Crabgrass by Tauhid Bondia for September 18, 2024

I thought she would say “contact lenses”

I only wear glasses when driving. I can see up close just fine. It’s distance I have trouble with.

Check the bangs!

She sits upfront.

Or maybe you wear contact lenses?

After cataract surgery and partial cornea transplants I went from CSS (Can’t See $hit) to can see most $hit but I still need cheaters to read menus and such. I’m very lucky.

Do kids wear contacts?

If it’s really that good, she should’a’ refused to wear glasses so that she could stay!

When I was a kid in the latter 60s, I felt like we were Generation Guinea Pig…constantly being used to test out the latest theories and fads. We were all marched down to have hearing tests and vision tests several times during grade school, so I doubt that anyone with vision or hearing problems was overlooked. I recall that “lazy eye” was a popular diagnosis, with a lot of kids wearing eye patches. I think there was even an arc in Peanuts at the time with Linus having “lazy eye”.

That was all good. The “New Math” and other teaching fads were not so great. As Simon and Garfarkle might have sung, when I think of all the cr@p I went through in grade school, it’s a wonder I can think at all…

I was in 3rd grade when it was discovered I needed glasses because of nearsightedness. We used to sit in “size order”, and being tall, I sat in the back of the room. When the teacher asked me a question about something on the blackboard, my reply was (so legend has it) “what blackboard?”

When I was in elementary school, we had eye tests, hearing tests, and fluoride treatments. I remember getting the first polio vaccine. It was liquid and they gave it to us on a sugar cube.

I’ve never understood people who are ashamed of wearing glasses.

ever alert, my parents didn’t realize i needed glasses until one of my teachers realized i wasn’t able to see the blackboard. i’d had splitting headaches for years and was 12 or 13 at that point… ☺

She begged and begged her folks not to let her wear glasses. It obviously paid off.

I kept a diary when I was a kid, and one of my earliest entries (aged 7 or 8) involved being pleased that I could see the blackboard better after my teacher rearranged the seats. Shortly after that (I assume she sent a note to my parents), at the eye doctor, they said, “Okay, can you tell me what the first letter on the chart is?” And I said “What chart?”

My dad’s story is funny too. He and his brothers loved baseball and frisbee and stuff. One summer his accuracy suddenly tanked, and he kept getting hit by the ball, poor guy