I grew up in a poor home, one that, at times, vacillated between dirt-poor and existence-threatening poverty. Up until I was fifteen, Dad always worked, be it as a salesman or a local truck driver. Mom, on occasion, would work, but her severe mental health problems precluded her from maintaining steady employment. Mom and Dad divorced in the spring of my ninth-grade year. Mom tried to go back to work, but eventually gave up and signed up for ADC — aid for dependent children. From that point forward, we were a welfare family.
While my siblings and I were in school, the State of Ohio provided Medicaid coverage for us. Medicaid covered medical, dental, and eye care. I have many stories I could share (and shall over time) about being on welfare, complete with the embarrassment of being refused medical/dental care and being shamed for using food stamps, but today I want to share a story about getting my first pair of glasses.
In the spring/summer of 1971, I played baseball for Jacques Sporting Goods in Findlay, Ohio. I was never a great player. Now that I was playing with and against kids who played for local high school teams, my lack of hitting skill was quickly exposed. I was, however, lefthanded and a fast runner. I suspect it was for these reasons that I made the team — barely. I was the kid at the far end of the bench, a player or two ahead of the water boy. Good enough to play, but not the kid you wanted at the plate when the game was on the line.
Typically, practices were held at Rawson Park, located on Broad Ave. One day, I was fielding flies in right field. I was having an awful time seeing and catching the ball. After more than a bit of grief over my horrible fielding, my coach suggested that I get my eyes checked. Sure enough, I needed glasses.
Mom made me an appointment to see an optician that took Medicaid insurance. After checking my eyes and determining I was nearsighted, the welfare box was brought out for me to choose a pair of frames. No wireframes. No stylish frames. Just frames that screamed to everyone you went to school with that you were poor and on welfare.
As you can see from my ninth-grade school photo, my black cheap plastic framed old-man’s glasses didn’t go with my complexion and bright red hair. I was so embarrassed, but what could I do? My vision was such that I needed glasses to do my school work, and more importantly, play baseball.
After being endlessly ridiculed over my welfare glasses for several weeks, I decided to hustle up enough money for me to buy an age-appropriate pair of fashionable wirerimmed glasses. This put an end to me being a poster child for “welfare.”
The picture of me above, taken in Arizona, shows me with my wirerimmed glasses (and my white belt, burgundy polyester pants, and white shoes — which you cannot see). In the first picture, I stood out, for all the wrong reasons. High school was brutal enough without painting a metaphorical target on my body. Thanks to me playing baseball and basketball, I wasn’t treated as harshly as other welfare kids, but I did receive enough ill treatment to remind me that I wasn’t part of the in-crowd (my Fundamentalist religious beliefs and practices didn’t help either). As I write this post, my mind goes back to the experiences of several of my fellow poor classmates. They didn’t have sports to give them a bit of respectability. They were daily bullied and marginalized, routinely preyed on by entitled “rich” kids.
Fast forward to 2022. Families on welfare have a hard time finding medical/dental/eye care. Currently, families need to drive 30-60 miles for dental care. There is a local “welfare” clinic in Bryan, but clients often must wait weeks and months to see a dentist. Try telling Johnny with a throbbing tooth that he has to wait a month to see a dentist. Such lack of access, in my opinion, is immoral.
Several days ago, Polly told me a story about one of her fellow employee’s recent experience getting glasses for her young son. The children have Medicaid insurance coverage. After the eye doctor determined the boy needed glasses, it was time to choose a pair of frames. Out came the dusty “welfare” box with its spartan selection of cheap, plastic glasses. Fifty years after my eyeglass experience, nothing has changed. Opticians could provide better, more stylish frames, but they don’t. Why should they, right? If the state of Ohio wants poor children to have stylish frames, it should pay providers more. Fair enough, but opticians could provide nicer frames for patients on Medicaid. Sure, it might cost them a few bucks, but thanks to frames now being sold (cheaply) online, we now know that eyeglass providers have been making a killing for years. (We buy our glasses and prescription sunglasses from Zenni Optical, saving hundreds of dollars, all without sacrificing quality.)
The young boy in question dutifully chose his welfare glasses. Fortunately, his mother also had eyecare insurance from work. This allowed her to choose a stylish pair of glasses for her son. Of course, she had to pay money for the nicer glasses. Can I scream now? Mom did the right thing for her son. Not that many years removed from high school, she knows how students can treat those who look different or are wearing the scarlet W on their faces.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I’ve also used Zenni Optical. I can get super nice glasses with progressives lenses, for around $70. At Northwest Ohio Vision Center a similar pair of glasses costs somewhere upward to $500 without any insurance.
Absolutely. Zenni Optical is terrific. Knowing how little decent frames must cost, if Zenni can make a profit, eternal shame to optometrists who offer outmoded, “obviously welfare” glasses frames to poor people in general, but especially to kids.
