ZZ Top’s song “Cheap Sunglasses” came on the radio the other day when I was driving with my children. My daughter turned to me and said “This song is pretty much your whole theory on sunglasses, isn’t it, Mom?”
Yep, it is. I am a big fan of cheap sunglasses.
I gave up on nice sunglasses shortly after high school. Back then, wraparound Oakleys were all the rage, and my then-boyfriend spent somewhere around $100 per pair to buy us his-and-hers matching Oakley Razor Blades. At the time, their safety-goggles style was considered very cool. A couple years later, suddenly, they weren’t. They’d gone back to being popular with the sun & surf set and were no longer high-school chic.
I lamented that something so pricey suddenly wasn’t the thing to wear anymore. I don’t remember what ultimately happened to my pair of Razor Blades, but I do know that I’ve never paid more than $10 for a pair of sunglasses since.
Worse (or better?) I’ve reached the point where I’d rather have ten $1 pairs of sunglasses than one $10 pair of sunglasses.
A couple years ago, we were en route to Disneyland when I realized I’d forgotten my sunglasses. We stopped at a Walgreens and I bought a $10 pair of Foster Grants. I liked them, and they lasted most of the five-day trip… until one of my children knocked them off a table in our hotel and somehow, in the same motion, stepped on them and crushed them.
Another $10 down the drain.
These days, most of my sunglasses come from the dollar store. (My daughter sometimes fancies up my Dollar Tree shades, calling them “Dolartré” brand, as if they were some upscale French frames.) When you’re only paying $1 for sunglasses, you can splurge and get many pairs. I have identical pairs in both our vehicles, in my purse, my backpack, my briefcase and my gym bag. I don’t like to go anywhere without sunglasses, and this way, there’s always a pair handy.
And if they break? Oh well. There’s always another Dolartré location around the corner.
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