Until a few years ago I had hawk-like vision. Now, careening wildly toward 50, I can’t read anything closer than 3’ from me.
I crossed the Rubicon yesterday. I forgot to bring my reading glasses to buy Zantac and had to “borrow” a pair from the CVS glasses rack to read the package.
When did your eyeballs call it quits? My distance vision is still great, so there’s that . . .
Mine started giving up when
I was 13. Got my first pair of bifocals when I was 20. Now that I’m pushing 50, my glasses just seem like a part of my body.
Depending how you look at it (snerk), I’m either a year or two ahead or behind you. I seem to only need “reading glasses” at night while drinking. More of a “poor light” issue for me, I guess.
Always remember: The better you look, the more you’ll see.
That’s a terrible quote!
Got my first pair of glasses when I was 11. I didn’t mind then and I still don’t. God bifocals (progressives) over 25 years ago. No big deal. I like wearing them–they’re a great fashion accessory.
Suggest you start shopping for really cute frames. There are lots of them now, many more than when I started, and many more than just a few years ago.
I also got hearing aids a couple of years ago (age mid-60s) and I love them.
Happened to be at about the same time actually.
Turns out aging isn’t for sissies. Who knew?
I’m extremely nearsighted - I can’t focus on anything farther away than 6". Now that I’m past 50, I can’t focus on anything closer than 4" - used to be 2". I don’t think it’s physically possible for these numbers to get any closer together. It’s still handy to be able to whip off my glasses for close work.
Yay for progressive lenses!
Started losing my distance vision by 11, now my lenses are so strong that I have to remove my glasses in order to read. Reading distance isn’t all that great, either; need to trombone to find a good balance between left and right.
Getting my first pair of bifocals (progressives) in December.
I am 49; will turn 50 in 2 months.
For most of my life, I could read a street sign from a mile away. I could read newsprint from more than 12 feet away. I had amazing, perfect SDHD vision (Super Duper High Def, natch).
Those days appear to be gone forever. 
I started using cheaters about a year ago, strictly for when I spend hours at a clip reading books. Now, I use them for all reading, including ingredients lists on food, etc. about 65% of the time. I have a pair of these glasses with me at all times and have others for work and still others scattered all over my house, wherever I might sit and read (chair, desk, etc.).
What was astounding was how quickly it became 2nd nature to put a pair of glasses on to read things. Within 2 months of getting my first pair of cheaters it was automatic whenever I knew I had to read something.
It’s annoying when we find out we can’t do certain things anymore.
But you should be aware that those of us who have been near-sighted and wearing glasses since early grade school point and laugh at people like you.
In 2007, I was 47, and bought the original iPhone, and could use it without glasses. Within two years, I needed reading glasses to read anything closer than arm’s length.
I was born blind, but it took 30 years to progress to the point at which the condition was diagnosable, 50 years to become legal blindness, now at 77 it’s almost gone.
At 50, you are discovering that the natural flexible lenses in your eyes are beginning to solidify, and your eye muscles can no longer squeeze them into correct focal shape. That’s when you get bifocals, to make up for the fact that your eyes no longer accommodate to changing focus with distance.
Doctors nowadays have the bedside manner of veterinarians, and treat their patients like dumb barnyard animals. So your optometrist probably never explained any of this to you.
Yeah, hawks aren’t so great at close-up vision, either.
If you’re new to the reading glasses scene one thing that I have found aggregation-reducing is to go to your local members only wholesale market (there’s one near me that starts with a Giant “C”) and get a couple three three packs of readers and position a pair everywhere near where you might need them: The car, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, the living room, the garden shed, the work desk, next to the TV, etc. It’s a bit spend up front but it’s with it in the end.
I do have two pair of bifocals in custom frames (i have a very wide nose bridge and OTC frames look weird).
And, ignorance fought! Hawks don’t have good vision.
I’ve had glasses since third grade for distance. When I also needed reading glasses at about 50 I got laik for the distance part so I would not have to deal with contacts and reading glasses.
Works out pretty well. But some stuff is still to small to read.
A mild rant… People rarely wear their reading glasses in the shower. If it’s at a hotel or somewhere I didn’t bring my own shampoo, or even trying to figure out my wife’s shampoo I have about a 50/50 chance of washing my hair with conditioner or body wash or whatever. Dammit, make the text bigger. And white letters on a light green background is impossible to read.
You don’t go to doctors but you know about their bedside manner? Perhaps you’re forcing yourself on the wrong doctors? Or maybe you’re simply a bad patient.
Ah, just yesterday my friend and I were walking our dogs when we came upon a sign in somebody’s yard. It said, in big letters, FOR SALE, and then under that, whatever was for sale, in smaller letters. Neither one of us could read it.
I came up with “Honey Baboon.” (Honestly: haven’t you ever wanted a honey baboon?
She walked up closer (she has had Lasik and only wears glasses to drive).
Turns out it was a Harley Davidson. Well, they should have parked it under the sign. That would have made things much clearer.
To answer the OP, I got glasses before starting kindergarten, so no help at all on your question. But I sure have had a lot of what I call James Thurber moments, in my life, when I knew that what I was seeing could not possibly be what I was seeing, but I didn’t really want to know.
I got bifocals at five or six and contacts at 14. Regular contacts worked until around 40, when I got monovision lenses. So far they work for far and near and I don’t need reading glasses. YET. :eek:
If you need to ridicule me so badly that you will search other threads looking for posts from me that you can quote, you might at least take the trouble to find two that actually contradict each other, instead of complementing each other by representing a cause and effect. Sometimes I do contradict myself – I’m not under oath here. Keep looking.
never had a problem until approaching 50.
Started when I noticed myself holding papers nearly at arms length to be able to read them, then wondering why the newspaper seemed to be getting blurry.
I’m now 51 and have had reading glasses for a couple of years.
I don’t carry them with me everywhere I go, there’s a pair at work and a pair at home, so if I go shopping and want to read the ingredients on some packet or tin, I have no hope.