THE RING
“When you get out of class and off work today, I’d like for you to go by Ross Jewelers.”
No statement could have shocked me more. Those words were said to me early one morning at the breakfast table as I was about to leave the house headed to my college classes in 1964.
“What?” I said. “Yes, you go by the jewelers this evening.” “What for,” I asked. “Your dad and I would like for you to go by there and have your ring finger measured,” was my mother’s reply. “My ring finger measured? What in the world for?” The last place in the world I could imagine my mother asking me to go was to a jewelry store. Jewelry was not a big item in my family. My dad wore no jewelry, oh maybe that tie clip he wore with his Sunday tie. The only jewelry I remember my mother wearing was her simple silver wedding band and on occasion some ear rings.
“With your college graduation coming up, your dad and I thought you might like to have a college ring,” my mother said to me. “Ok.” was my reply, and later that day I stopped at Ross Jewelers and had my ring finger measured. About four weeks later a ring arrived.
But the real story I learned much later. Years later. The ring cost around seventy-five dollars, not a big sum by today’s standards, but not so in 1964 and on my parent’s budget. Later I was to learn they paid ten dollars and then made monthly payments on the ring for the next six or seven months until it was paid off. My folks did not have a lot of extra money, and believe you me, a ring was an “extra” item. But to them graduating from college was not just another happening. It was special. I was the first Adamson in ages to graduate college, and they were very happy and proud of and for me.
I have never forgotten.
April 6, 2009
Keep on,
Larry Adamson