tall clover farm

Are you ever too old for duct-taped glasses? Nah…

Recently my eyeglasses had an unfortunate encounter with a well-placed foot. The good news is that at the time, they were not on my head. My eyewear journey has been a fire drill of fashion do’s and don’t's along the way. There was the Harold Lloyd phase, 1920′s round specs framing an equally round face; the early Elton John years (rhinestones notwithstanding), where the surface area of the eyeglass easily covered a third of my mug; and the several pair of horn rims that bespoke of (in my mind) old money and beach houses. 

Oddly, the ones I wear now are much like my first pair. I call them my modified Cary Grants, hip now but not in fifth grade. By seventh grade I had upgraded to wire rims, shiny gold halos around my eyes, much like those crowning the countenance of one John Denver.  What did they all have in common? Nary a one had missed the indignity of being bandaged in silver duct tape during their stints on my fashion-forward face. 

So today, I look in the mirror and thank the chemical and materials engineers of 3M, not only for their invention that saved both a space mission and my ability to see clearly, but for their never-ending quest to innovate and afford me the color option of basic black duct tape—a milestone that enables this fashion faux pas to believe he can be debonair in duct tape at any age.