When I was a shy, bookish fourteen, my two grandmas got together and convinced my parents that if they got me contact lenses, I would have more self-confidence, be prettier, and maybe attract some boys. Those were the pioneer days of contact lenses. They were hard little discs…. The darn things worked well enough, but my eyes would be suddenly appallingly tearful. The hoped-for self-confidence and beauty were not forthcoming. I was a red-eyed ninth grader with chapped cheeks who blew her nose a lot…. Finally my mother stood up for me. She pointed out that a lot of grown-up married women wear glasses, including some very good looking ones, like Mrs. Parker, the minister’s wife, and my favorite teacher. I went back to wearing glasses, before school pictures were taken.