It's Not Quite the Same

 I was going over to pick up my friend Jim in Oakmont. The main drag was being worked on and I needed to take a small detour. It was just a few blocks out of my way, no big deal.

    Turning left a block above the main avenue, I realized that I was on a street that I haven’t been on in decades. I came to a stop sign and there it was, the small building where my first ophthalmologist had his office. No big deal, right?

    The office wasn’t what struck me; it was the chimney on the house across the street from it. I remember that chimney well!

    I got my first pair of glasses sometime between when I was five or six. It was right around when I first started school. This isn’t much different than what many other small kids go through, thank heavens for doctors who can correct our eyesight and allow us to see better!

    We visited him and he set me in a chair with all sorts of torturous looking equipment attached to it. He swung a huge black mask in front of my face, covered with silver levers and numbers. A chart hung on the wall in front of me.  As he moved levers and switched things around, he kept asking me if I could see the chart and if it looked better. Eventually he finished and wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper and told my parents he’d see us in a couple weeks.

    Coming back, he gave me my first set of glasses. With them, I could read the chart with no problem. Everyone seemed happy. But what I really remember most about that day was leaving his office. I stepped outside and looked up at the chimney across the street…and I could see each and every brick in it! I hadn’t seen this before, not in my neighborhood, not even on my own house. Each and every brick! I remember how amazed I was! What else had I been missing?

    Today I had to stop and look at that chimney one more time. It was only 60 some years ago but I remember it still.  The trees have grown up in front of it and I’m guessing that the bricks must have worn away a bit…they just don’t seem as sharp as they did that day! 

    Yeah…that’s it, the bricks have worn away.