The Way It Was – New Glasses

Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories.
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Some time ago, I wrote about my first pair of eyeglasses. I got them when I was 12 years old. I really didn’t need glasses, but I thought they would make me look older, and like a lot of other 12 year olds, I wanted to look older.
First, I had to convince my mother that I needed glasses, but that wasn’t hard. Then I had to convince the optometrist that I needed them. That was more challenging, but he wrote a prescription for reading glasses. He sent it to a place that made eyeglasses, and a couple weeks later I picked them up at his office. They really didn’t help me read any better, but I think they did make me look older.
Quite a few years later, I realized that I did, indeed, need eyeglasses. I got a pair and I wore them only for reading. Over time, my eyes kept changing, and I got new glasses every now and then.
Several years later, I heard about a new eyeglasses place in Columbus. I don’t remember the name, but it was the first place that provided eyeglasses in only a couple hours. They offered an eye exam, and then they made the glasses right there, under the same roof. So I no longer had to wait a couple weeks to get them.
I told my wife about the new business, and suggested we both go there for an eye exam. She was leery of getting new glasses in a couple of hours. She wanted one of us to try the place, and if the glasses were satisfactory, then the other could make an appointment. But I convinced her that we should both immediately give them a try.
We scheduled an appointment for both of us the following afternoon. It was a typical eye exam. The only thing different was that we weren’t told to come back in two weeks to get our glasses. Instead, they told us to come back in two hours. Pretty cool I thought.
There was a whole wall of men’s and women’s frames we could choose from, plus a spot display of “unisex” frames they were featuring. A couple hours later we returned to the store and picked up our glasses. Then we headed for home, wearing temporary sunglasses they gave us.
I had to be at work early the next morning, so I had a quick cup of coffee. Then I grabbed my new glasses and put them on in the car. I hadn’t gone far until I noticed the street signs didn’t seem very clear. It was still dark out, however, so I thought that might have something to do with it. But when I got to the office, I found that my close vision was even worse than the distance vision.
Oh man, I should have listened to my wife. She will never let me forget this. I thought about calling her to let her know what I was experiencing, but I was hesitant because this whole thing had been my idea. So I spent that entire day wearing no glasses at all.
When I got home after work, I admitted to my wife that it had been my mistake to get glasses at the new place, because mine were really unsatisfactory. Then she told me that she had been having the same trouble, not as bad as mine, but she really couldn’t wear her new glasses.
We agreed that both of us would return our glasses the next morning. Since both pairs were unsatisfactory, we both wore our old glasses on the way to Columbus. We just put the new ones in our glove compartment.
When we pulled into the parking lot in front of the store, my wife opened the glove compartment to retrieve the new glasses. When she did that, she asked, “Which of these are mine?”
As soon as those words were out of her mouth, we both realized what had happened. We had both gotten those “unisex” frames, so our glasses appeared to be identical. Oh no! She had been wearing my glasses, and I had been wearing hers. We traded glasses in the car, and suddenly we both had 20/20 vision.
Boy was I glad we found that out before going into the store to complain. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would have been?
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at
williamboyd514@gmail.com