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by Rix Quinn

     Do you still have your high school senior ring?

     I’ll never forget the day our rings arrived. If somebody hadn’t locked me in a toilet stall, I’d have been first in line.

     Many folks have no idea what happened to their rings. So, they offer responses like this:

1. “I don’t know. Have you seen it?”
2. “I wore it until I was 63.”
3. “I gave it to my old girlfriend, who gave it to her new boyfriend.”
4. “I think my wife had it bronzed.”
5. “The dog ate it…and after he threw it up, it didn’t fit.”

     Did you ever wonder how the senior ring tradition started? Me neither…but I looked it up anyway.

     Actually, folks have worn rings since ancient times. Many carried engraved symbols.

     There were no medieval high schools, because back then people aged quickly, and at 18 qualified for primitive Social Security.  However, by the 1600s people survived long enough to create schools, award letter jackets for archery, and design senior rings.

     My buddy gave his ring to his steady girlfriend 30 years ago. He didn’t see her again until this year, at a class reunion.

     “Diane,” he said, “you and I both married other people.  So, if you don’t mind, I’d like my senior ring back.”

     “OK,” she replied, “but does that mean we’re breaking up?”