Mr. Rilch has been critiquing the first draft of my book. He made a correction that I would call “incorrectly regarded as a goof”, as the IMDB has it.
A minor character, female, just graduated from high school, is in conversation with one of the leads and some other transient characters. At one point she “[holds] up a hand that bore a fraternity ring cushioned with yarn.”
Mr. Rilch thought I meant to say sorority ring. I said, no, it’s her boyfriend’s ring, which is why it’s “cushioned with yarn”. If it was her sorority ring, it would be sized to fit, but because it was sized for him, she has to wrap it with yarn so it won’t fall off. Plus, the boyfriend is with her, and in the same conversation will tell the others that he’s just finished his freshman year at university. Obviously, to me, anyway, he’s the source of the ring.
But Mr. Rilch has never heard of this practice, maybe because he went to a college that didn’t have a Greek system. I asked, didn’t he ever see girls do that in high school, with their boyfriend’s class rings? He said no, if they wore the guy’s ring, it was around their neck on a chain.
But I knew a number of girls in high school and college who did this; the ring-on-a-chain thing being disregarded as “so Fifties”. They would put it on their finger, and then wind yarn around one segment until the resultant chrysalis was thick enough to keep the ring from slipping off. So has anyone else seen this done? I told him, “Just because you’ve never heard of such a thing doesn’t mean no one else will get it.”
All the girls wore their boyfriends’ rings that way in my high school, though a few years ago when I taught at a different high school, none of the kids there had ever heard of the practice. I don’t know if it’s dying out, or if it’s a regional/ school-specific thing, or what.
I’ve heard of girls putting something like tape on the ring to make it small enough to fit their fingers, but the ring on a chain idea seems more widespread (and more appealing, in my view). Personally, if I were you, I’d just change it “her boyfriend’s fraternity ring” in that passage to make sure it’s clear to your readers. You don’t want people to get confused if you can prevent it.
Well, I would have gotten it. In my high school days (I graduated in 1978), girls used medical tape to size their boyfriend’s rings, not yarn. But the context still would have been clear enough – to me, anyway.)
My HS girlfriend, YES I HAD ONE, used a ribbon to ‘size’ the ring. She stiched it closed so it would stay on.
Is the boyfriend in question an upperclassmen? I don’t know at what point a ‘greek’ gets a ring. It seems to me that he would be a senior in college. Is he dating a college freshmen?
When I was but a small lad (circa 1980, Pennsylvania), I remember having a babysitter who spend the better part of an evening wrapping yarn around her boyfriend’s class ring so she could wear it. That’s the only time I ever heard of or saw the practice. When I got to high school some few years later, girls (including my girlfriend) would wear their guys’ ring on a chain or cord around their necks.
Always worn, wrapped with string, yarn, ribbon, tape etc. And spend slow class periods perfecting the wrap. To a degree that teachers began hiding the tape dispensers around prom time.
I’ve seen it both ways, mostly in high school, not so much in college. If it was in college, the smart money was on the girl being a first semester freshman.
I thought the chain looked better (points off for a silver chain and gold ring or vice-versa). Usually, if the girl had to wrap so much yarn that it was noticable, her hand was very small. Too small to be wearing a big honkin’ man’s class ring.
When DangerDad and I got engaged, it was unexpected and he didn’t have a ring. So he gave me a ring that he wore, and I wore that, with tape wrapped around it, for a few weeks. I wish I had thought of yarn.
The girls in my high school wrapped their boyfriends’ rings with yarn. But I graduated in 1970 so I have no idea if it still goes on.
I think a chain looks better, myself. But I agree with lavenderviolet – just change it to something like “showed off her boyfriend’s class ring.” No use taking the chance of confusing the reader on a minor point.
