National Health Specs!
 

Charlotte, a lovely five year old, who we have seen most days since she was born, has to wear glasses and she is so excited! She was telling me that they are Barbie ones and she can't wait to go and get them tomorrow.
It put me in mind of those horrid pink framed things that I had to wear for years, earning me the name of 'specky' at St Andrew's Primary. The boys got the blue ones! The plaster over one eye didn't help either!
The frames did change a little over the years but no-one really cared and I hated them.
Did anyone else suffer like I did?

Re: National Health Specs!
 

Re: National Health Specs!
 

I needed glasses at school but wouldn't get any. I just either sat at the front of the class or copied anything from my mate.

I only got them when I was taking my driving test. I wore them till 18 months ago when I had my eyes lasered. Best thing done for a long time

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Alec has the NHS specks. His are pretty ok. Because he has an adult sized face he gets adult ones and they have a silver frame.

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I had horrid ones when i was diagnosed as needing to wear glasses all the time at 8, they were yakky diaroerra brown plastic ones they were horrible but had to wear them, then i got them changed to deidre barlow metal frame ones. My glasses now are great, nice lightweight silver frame & just cover the eye area....i went to specsavers tehehehe:D

Though ironically my eyesight has got so much better as ive got older only need glasses if my eye strains either reading or pc.

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Never had that inflicted on me but do have glasses for on the computer, nice lightweight ones. My daughter needs them for reading but deecided to pay for hers so they are "trendy" enough for here not to take a ribbing.

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I had the glasses and the patch.. But my patch was over the eye and not on the glasses as seemed to happen in later years.. lazy eye.. I now have two sets... when i was told i needed reading glasses i told the optician that i dont read that much but spend a lot of time at the computer... he set my prescription for a little furthur away for computer use rather than readin..

So anyone else need reading glasses but actually spend a silly amount of time in front of screen... get the lens prescription for computer use... makes a difference..

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Ooooh, the diarrhoea brown ones were the pits.... My mate had those when we were kids. My sister ended up with the translucent whitish frames, but she may have had the pink ones originally. Funnily enough, I have never had an eye test. I reckon that I can see ok, but have visions of some eye boffin in a white coat poking around and saying "you've been blind for 10 years Miss G."

Hehehe, by the time I get round to booking an eye test, I'll have to be escorted to the appointment by a nice yellow dog..:D

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At least a yellow dog is something warm to cuddle up to. :D Could he/she sniff out your favourite drink though?

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Does anyone remember the jamjar bottoms.....the kind that Less Dawson wore when doing COSMO SMALLPIECE.a young lad near us had them ,and the other kids tormented him rotten ...

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i HAD AN uNCLE WHO IS DEAD NOW BLESS HIM. He always wore NHS specs and they were nice ones.He used to tell me the trick is to insist on seeing the FULL range of NHS frames . Not just the awful ones that will make you pay for the overpriced private ones that they want to sell you.

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I am biting my lip so hard its starting to bleed.. but I refuse to let myself post what I want to in response... arrrgh .... self control!!!!!!

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Be a devil and give in to the urge. ;)

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my sense of humor is a bit out of whack with everyone elses and so i took advice and my wife says...... dont you dare .... oh hum :)

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I was fortunate not to need glasses as a child, I have glasses/ contact lenses now for driving, the lenses I tend to just leave in all day. My younger sister had NHS specs as a kid and I remember how upset she was at the time, I think if my daughter needs glasses I'd do the same as Spuggie and pay for decent ones!

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thats awfal...i diddent wear glassesas a kid ,but i thought they only had the brown,pink and blue...what a cheek ,if they had nice ones too.:mad:

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I know :( we could of been the diarrhoea coloured glasses twins, what made mine worse was they clashed with my light brown hair too:(

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I was lucky, I was told I needed glasses at the age of about 11, and my mother stumped up for a pair of pink pearly frames, a bit winged, not quite Edna Everage. I seem to remember being rather proud of them, but eventually got fed up with specs all the time and switched to lenses (gas permeable, used to sleep in them, the lot). Having had bilateral cataracts, when they removed the cataracts they inserted corrective lenses into my eye, so I have in essence contact lenses INSIDE my eye. Absolutely brilliant - except that I have to wear glasses for reading. TIP: get reading glasses prescription from optician, if it's 2.5 or less, nip down to the pound shop and buy them there!

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My daughter (10) has just had her first eye test yesterday and needed the smallest prescription possible! She chose her frames and 10 mins later we went back for the completed glasses;extremely light weight,very chic and best of all totally free! I am full of praise for Specsavers in Accy;they were quick,efficient and polite.The service was truly exceptional,I have been a customer there for years and am happy to recommend them.:)

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I was very lucky because my dad was an optician and he also made perspex spectacle frames. I started wearing glasses, for distance, at the age of 13 and this was a great opportunity for dad to make frames for the younger teenager and I used to "model" them. I'd have a new pair about once a month and they were every style and colour (Edna Everidge style was very IN). I remember a teacher at Paddock House saying to me, one day, "Must you wear bright green glasses, dear?" By the time I was 16 I settled for square black ones like Nana Mouskouri.

The funny thing was that by the late 1960s the round metal frames that the NHS had supplied were all the rage, thanks to John Lennon, only by then they cost a fortune 'cause the NHS didn't do that style any more.

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I had to wear N.H.S. glasses when I was a kid. They were awful how I hated them.
Was always loosing them, accidentally on purpose. I thought they only did pink,blue or brown.

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It has been really interesting reading all your comments. There was I thinking that I was the only kid on the block suffering with patches and National Health specs. It's strange how your memory plays tricks with you.

Anyway, hopefully, I've attached a photo of young Charlotte, complete with her designer 'Barbie' glasses..........which cost her mum a fortune. She's a lovely kid.

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My daughter wore NHS glasses when she was five, 10 years ago, and time they were really trendy. We had quite a lot of styles to choose from. She wore them religiously, which now as meant she doesn't need glasses anymore.

Re: National Health Specs!
 

My daughter wore NHS glasses when she was five, 10 years ago, and time they were really trendy. We had quite a lot of styles to choose from. She wore them religiously, which now as meant she doesn't need glasses anymore.

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That's a lovely picture, Junetta. It just goes to show kids can look very attractive in glasses. They suit her.

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Oh Charlotte ,you look real cute.... they are smashing glasses:)

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Here, here, >> brings out the colour of her eyes, which seem to be green .. she's gorgeous. Not the same stigma these days with glasses, almost a fashion accessory, aren't they ? 'Speccy 4-eyes'' now long gone.