Pick a Pair! Time for New Glasses

I've worn glasses since the first grade, so I've had a variety of pairs over the years. I've worn my most recent ones for quite a while now--rectangular semi-rimless models. That's about to change.

Glasses are an unusually personal accessory, in that if you need them, you need them all the time and they become part of your personality. While the wealthy and style conscious (Elton John comes to mind) can have a closet full to pick from, I normally select a set and have them for at least a few years before updating my look.

When I was a kid, there were few choices, and I didn't really care--as long as I could see. But, when John Lennon donned his famous little specs in 1967, suddenly I wanted those--and thought I'd be a much cooler guy when I had them. Well--I liked the look, for sure, but I'm not sure how much cooler I actually got with them on my face.

In the 1970's glasses got bigger. I remember my first big plastic pair, with glass lenses, weighing me down. Later, I went back to metal frames--and you can see them in photos I took for the Saturn brochure in summer of 1993.

Well, now that I have VPN to pay for part of the cost and my friend Gary Osias has opened his beautiful new Primary Eyecare facility, I went in last night to see what's cooking in the optical world.

For me, choosing frames is as much about how they fit on my face as it is dealing with my multiple layers of feelings about what a certain look means. The dark plastic frames that are popular (again) today tend to remind me of being a nerdy 12-year-old. As Evelyn, my skilled optician, told me, "Nerdy is cool now." How nice to know...

In any case, we started with a return to the John Lennon look--and I was surprised to see that those frames don't work for me anymore. The memories are great, but now they simply make me look old. Don't forget that those wire frames were Glenn Miller glasses too, and Harry Truman as well. We decide what makes something cool--the designs live on to become popular during their next revival.

After I dismissed returning to the little round metal kind, I was more open to suggestion. Evelyn brought out a dark plastic Gucci pair that I slipped on and was shocked--they actually looked good (although I had visions of my dad wearing them--or Phil Silvers. She took me over to the other optical folks for a second opinion. They liked them. Well, I go in for more measurements on Friday and I'll probably place the order then. I wanted something different--and it looks like I'm going to get it.