The great irony is that those BCGs (Birth Control Glasses) you were saddled with as a kid are sort of trendy now. You know the military forces you to get the same pair, but everyone has them so you don’t stick out. Zenni is the best.Just ordered from them. You cannot get them in Costa Rica, so I have to have the frames mailed to my daughter’s house and pick them up. Just ordered last week, some big old fancy bright blue cats eye glasses with rhinestones on the corners, similar to the pair I had when I was 7. Missed you. Welcome back my friend.
I am fortunate in that I didn’t need glasses while growing up. (Now I use “old lady” or “librarian” glasses for reading!) But I can relate to some parts of this story. For one, participating in sports spared me from some of the bullying I might otherwise have expeienced. For another, people often think that things like glasses and clothes are mere externalities. But they can actually affect a person’s mental health, especially in environments like junior high and high school, where “fitting in” is of paramount importance.
As I read the article, I thought about something that had never before occurred to me: Aid programs never seem to take the mental health of their recepients into consideration. Poverty is stressful; so is being different–especially if that difference is accentuated by whatever social service programs provide.
Middle school and high school are brutal. Any difference indicates that one is a member of an out-group, leaving that person open to bullying and ostracism. Middle school is when kids started noticing clothing brands – in my day, Nike shoes, Calvin Klein Jeans, Members Only jackets, Izod polos – these were all indicators that one had a certain economic means that entitled one to acceptance within the group. I remember saving my money and shopping at the outlet mall in order to afford any if these coveted status symbols. Of course, when I went to college these Middle class status symbols carried no weight, deemed lower class by the mostly wealthy student body at the college I attended. During my 4 years in college, I never learned what those status symbols were – I wouldn’t have been able to afford them anyway!
But yes, mental health can be affected by being treated as a member of the out-group.
Where I come from, standardised footwear and uniform are mandated for all students in both public and private schools. Private schools can sometimes get away with having their own special uniform, but every student still needs to wear the exact same uniform.
Some of my friends used to envy American kids since our American counterpart are allowed to pick their own clothing. But, in hindsight, standardised clothing definitely suits our context better. In a country where socio-economic inequality is a big problem, you don’t necessarily want to magnify the chasm between the rich and the poor, especially amongst children.
I went to a Catholic school for three years, middle school. We had to wear a uniform. For girls it was a mid-calf length navy blue skirt, white blouse, blue sweater with the school’s emblem sewn on it, or socks and “sensible” shoes (no high-heels, sneakers or sandals.) It was freeing to not have to agonize over your clothing choices each school day. The uniform was not expensive. And it did keep the rich kids from flaunting their wealth through their clothing. One other thing — you would think that your individuality would be lessened by wearing a uniform. My experience was that wearing a uniform actually heightened everyone’s individuality. You focused on them as you weren’t distracted by what they were wearing. The downside is that girls could not wear pants. When I waited at the bus stop during freezing weather while wearing a skirt my legs would get so cold!
Karuna and Kel—Your takes are interesting. I went to Catholic elementary school until eighth grade. Of course, we had to wear uniforms that included black oxfords for boys and Mary Janes for girls. Looking back, I realize that it was nice not to compete for status over clothing —which we might not have done anyway, as we all came from blue-collar or lower middle-class homes—although we competed in other ways.
I knew a couple who sent their kids to Catholic schools although neither was Catholic. (The father was an atheist and the mother belonged to a Unitarian congregation.) The reason was the uniforms, they told me. They were living in an affluent district because of job requirements and they knew that, in their salaries, it would be difficult to keep their kids attired in a way that didn’t mark them. Even after paying for tuition and uniforms, it was less expensive, they figured, to send the kids to Catholic school.
Is Zenni Optical a nationwide company ?? I know that I can’t keep using reading glasses from Dollar Tree or the 99 Cents stores,like I am right now. It certainly sucks to be poor. California is a rich state, but the cost of living,as in everything – makes living almost impossible. Thank you, Bruce for mentioning an alternative to the dollar stores.
Yes, Zenni Optical ships nationwide, and internationally. Their factory is, I think, located in California.
Actually, the author of this blog was one of the many victims of the previously undisclosed “Muskogee Experiment”. This is being sarcastic. Unlike the true story of the Tuskegee Experiment. in which African -American males who were discovered to be suffering from syphilis were left untreated even after a way to medically combat syphilis was discovered, the ” Muskogee Experiment” was concocted by a bunch of enraged welfare workers and optometrists in Oklahoma and California. It was determined that by supplying poor people of whatever ethnicity with horrible looking glasses it tended to reduce the chance of their successfully dating members of the opposite sex. Unfortunately it was later discovered that a shipment of these eyeglasses was mistakenly sent to Northwestern Ohio. It was also discovered, much to the shock and disgust, of those welfare workers and optometrists., that when sent up further north, instead of foiling the chances of people attracting intelligent members of the opposite sex, when they reached their late teens and early twenties it actually increased their chances of finding ( only with the males, the women often were not as fortunate) smarter members of the opposite sex to eventually marry. I can’t remember who made the quote of ” Men never make passes at girls who wear glasses.”
“Men never make passes at girls who wear glasses.” was written by Dorothy Parker.