One of the (many) curses of my life has been myopia. As a kid, it led to schoolyard bullies…read morehabitually calling me, "4 Eyes!" and challenging me to fight. I became a youthful "street fighter" (a bad one, let me hasten to add) because I basically had no choice but to fight or get knocked down (or, in my case, to fight and usually get knocked down, although I did win a few). As I got older, I contemplated contact lenses, but this seemed too much like a concession to vanity, as well as necessitating way too much effort and work (another curse in my life has been the curse of laziness, or...to wax Biblical..."sloth").
My optician during those years was Vincent Rizzo in Bernardsville. The last time I went to him was 20 years ago when my birth mother contacted me about meeting for the 1st time. The glasses I had at that point were outdated, unstylish, and...in my nervousness about not wanting to be perceived by the woman who had given me birth as a "dweeb," (vanity belatedly kicking in), I went to Rizzo's and bought myself a pair of glasses with a more modern, up-to-date style. However, I kept the older glasses to use when I was home by myself and watching TV.
Well, fast forward...20 years later. Rizzo's in Bernardsville is gone, replaced by a psychic (as an aside, I've always maintained that if a psychic, a massage parlor or a "dollar store" opens in your neighborhood, your neighborhood is well into its swift decline. Just the other night, I had dinner with my oldest friend in Butler at a strip mall restaurant alongside a semi-rural stretch of Rt. 23. As we left, at about 10pm, a massage parlor 2 or 3 stores down was still open for business, it's orange neon light flashing "OPEN." I joked, "You think that's legitimate, or you think you can get a 'Happy Ending' there?" With a straight face, my friend replied, "No, I'm sure it's legitimate. There's always going to be somebody out here in the middle of nowhere who needs that crick in his neck or that pain in the lumbar region massaged out in the middle of the night by an experienced, professional masseuse." Yeah, sure. Anyway...)
Recently, being typically careless (another curse in my life; my habitual carelessness), I was clearing out the remains of a lavish Italian meal I had treated myself to and inadvertently threw my spare pair of glasses out with the rest of the garbage (I had been watching TV while I ate and put the glasses down alongside the remnants of my meal when I was finished). Looking for those glasses the next day and realizing that they were gone for good (I wasn't about to go crawling through the dumpster looking for them), I was in a quandary. I do go semi-regularly to an ophthalmologist in South Orange for eye exams, but it has been decades since I've gotten a new pair of glasses (outside of an incipient cataract, my vision hasn't changed much, and the old prescription still works for me). Rizzo's in Bernardsville is long gone. What to do? I still have my primary pair of glasses, but I wanted to have an extra pair around, just in case.
I called Gerald York, and they were very friendly and accommodating, answering all my questions. Yes, they could make a pair of glasses based solely on the pair I had now, without an eye examination or a copy of my last, decades-old prescription. So, the following day, I went to the store, which is located in the central (and quaint) shopping area of Basking Ridge.
In a few minutes, they had the order in, and the glasses were ready a few days hence. I can't say the price of the glasses was cheap, but it wasn't as much as I thought it might be, and I feel more secure with this pair than I would with a pair from...say...Walmart.
Parking in Basking Ridge can be hairy, but Gerald York has convenient parking in the back of the store. I've only had the 1 experience with them and am hoping I won't have need for any other glasses at least into the near future, but based on this 1 experience, I've found that they're friendly, efficient, and provide quick quality service.
For your eyeglass needs, I can't think of anyone I could recommend more.