Oshman's 7 x 35 um . . . optical instrument
I inherited this/these from my stepmother, Catharine. She was no outdoorswoman, but I can imagine her using them at Air Force Academy football games (she used to have season tickets).
The label is Oshman's, a once-major Texas chain of sporting goods stores. Oshman's history tracks the collapse of brick-and-mortar retail stores: started by a Houston entrepreneur in 1933, the store spread to a number of Texas cities. In 1978 they bought the name of Abercombie & Fitch. Oshman's peaked in 1987 with "185 traditional stores, one Super Sports USA store, and 27 Abercrombie & Fitch stores." The Abercrombie & Fitch brand was sold off in 1988 to The Limited. No more safari-wear.
In 1991 the chain started contracting, and in 2001 it was bought out by Gart sporting goods, then folded into the Sports Authority chain. Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy and closed all its stores in 2016.
My stepmother's sister married a Houston "awl man," so maybe the sister-in-law bought them as a gift?
A good serviceable binocular, they might have been made by (imported by) Bushnell in the 1960s. I still have the case, although as you can see, I replaced the strap with a homemade one. They are my truck-binoculars, or it sits on the porch table as a warm-weather "bird-ocular."
But the lenses picked up the little spots and dirt of time, and then, oops, I dropped them on a hardwood floor. Out of collimation!
The last time I needed such a repair, I went to an optics store in the Denver suburb of Englewood. It's long gone. So I went online and found Suddarth Optical Repair ("Binocular Repair since 1975") in bustling Henryetta, Oklahoma.
I sent them in. Suddarth quoted $195 for repair and "complete rehabilitation." I know I could have bought some inexpensive 2025 Bushnell 7x35's for less, but this was for Catharine. So I gave Suddarth my credit card number.
Two weeks later they were back. So clear! So bright! So smooth the focusing wheel! I can look that evening grosbeak on the lower feeder right in the eye. Take that, entropy! We ain't dead yet.
So is it "binocular" or "binoculars"? What are its pronouns? For a short time in my early twenties I sold menswear, and I learned that some people inside the "rag trade" will talk about "a pant" whereas the average American says, for instance, "my khaki pants." (British usage is different.)
Likewise, when I was doing outdoor writing, I met optical-industry people who talked about "a binocular." (Cory Suddarth, in his email, merely said, "Your glass arrived safely.")
Half a binocular is a monocular. Or is it it "Half of a pair of binoculars is a monocular"?
For what it's worth, Grok, Elon Musk's AI assistant, is in the plural camp:
Binoculars: This is the standard plural form, used when referring to the device as a pair of lenses (e.g., "I bought new binoculars"). The word derives from Latin "bi-" (two) and "oculus" (eye), emphasizing the dual-lens design. Since the device typically consists of two connected telescopes, the plural form is more common in everyday language and is considered correct for the physical object
Grok continues, "[saying 'binocular' as a noun] "may be considered a shorthand or error." Or maybe it's just optical-industry insider talk. Maybe that usage extends to independent repair shops.
