How I Fell In Love with Eyeglasses
by Barbara Johansen Newman
Did you know that Glamorous Glasses was based on a true story about my cousin Joanie and the day she went to get her glasses?
Yup. And my family even used to call me “Bobbie!”
Many years ago my cousin Joanie needed to get glasses and I tagged along. I was nine years old. Before that day I never thought too much about eyeglasses, besides the fact that I knew some grown-ups and some kids needed to wear them. All that changed once I saw Joanie trying on glamorous glasses in blues and pinks and even black and white. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted a pair, too. And I started thinking about how nice I would look in them. I even tried on my friends’ glasses.
The thing is, when I was young, I did not need glasses at all. I had very good eyesight. But that didn’t keep me from wanting them. I even made my mother take me to the eye doctor, thinking he would tell her I needed glasses. Nope! My vision was perfect—just like Bobbie’s. I managed to get my mother to take me again a year or two later, but results were the same: No glasses for me! Eventually, I gave up… But I still thought a lot about glasses.
Finally when I was about thirteen, I actually needed glasses to keep my eyes from getting overtired when I was reading and drawing and doing close-up work. The day I got my first pair was a happy day! And the older I got, and the more art I made, the more I needed glasses.
Now I am much older, and I really, really need glasses ALL of the time, for seeing near and far. Some people might think that a person would grow tired of wearing glasses all day, every day, and it would not be fun anymore. Nope! I STILL love glasses, and I collect frames in all sorts of colors and in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I look for them in antique stores and at yard sales and even in normal places like the eyeglasses store that Bobbie and Joanie went to. The crazier the glasses are, the more I like them. I get some of my finds made into glasses that I can wear, and some pairs I just keep to look at. I never get tired of trying to find new pairs and my collection is always growing.
Now you know the story of Glamorous Glasses, which is really my story and how I fell in love with eyeglasses.
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