When I was in the fifth grade I was given an eye test at school where it was discovered I had very poor eye sight. It seems amazing that even i did not realize something was wrong. I always had to sit on the front rows at school. I would get up and go to the black board to see what the teacher had written and expected me to copy. When I was asked the time by Mom, I would climb onto a chair and practically put my nose on the clock in order to read it.
The school nurse took me home and told my mother I was almost blind. This certainly made us both feel frightened.
Since we had no money for eye glasses, the County Welfare Dept. paid for me to ride a Greyhound Bus to Salt Lake City where I would see an eye doctor. I was 10 years old, sent to the big city all alone with a five dollar bill! I was to stay with Aunt Jessie who was at work when I arrived. i had to take a taxi to her address and have her landlady let me into the apartment. When it was time for my appointment Aunt Jessie took time off for me. My glasses were ordered and ready the next day.
I'll never forget those ugly round gold framed glasses!
Forget the ugly, those spectacles placed on my face opened a whole new world to me I did not know existed. It seemed, when I looked down, my feet were as far away as Alice's were when she was chasing the White Rabbit down the hole and changed sizes after eating a bit of mushroom.
When I was twelve Grandma Emma was going to Salt Lake City to visit her youngest daughter who was now married and expecting her first child. she thought it was time for me to return for a check up with the eye doctor and wanted me to go with her.
She cam to the house to suggest I go with her. Daddy said, "No." He didn't have the money to send me and did not like to accept charity.
Grandma and he got into an argument over this and she went away never to speak to him again in this life time. She died two years later.
The week after Grandma left town, Daddy's sister Phyllis and her family came by for a visit on their way home to Hill Air Force Base near Salt Lake City. By now Daddy had time to think it over and sent me with his sister to meet Grandma.
Grandma Emma sometimes just could not contain herself when she thought we children were not cared for properly.
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