Glasses a defining part of my persona

You might have heard, I recently developed cataracts and now have a whole new meaning to the lyrics of the song “Doctor My Eyes,” by Jackson Browne.

You know the song that starts out:

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years

And the slow parade of tears without crying

There is no doubt my eyes have seen the years — nearly 50 of them in glasses but I’ve tried not to cry about it.

My poor eyesight was first diagnosed before I ever entered junior high school. That diagnosis was made by none other than Charlie Brown. No, not the funny looking round-headed kid Marcie, the deaf shooting instructor with Coke-bottle glasses and hearing aids who was patiently trying to pass me through the range portion of the New Mexico Hunter Education course.

Good Ol’ Charlie Brown just couldn’t pass me through in good faith because I wasn’t hitting anything with the iron sights .22 I was shooting at targets with. Being a coffee buddy of my granddad’s he told him and my folks he didn’t think I could see the target. My granddad took me out to see if working on it would improve things but it didn’t.

So, a short time later I took an unforgettable trip to the optometrist with my dad and his side-kick of the moment James Brown (no relation to Portales’ Charlie Brown). I guess they thought they were doing me a favor because I got teased more on that pickup ride about wearing glasses than I did all through junior high.

John Denver was big about then and he had just switched to what everyone was calling “granny glasses” or wire frames. I was teased that I would end up with a pair of “granny glasses.”

I did indeed need glasses badly and opted for horn-rimmed glasses more in the style of Buddy Holly than John Denver because I knew the teasing at home would continue with wire frames.

I wore those frames faithfully and passed the shooting screen. I liked sports though and one day the glasses got knocked off on the basketball court and the ball got dribbled on them, which caused them to be flipped up 12 or 15 feet into the concrete bleachers at the old junior high gym. After that, I wore one of those stylish black elastic glasses straps most of the time.

Looking back on it I’m not sure why I didn’t just buy a pocket protector too and try out for the chess team.

I have done all that I could

To see the evil and the good without hiding

You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes

Tell me what is wrong

Was I unwise to leave them open for so long

Cause I’ve wandered through this world

And as each moment has unfurled

I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams

I guess the dreams haven’t all been nightmares while wearing eyeglasses but they have become a defining part of my persona.

Stay tuned next week for more on whether or not I shed the spectacles after cataract surgery.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]