I doubt they check credentials. You can buy anything else with the Harvard name on it, from keychains to diapers, why not a ring? I’m sure they’d be glad to take your money.
From what I recall, there were two reasons that people bought class rings:
1) Everyone else was doing it. and
2) Our school allowed the ring company to hang around and do some very aggressive marketing during school hours. Must have been some kickbacks in there somewhere.
Yes, I bought one. I really wanted it at the time. Now I can’t imagine why I would wear something connected with high school. Way too much water under the bridge since then. I had already figured this out by the time they were pushing college rings.
After nearly 19 years, I still wear my HS ring. Why? My finger feels naked w/o it. I got mine early (Jan. '80 vs. June '80). I bought mine at a local jewelry store (well, my parents bought it) and got the cheapo model. It’s made of Siladium (a silver/nickel alloy). Oooooohhhhh!!! In the past 19 years, I have only missed wearing it 3-4 days. It’s the second thing I put on in the morning (glasses are first!). I take it off when I wash my hands, take a bath, and go to sleep (I used to wear it to bed, but ended up grinding my pinkie to shreds one night). The stupid thing still fits and I now have a smooth white band around that finger. Even though I didn’t care much for high school, I still wear the ring as a reminder to myself that I was the only person in my family to graduate from high school.
You know, the reason I bought mine was (believe it or not) I actually sorta liked the way they looked. I even got the sorta “intermediate” size. (Not as wispy and effinate as the girls but not as “honkin’ huge” as the guys.) I didn’t spend nearly as much as you guys are talking about, though. I didn’t buy from the shysters that troll the schools (lemme guess, Balfour? Hmmm? Can’t believe I remember that!) I went to one of the local jewelry stores and I’m sure I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 or less. Still, my advice is: Don’t buy it. Look around you at all the crap you already have and wish you hadn’t bought. I’m always doing a mental inventory of how much money I’d have if only I hadn’t bought “x”. Oh, and as for remembering HS? Get a yearbook – but only your senior year. (That way you don’t have to remember all the people who killed themselves, got pregnant and dropped out, or went to jail or something and never finished. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s less depressing is all. )
Trumpy – congratulations, that’s the best reason I can think of to get one. Or want to remember HS. Or go to graduation. You make me feel like a jerk or something!
)