Wearing Glasses

[culnara]

Re: Wearing Glasses

NHS frames from around 1980. The designs had not changed since the late 1940s.

I remember I had a pair with the loop that went behind your ear, they hurt like hell after a time ><

[George 1978]

I would compare the NHS with Skoda. To be fair though, they do look after us when we need them.

[Arran]

I knew that there was something very British about the old NHS frames - but then again, the NHS was British as well...

My mother says that the NHS is the British Leyland of healthcare.

It's important not to conflate the concept of state run healthcare with the specific institution that is the NHS.

Anybody who sticks a pair of NHS glasses on their face might as well stick the square steering wheel from the Austin Allegro on their face.

[George 1978]

For some reason or other, the NHS frames were never exported to foreign countries so remain officially confined to Britain.

I knew that there was something very British about the old NHS frames - but then again, the NHS was British as well...

[beccabear67]

I always think of the boy in Timeslip and Hank Marvin of The Shadows when I see those black plastic frames.

[andrec]

I wore the black plastic frame NHS glasses at secondary school. My experience was that they were rather easy to get dislodged compared to the later metal frame ones I got.

[beccabear67]

In grade 4 a bunch of kids got the German measles, myself and four others, and we all ended up needing glasses after recovering. I got mine with tinted lenses so they darkened in sunlight as I was light sensitive... but I soon regretted it as kids, mostly from other grades, would bug me about them asking if I thought I was cool. Next time around I just got plain glass specs. I had wire frames most of the time, but the pairs as an adult have been more thick plastic frames. I never went in for the tiny glasses look that seemed popular for awhile as I thought it made most peoples' faces seem swollen... I was way out of style with Dierdre from Coronation Street type glasses, but i didn't care, I wanted to be able to see as much as I could, the bigger the lenses the better to me.

[Arran]

For some reason or other, the NHS frames were never exported to foreign countries so remain officially confined to Britain.

A small number of NHS frames were unofficially exported to foreign countries (mostly Commonwealth) sometimes by people who previously wore them but later sold them. There were even some cases of people faking eye tests in order to get a pair of NHS glasses that they didn't require and would later sell the frame in a foreign country.

[George 1978]

Had to wear them at school and got bullied for it, like on Grange Hill in Series 10 when Trev and Imelda nicked that Kid's Glasses (not as they was taxed) as we termed pinching back that or like whatever, but it has always been an on-off story if I needed them so have always had a complex about wearing them-wearing them not

I sympathise - some kids used to think wearing glasses was a novelty thing when just one kid used to wear them.

[andrec]

Forgot to mention that I did try contact lenses for a brief period around 1990. I had to have the non-flexible type and just couldn't get used to them - it was like having grit in my eyes all the time. I soon got sick of it and went back to glasses. It wasn't due to embarrassment that I tried contact lenses, rather that they were more suited to sports, but they were just too uncomfortable. I still have them in their original bag with the fluid they had to be put in.

[andrec]

I wore glasses from around 5 years old. I still remember having to go to the eye hospital in the mid or late 60s and lots of medical students examining my eyes. I wore those round 'John Lennon' type initially, then later on into the 70s the standard black plastic NHS type. In the 80s I wore more fashionable metal ones. I had two pairs in the same style, one silver and one gold. I would rotate between them and did so for about a decade. I would be wearing, say, the silver ones, go to the optician for my annual check-up, be prescribed new lenses, have them put into the gold ones, then wear the gold ones until my next check-up, keeping the silver glasses as an emergency. Next time the new lenses would go into the silver and gold would become the back-up. I was unlucky in that nearly every check-up would mean needing new lenses. I've never really been embarrassed about wearing glasses, though they have been an issue when playing sports at school. Other than a screw coming loose/lost, I don't remember having to have any other repairs done.

[80sChav]

Had to wear them at school and got bullied for it, like on Grange Hill in Series 10 when Trev and Imelda nicked that Kid's Glasses (not as they was taxed" as we termed pinching back that or like whatever, but it has always been an on-off story if I needed them so have always had a complex about wearing them-wearing them not

[George 1978]

I was thinking about this thread when I thought about our new PM Sir Keir Starmer who seems to wear glasses more on a regular basis these days since he's moved into Downing Street, but when he was Director of Public Prosecutions, he hardly worn them - I don't really remember him wearing them back then.

On the other hand, former Blackburn MP Jack Straw used to wear them during the early Blair era but stopped around the time when Gordon Brown was PM - but it made me think that he had contact lenses or something.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Wearing Glasses

C524 are the chunky NHS glasses I'm referring to in post #2. The two metal frames seem much rarer in the 1970s and 80s judging by school photos. You could get C524 with pink and blue frames as well as the more common black and brown.

they were certainly the most popular although now that I think of it, there was one lad who had metal framed glasses throughout school. They weren't like those on that chart though so they must have been bought privately. They were more 'aviator' shaped - high fashion in the day!

[Richard1978]

Re: Wearing Glasses

I had some frames which had new lenses put in to save money.