Well that was interesting...

[Harvestman]

I had been struggling to read stuff recently, although my distance vision was fine. I went to the opticians and was told I needed varifocal lenses. I am officially getting old!

Anyway, I wanted to keep the same frames as my old glasses, so when I picked the new lenses up yesterday there was an hour when I had to do without my glasses entirely. A quick experiment showed me that anything over a foot away was out of focus, worsening with distance. I was in the local shopping centre, and I couldn't see a thing. People were just moving blurs at distance, resolving first into silhouettes and then into unusually thin-looking shapes. I found I could tell gender fairly easily from size and general shape (and some behaviour cues) but I couldn't tell the age of someone unless they came really close (except by clues based on clothing). Facial expressions were more or less impossible to read. I was guilty of staring several times as I tried to work out what I was seeing. I probably creeped a few people out. I could hear ok but it was not so easy to tell who was speaking as I couldn't see their mouths. I had gone into town with two friends of mine who I know very well by sight and sound. They went into a shop and I went in after them to find them. I couldn't find them. I just couldn't see well enough. I could navigate and move around the shop easily enough, and can see where things were so no risk of collisions or anything, but I could not find two people that I know really well.

All this put me in mind of something that is often overlooked in TEOTWAWKI scenarios, which is that many of us depend on opticians for the maintenance of their vision. A gun is no use if you have bust your glasses. I realised that if I was in a hunter-gatherer society, I would not be able to hunt at all, and my foraging would be severely limited by my inability to see anything clearly even when it was at my feet. As a male in such a society I might be able to carve or make tools if I had those skills, but otherwise my main function would be as a source of knowledge and experience for younger folk, and I would, in general, be over the hill. I am aged 45.

It is a sobering thought. I might be physically relatively fit (Im not, I'm fat, but in such a society I wouldn't have got this unfit), but if I can't see properly then I am useless other than for what I know and can teach the younger folk.

Now I'm wondering wha ther crutches we have in our modern lifestyle that we take so much for granted that we overlook our dependence on them.

 

[mountainm]

Any kind of regular medication.

 

[Harvestman]

Any kind of regular medication.

Yes exactly. The curious one for me was that by modern standards I am healthy (ish) yet simply removing my glasses made me useless.

 

[British Red]

The numbers are huge, from the contraceptive pill through HRT to anti biotics and statins. Gods, hot and cold running water that is safe to drink!

I suspect in any extended 'grid down' scenario, lack of water and sanitation would do for the majority long before poor eyesight.

 

[andybysea]

Without my five pills a day id be in BIG trouble.

 

[boatman]

Recently anthropologists have had second thoughts on the role of grandparents being now recognised for their value in child minding, education and providing the "second chamber" in tribal councils.

Short-sightedness probably being present in ancient tribal societies I have wondered if people who could focus on very close objects could have found a role or employment in jewellery making etc.

 

[Mesquite]

Short-sightedness probably being present in ancient tribal societies I have wondered if people who could focus on very close objects could have found a role or employment in jewellery making etc.

Some evidence here to support that theory

 

[Toddy]

If you find yourself in dire need, then simply cover your eyes entirely but for a small slit or punctures through the covering. That forces the eyes to focus on the small amount of light and you will find that your vision does resolve somewhat.

I find that my formerly above average visual acuity has disappeared as I grow older I need specs to read, to sew, to do pretty much anything these days. It took me an awful long while to get used to wearing glasses, and I still hate the necessity of them.

M

 

[korvin karbon]

You do get adjustable prescription glasses www.adlens.com for example, there are a few other brands too. Swimming goggles with a prescription can be found cheaply, not the best solution but if funds permit, a couple sets with worse prescription as backup may be prudent.

False teeth, now theres a headache! !!

 

[boatman]

Being short-sighted with astigmatism I used the trick of looking through a very small gap before I was diagnosed at school and later such as in reenactments. I do wear glasses now where the public can't see them under a helmet, as oddly enough, people seem to prefer archers to see what they are shooting at.

 

[petrochemicals]

Food, grown in fields industrialy, processed in factory's preserved in various ways,and sold in huge warehouses, and possibly cooked in communal eating places. If we all had to start at the growing point it really would be curtains, let alone processing it or storing it. vast vast hidden necessity. remembermeat comes in supermarket plastic trays.

 

[John Fenna]

My "prep" for the glasses bit is to find some £ shop specs that are near the mark and buy lots of them!
OK they are not as good as my prescription specs - but they do well enough in a pinch!
In my youth I had fantastic eyesight and painted collector quality 54mm figurines for a shop in a fancy gallery in Brussels - all without magnification of any sort..now I need glasses to read a normal size print and even my distance vision is not what it was...
Without my specs, pills, pain killers etc I would not last long after "The Fall"...

 

[Wayland]

I made these a few years ago as an experiment.

They are intended as snow goggles of course but I noticed pretty quickly that the also increased my visual acuity, almost like increasing the depth of field in a photograph by stopping the lens down.

i need glasses for reading these days but these made a considerable improvement that would get me by pretty well I reckon.

 

[DavidJT]

I always make sure I have a reserve pair of glasses safely stowed in my pack when out and about.
Would want to be unable to read a map etc if I lost or broke my main pair.

 

[sunndog]

Getting old in a real hunter gatherer society is nothing to worry about.....99% of us would have died long before age becomes an issue

 

[Laurentius]

As a long time spectacle wearer I have accumulated a number of spare pairs, they might not be the up to date prescription and the frames may be held together with tape or the lenses scratched, but they are useful in an emergency.

Was not always the case though, I remember when I was younger I walked into a branch, whilst walking in woodland at night, and that knocked my specs off. I had to borrow my dads pair, in order to search for them in the morning. I found them by tracking my own progress through the woods the night before.

 

[Goatboy]

I remember when it was decided that I needed glasses. I said from the back of the car " Oh look at the horse on the beech!" It turned out to be two chaps carrying a canoe! Getting glasses was a revelation. Though I do find that I often see/sense things when in the woods, even sans glasses against folk who have 20/20. It's how we use what we have I suppose.
I know that I would have a pretty short shelf life in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, between the medication, 6 year life on the pacemaker battery and a replaced hip I reckon I would be best off being used as cannon fodder. (I've mused for years about writing a story about terminally ill folk being used by the Government for special operations, things like working in Nuclear meltdowns and the likes (all voluntarily and with sums of money going to the ones they care about). Must admit that one of the reasons that I've never wanted to have kids is that I may be passing on weak genes. But that's a personal choice and not one I'm advocating for general enforcement.
So I suppose if it all ends I may have a couple of years of useful time to pass things on, but then it's "Goodnight Vienna".

 

[Coldfeet]

I made these a few years ago as an experiment.

They are intended as snow goggles of course but I noticed pretty quickly that the also increased my visual acuity, almost like increasing the depth of field in a photograph by stopping the lens down.

i need glasses for reading these days but these made a considerable improvement that would get me by pretty well I reckon.

How did you manage to grow your beard the same colour as the ruff?

 

[Tengu]

How about me, who if it hadnt been for cutting edge medicine and a lot of luck would never have been born?

(My mother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child; pretty much a death sentance back then. (war years.) She was one of the first children put on insulin...Died when she was 54. To put this in perspective, the last in her ward to die was 24, and most only lasted a few years if that.)

 

[Goatboy]

How did you manage to grow your beard the same colour as the ruff?

I reckon he's been saving the trimmings for years before weaving them into his clothes! What a resourceful man he is!