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Thread: How long have you been in the industry?

  1. #26
    Master OptiBoarder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Wagner View Post
    Since 1973 how many remember "U4 and out the door" ????
    Ha! Now that's funny. We called the Doc "swinging door Bates". You were not going to be in the room for the time it took for the saloon stlye doors to stop swinging. And I remember it as "6 and 4, and out the door."

  2. #27
    Master OptiBoarder ziggy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wes View Post
    April 16, 1993 was my first day in the Army's optical laboratory specialist course. What's your story?
    I was at Fitz as well 2 years before you. I started school at FAMC April of 91. One of the instructors say we had picked a great trade because everyone needed an Optician and a Mortician. He seems to be right, knock wood, I have never been unemployed.
    Paul:cheers:

  3. #28
    OptiBoard Apprentice ChrisW's Avatar
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    Started in a lab in 1995, 10 years doing that before moving to the front of house & qualifying as a dispensing optician. Still at it today.

  4. #29
    OptiWizard
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    Mid June 1976 for American Optical in Hartford, CT.
    39 years times 50 weeks times 5 days a week = 9750 days
    Ignore the 7 straight years without a vacation when I had my own business.
    Ignore the wholesale years and lets say 1 pair of glasses per hour.
    8 pairs a day times 9750 days = 78,000 pairs of glasses.

    No wonder I have a callus on the side of my finger from the knurled screwdriver.

  5. #30
    Master OptiBoarder CCGREEN's Avatar
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    Fall of 1980 for me. Have run the gauntlet with labs OD's MD's big box stores and private practice. Just trying to get through the next 15 years and then kick it back to 2 days a week. Do some fishing motorcycle riding travel the nation. Then I can call it all good.

  6. #31
    Optical Curmudgeon EyeManFla's Avatar
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    I started as an apprentice while in high school in July of 1975. Will soon see 40 years....
    "Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"

  7. #32
    Optical Curmudgeon EyeManFla's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rbaker View Post
    Back in the fifties and sixties it was said that being an Optician was a license to print money! Things sure have changed. Of course back in the day we didn't have merchant MD's, they knew their place in the optical pecking order.
    There was a day when the 3 "O" stayed out of each other's business. Now, Opticians want to refract, OD want to do surgery and MD want to be God (ok, that part hasn't changes)...we had three opticians, to MDs and an OD on the same street back in DC...and we ALL got along.....
    "Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"

  8. #33
    Optical Clairvoyant OptiBoard Bronze Supporter Andrew Weiss's Avatar
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    I started making glasses for my OD father's patients in the fall of 1960; it's how I earned my allowance in high school. I got my license in Massachusetts in 1972 and I have been a dispenser and/or lab-rat in some capacity ever since.

    Of course, if you count my filling in as the "Good Friday receptionist" at my Dad's office, my starting date is somewhere around 1957 . . .
    Andrew

    "One must remember that at the end of the road, there is a path" --- Fortune Cookie

  9. #34
    Rising Star
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    I started as an Optical Apprentice in Jul 2010 and as of right now, I just have to pass the NC State Board exam to get my license. So close!

  10. #35
    Optical Curmudgeon EyeManFla's Avatar
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    Best of Luck!
    "Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"

  11. #36
    Doh! braheem24's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EyeManFla View Post
    There was a day when the 3 "O" stayed out of each other's business. Now, Opticians want to refract, OD want to do surgery and MD want to be God
    My iPhone refracts, I'm sure an optician can be better trained.
    Charles Prentice is "The Father of Optometry" - They've advanced past being an optician, Why can't Opticians today move the bar?

    It's tougher today to find a good optician then a good OD.

  12. #37
    Optical Curmudgeon EyeManFla's Avatar
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    It's tougher today to find a good optician then a good OD.[/QUOTE]

    Couldn't Agree More!!!
    "Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde"

  13. #38
    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EyeManFla View Post
    It's tougher today to find a good optician then a good OD.
    Couldn't Agree More!!![/QUOTE]

    I will second that. Back in the fifties you sent the runt of the litter to "optometry school" so you could say " my son, the doctor." Boy have things changed. Optometry has done an outstanding job in elevating itself as a profession.

    Today, we send the runt of the litter to law school.

  14. #39
    OptiBoard Apprentice
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    I began my optical career 19 years ago today, 6/26/1996. Seven years at LenCrafters....then off to production labs. Everyday has been a new adventure, I love helping people see better.

  15. #40
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    Since 1985. I have started working in Poland. Now I try to modify my business and start selling eyewear through internet. Currently I have a website: optykciechanow.com

  16. #41
    OptiBoard Novice
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    1984 dispensing for my dad. Thenstarted a lab paid for college, sold the lab cause I took on MD's! Did nothing but consulting and working to buy practices with my dad. He then dies unexpectedly and I loose interest only to get sucked back into the game of private practice!

  17. #42
    looking up the answers smallworld's Avatar
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    1979, six years old going to work with my dad "helping " find screws on the floor. Thirty six years later, still in the field, still looking for screws I drop on the floor.

  18. #43
    Compulsive Truthteller OptiBoard Gold Supporter Uncle Fester's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by smallworld View Post
    1979, six years old going to work with my dad "helping " find screws on the floor. Thirty six years later, still in the field, still looking for screws I drop on the floor.
    That's a great and funny first post! Keep'm com'in + welcome to Otiboard!!!

  19. #44
    Master OptiBoarder OptiBoard Gold Supporter Judy Canty's Avatar
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    43 years.

  20. #45
    RETIRED JRS's Avatar
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    50 years for me last June (06/01/1965) and will be my last year. I am retiring from the industry at the end of the month of July-2015. All done and now it's time to fade into the sunset.
    J. R. Smith


  21. #46
    Master OptiBoarder tx11's Avatar
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    Started working for an independent optician in 1987...have been in the industry ever since.

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