Slade Eyewear

06/04/2026

It's the day you've all been waiting for.

For the last few years I have given away some free glasses to celebrate the 100th anniversary of my Grandfather starting his first Optical job in 1923, then the 75th anniversary of my Grandfather buying that very same business.

Both of those happened in the cold wintery months, and I figured it's time give away some glasses in the warm summer months.

What better reason and time to do it than the 250th anniversary of America, the 4th Of July!

Starting today you can get entered into the drawing in 2 ways. Simply stop in my store during business hours and sign up, or follow the rules by signing up here. Must be 18yrs or up.

To enter here you MUST do 2 things, like this post (or any other emotion you might feel will work), and then tell me in the comments what your favoritest part of our flag is, the STARS, or the STRIPES?? You must do both.

FYI my last winner was the only person that signed up both in person, and online....and she won. She doubled her odds, and it paid off.

I will be giving away one complete pair of either glasses or sunglasses, your choice. You will get frames, lenses, and the treatments of your choice. These can be non-prescription, or prescription....clear or sunglass.

Entry starts today, and ends July 4th, winner will be announced on July 5th.

Help me celebrate our nations 250th anniversary.

Only At Slade Eyewear

Eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses.

06/02/2026

A little preview of what's coming.....inform the others!

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04/28/2026

Luann is getting some new glasses and sunglasses¡

Her prescription is not difficult or strong, so no special lens material, but both pair are digital progressives. The clear pair has anti-reflective coating, and the shades are polarized. One frame is Eye-talian, the other from St Louis.

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04/24/2026

What it's like to have one bad eye.

Evelyn is a 9 yr old young lady from Bloomington Wisconsin. She has glaucoma in just her left eye, and is very near sighted in that eye, while her prescription for her right eye is not unusual or strong.

I shared her sunglasses with you last week. These are goggles to protect her eyes while playing soccer, and whatever else a 9yr old can get into!

I am proud to be able to help her live her life like any other kid, and make it affordable for her parents to be able to provide her with the eyewear she needs to do that. I have a feeling I will be seeing Evelyn often as she gets older.

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As you can see in the photo looking through her lenses, the lens for her near sighted eye makes images smaller, while her right eye does not. Her brain has to take 2 different sized images, and make them into one. That can be very difficult for people to do, but Evelyn does it like a champ. Her left lens is what we call a myodisc, in that just a small portion of the lens contains her Rx, the outer area is just there to fill in the rest of the frame. If the entire lens had her Rx, it would be crazy thick....and that's not cool.

04/18/2026

This morning I whipped up some sunglasses for Evelyn. She is a 9yr old from Bloomington Wisconsin that has a big imbalance in the prescription for her eyes.

Sports glasses for soccer are coming next week, look for those, they're gonna be fun!

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FYI these lenses are not the color they photograph, they are gray.

03/13/2026

I want to share with you the glasses I gave away. Julie Jackson was the winner of a pair of glasses of her choice.

She picked this fun Fysh frame, and we did digital progressives with anti-reflective coating.

Julie has a nice little eyewear collection going on, so she also updated her other glasses at the same time.

Congratulations again to Julie, and pay attention for future fun....like more free eyewear.

Only At Slade Eyewear

02/25/2026

Yesterday I had a gentleman bring in his Rayban for some work.

He explained to me that he bought them in 1975 or so. He wore them until he needed to wear prescription glasses. They then ended up in a drawer for a few decades.

While he was wearing them years ago, he wore the heck out of them, and they needed some attention. I removed the old cracked temple tips (the parts behind your ear), and nose pads. I threw the rest of sunglass in the ultrasonic cleaner.

After the frame was clean, I cleaned the lenses with some acetone, then installed new temple tips and nose pads. Then all screws were snugged up, and the frame was straightened..

He had concerns about keeping them all original, which I helped him work through. He was elated with the results once he saw how good they looked again.

His concern for originality came from him thinking about selling them, but I put a little bug in his ear about putting his prescription in them, and enjoying them himself. I assured him I could make them into whatever he wants them to be, from clear to suns with his Rx.

The lenses in them are Ambermatic, which are glass lenses that are yellow, but turn dark in direct sunlight.

I will let you know if he comes back to have his prescription installed.

Only At Slade Eyewear

02/20/2026

A 50 second tour of Dubuque's largest sunglass selection...always 25% off MSRP.

02/10/2026

This weekend I learned of the passing of a good customer, Lon. Both Lon and his wife Kay have been customer for years. In her slightly younger days, Kay made homemade Caramels, and always brought me a baggie full of them.

Lon and Kay were one of those odd couples, she is a TALKER, he is not so much. They almost always came in together, but he would take care of his business, and want to move on, but Kay liked to talk. He would excuse himself, and say he was going to wait in the car. He often ended up waiting for 15 minutes while Kay talked.

Because of the plants in my office, a few years ago Lon offered me a seed for a palm tree that he had in a blue pill bottle for animals. His sister had given it to him, he gave it to me.

I planted it, but it took forever to grow, it first looked like a blade of grass, then a w**d, so I wasn't even sure if it was the palm growing, but when he came in, I kept Lon updated as it grew. I am going to re-pot it this week.

Luckily Lon's sister came to town to visit last August or September, and he made a point of bringing her in to see the palm tree. He had told me he was going to bring her to see it, and he did.

RIP Lon.

https://dubuquetoday.com/obits/lonnie-b-eberhart/

02/03/2026

For anyone who has met Cooper, but might not have met Otis and Rufus when they worked here.