sunglasses on the beach. travel concept
We asked everyone to share their story of how they lost their glasses in the most epic way in our CoPower & VSP 20 Year Anniversary Contest. The winner of The Ultimate Eye Care Experience was: Rachel Fredericks (read her story here).
We appreciate all stories you shared with us and we wanted to highlight two outstanding runner ups. Read their amazing stories below and for all the contest participants who entered, thank you!
I was invited to speak at a youth conference being held on houseboats at Trinity Lake, near Redding, California, As part of there perks, I was able to take my two minor sons (11 and 9 years old) with me to enjoy the water-sports and jet skis . The schedule had me speaking in the later afternoons which granted me ample free use of the jet skis with my two children. In preparation for the trip I bought a new pair of Ray-Ban sun glasses before making the four hour drive to the conference. After giving instructions to my eldest son the very first morning, we took off for some fun and adventure as he drove a jet ski for the very first time. He was thrilled to be operating such a powerful machine. After about an hour, he was performing many maneuvers and gaining confidence. I decided it would be exciting to have him jump a wake of a passing motor boat. As we hit the wake the jet ski was propelled into the air and he laughed hysterically as we left the water and flew through the air. Unfortunately we hit the water with the nose of the jet ski facing directly down. I was ripped off the back of the jet ski and was tumbling around in the lake like clothes in the spin cycle of a washing machine. The force of the impact ripped my $200 Ray-Ban glasses and the strap to hold them on off my head. I immediately tried to grab them but they slowly floated into the dark abyss. I tried my best to swim down to retrieve them but to no avail. When I surfaced my son was trilled to survived the landing and remain on the jet ski. He insisted on doing another jump…blinded by the sun and deeply depressed at only wearing my glassed for roughly six hours, I conceded. To this day, it is one of his fondest memories and my most expensive, short-lived sun glass. When he enlisted in the Air Force, he purchased a nice pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses and walked into the house, looked at me and said, “Don’t these remind you of Trinity Lake?” After all these year, we still still laugh about it.
I am 60 and have worn glasses since 3rd grade…and during all these years have lost and broken many a pair!
I recall in 7th grade a story I will entitle: “Tricia, The Tree, and The Snowball”!
It was a cold, snowy afternoon in good ol Buffalo-New York during what is now known as the “Blizzard of 77” and was being chased down a slippery, white path near my school by a fellow 7th grader. (and yes I was smitten with him! Yeah give me a break I was in 7th grade and we were all boy crazy by then!) At first it was fun, running away from this boy with joy but then the crack of the first hard-packed snowball hit my shoulder, got my attention, and I knew I had to run for my life! While running away from the hard packed snowballs being flown my direction with such “7th grade boy power” I kept running as fast as I could while at the same time looking over my right shoulder to see where the ball was in flight and BAM it wasn’t the snowball that got me, it was the tree that I ran right into! My glasses broke in half, I hit the ground, and I had the bark of the tree scrapped along the left side of my face with dark brown bark and red bright blood. My BFF, who is still my BFF to this day even though we are 3000 miles apart, walked me to the local optician who knew my family well (remember I’ve had glasses since 3rd grade, and many of them by now!) and ordered a new pair having to wear my older pair til they arrive ten days later. Funny thing is that years later, maybe 25+ at a class reunion I brought this story up to the boy who chased me and he laughed as it was a memory he also retained after all these years!
Another time I dove off the ski boat while water skiing in Lake Erie and as soon as I dove off the boat and came back up I said to myself “oh no, I can’t see now, did I dive in with my glasses on?!” Yup I did….off to the Optician again. Thank you Dr. Boorady for the discounts you gave my family all those years! RIP.