Jewelry is a very popular item for gift-giving and to express feelings toward another person. Giving the woman you love a diamond is one of the most amazing things you can do for her, regardless of the current design trends. When we decide to marry the one we love, we express this by giving her an engagement ring. It does not matter how large the diamond is or how much you paid for the ring, but the sentiment behind it and what it symbolizes. Because a ring is continuous, with no beginning or end, it symbolizes eternal, never-ending love.
As we grow from childhood into adulthood, our first major piece of jewelry can be a class ring. The class ring is something we use to remember a period in our life when it was simpler and we were just discovering adulthood and its many facets including a job and interest in the opposite sex. This is a time when we are discovering love and attraction for the first time and a time when we are leaving our childhood behind. These sentiments are perfectly reflected by our class ring and as a man we often give our rings to a girlfriend to hold onto while we are dating them. This is a way to show that we care for that person and are willing to let them hold on to one of our most prized possessions.
As time goes on, we often put aside our youth and that often includes class rings and reminders of our past including photos of old friends and our carefree attitudes for more responsible endeavors. As we grow and have children and grandchildren, we often lose touch with many people from our past. It is strange to relive our past as Joe Lepera did just recently.
While at the funeral of an old girlfriend, Joe received a tap on the shoulder. It was Bill Gainer, the man who went on to marry the deceased after Joe and she had split up. Bill had Joe’s class ring from over 50 years prior. His widow had requested that Bill give the ring back to Joe if he was in attendance at her funeral. Joe had left for the Air Force after graduating high school in 1952 and had lost contact with the deceased, but noticed that she had passed and decided it would be a good idea to attend the funeral and pay his respects. He was shocked and surprised to get his class ring back, which most assuredly brought back many find memories of his past and how much things have changed over the past 50 years.