Class rings were a pretty big deal at my High School. Girls wore their boyfriends' rings with yards of yarn wraps in colors to match their outfits, or in our school colors (maroon & white) on Fridays. Guys wore their girlfriends' rings on gold serpentine chains. In my high school years, I only had a guy's ring a few times, and never for very long. I never had a serious boyfriend until I was in college, so wearing a guy's ring was a weird thing for me.
Most kids ordered their rings in the fall of sophomore year. I waited until junior year b/c I couldn't figure out which of all those little panels to pick. I didn't want Sparky, our mascot, and I only played soccer the one season. I was always busy, but a lot of it was karate and church things rather than school things. I also remember looking at the choices and wondering why we didn't have fencing, or drum core, and a lot of other things that were clearly available at other schools. I finally settled on karate (girl) and a tiger head, which was the karate school icon. In retrospect, I would pick Sparky and the castle image. But it's all a moot point b/c I lost my ring not long after I got it. I think it went down the big drain in the kitchen at my restaurant job. I looked everywhere for it that night, but never found it. I went home scared and told my mom, and she was upset but tried not to be. She told me not to tell my dad b/c he'd be upset. I don't know if she ever did tell him. I do know that I never brought it up again b/c I didn't want to upset him, either. Secretly, I've always wished that it would turn up somewhere, somehow. Like, someone found it somehow and tracked me down. Or somehow my dad actually had it all along and never said anything about it. I don't actually believe that will happen, but I do think about it from time to time.
Sadly, I also lost my High School yearbooks several years ago. Maybe that's part of the reason I try to hang onto little bits of memorabilia that other people wouldn't, because some of the bigger pieces have been lost over the years.
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People didn't wear other people's class rings at my high school, but my brother and I were told that we weren't allowed to let anyone wear ours in the form of a boyfriend or girlfriend because the other person would lose it. However, when I started dating Randy he found my class ring somehow and weared it on a chain for a couple of months (as a joke I think but you never know with him)-he was like 26
ReplyDeleteexcellent post. our kids just got their rings last week. I never got one. For some reason they were not a big deal for girls, but they were a huge deal for guys because girls wore them with angora string. I wore Danny's during my freshman year - tons of poofy angora string to match my outfits. When we broke up it was a huge deal to give it back. Sigh. That would make me sad to lose my yearbooks. I even bought all 4 years in undergrad.
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