That just makes no sense at all. I know the old non darkening helmets were a little bit of a pain, but now we have these badass auto darkening jobbies that there's zero excuse not to wear.
The kicker is, he has 4 or 5 of those type helmets lying around. He's got one hanging on every welder in his shop. Probably a dozen or so of the old type on shelves. I don't get why he doesn't use them. His dad is/was the same way, though.