrying about how to pay for new glasses. Dr. Connor diagnosed me with “lazy eye” which meant my left eye would apparently not focus or properly follow the item being sighted. He told my Mom the lenses were fine and only a new frame was needed, but in the meantime, he told me to wear a patch on my normal right eye 8 hours per day with my old glasses taped up until new frames came in and hopefully my “lazy” left eye started to act properly. What a summer that was!

First of all, I looked like a nerd with my taped up glasses, plus with the covered right eye, I looked like a pirate! Doctors orders were for me to do detailed work, which Mom interpreted to mean stuff around the house. I can recall picking strawberries, plucking the stems off green beans, peeling carrots, shucking peas, pealing potatoes and many other duties around the house Mom interpreted to be detail oriented. I even learned to sew! Eight hours a day come hell or high water. To Dad’s and my consternation, Mom felt regular farm work was not focused enough for my lazy eye to correct itself. What a terrible summer! But it worked, as by the time I got to high school, no glasses were needed until about age 50 when I again required glasses. To this day, my left eye is still weaker, but my right eye remains at 20-20. As I discovered after my glasses broke, I probably really don’t need glasses.

Speaking of eye glasses, this previous blogpost about neighbor Pete Quinter, unfortunately since deceased at too young an age, about how I almost ruined his sight, came full circle as he became a renowned surgeon who did bypass surgery on my Mom extending her life by at least a decade.

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