Life's Most Memorable Times

Then along comes something that changes the direction your life ...

The other day, Robert and I were on a half hour road trip to some store and the car radio wasn’t picking up any stations clearly.  We started talking about some of the most memorable things from our life. 

As you can imagine, those at the top were pretty much the same for each of us: becoming a parent, (of course); the first time we saw the Beatles; our first crush; our first broken heart; our first kiss; the first time we rode our two-wheeler without help.

My true ‘most memorable’ will always be the saddest thing that ever happened, (the 1969 loss of my first husband in Vietnam), but I kept that to myself and out of this conversation. It was heading in an upbeat happy direction. creating a bubble of smiles around us that I chose not to burst.

As the conversation went on, the lists only came faster and sillier.  Then Robert slowed things way down by asking me if there was a ‘most memorable’ anything that caused me to do an about face and go in a whole different direction? When I thought about it, my answer came easily.

My ‘most memorable’ change came when I was a teenager. It was a positive, defining moment and my entire life took a new path. It was the day I got my first pair of contact lenses. I was in the 10th grade, a sophomore in high school. For the first time since I was a toddler, I wouldn’t have to wear thick-lensed bi-focal glasses. No more “Bug Eyes” …

<Joy, joy, joy>

I don’t know if there’s anyone reading this who can adequately appreciate the true and deep magnitude of my appreciation.

I was born extremely far-sighted and for a while, I was also cross-eyed. Fortunately, the ophthalmologist my parents took me to at 2 knew how to train my eye muscles and that problem was in time, corrected. To correct my far-sightedness, I wore thick bifocal glasses at the age of 2–1/2.

Starting in Kindergarten, I remember being teased. It was unfair, but the thick far-sighted lenses did tend to magnify the size of my eyes, giving me a distinctive bug-eyed look. Kids just didn’t understand at that young age how what they said might affect anyone else.

By the time I was a freshman in high school, (9th grade), I was extremely self-conscious and shy. That’s about the time contact lenses first came out and they were the new rage. I remember hearing my parents talking with my eye doctor about possibly getting a pair for me.

His major concern was whether I would be able to wear them, considering my high far-sighted prescription plus having a hefty astigmatism. This is where the shape of the eyeball is actually skewed. This could complicate things. The first contacts were hard lenses and wearers already had to work their way up to full time use in increments of a half hour per day.

A year later, I was finally approved to wear them during my sophomore year. I was determined to wear them and I took my daily training seriously. Come hell or high water, I was going to wear contact lenses.

It was amazing. I will always remember how excited I was the day I saw individual raindrops falling for the first time. It was wonderful.  Also, in school, for the first time in my life, a boy my age looked at me and smiled.

I felt a little bit like the ugly duckling after it found out it was really a swan. I wasn’t forced to live behind heavy thick glasses any more.  No more ‘bug eyes’, ‘four eyes’, or wearing glasses to bed so my dreams weren’t blurry.

I remember in all seriousness, asking Mama one day after school, “Mama, will you teach me how to flirt?”

“Catherine Jo!  Absolutely not!  I’m sure you’ll figure that out all by yourself.”

Well, I guess I did … as a senior, I was voted “Class Flirt” as you can see in the photo from my yearbook.  When Mama saw it, she asked why didn’t I work just a little bit harder?   She would have rather seen me voted ‘Most Likely to Succeed” …

I would have been proud of that, too … but even prouder, to have a plaque that said:  “Most Likely to Succeed in Spite of Being Class Flirt” …

A few years ago, I was having a lot of eye burning, itching and my contacts were just too uncomfortable to wear very long. I made an appointment with an ophthalmologist.  He said I had outlived my days of wearing hard contacts.  I was so disappointed, because my eye problems would not allow me to wear soft lenses.

He asked how long I had worn the hard lenses.  It was well over 40 years.  He was dumbfounded!  He said most people could only wear hard lenses for about fifteen years.

Most memorable, yes, that’s exactly what it was.  Very much so.

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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