First question – did anyone NOT get their’s from Jostens?
Yes. It was probably the first piece of fine jewelry I ever bought – it was about $200 something (when you’re 16 and working at your first job, that’s a lot of money).
I still have it in my jewelry box – it’s a nice, feminine, not too gaudy ring. I haven’t worn it in years, but I think of it as a keepsake.
Before I got mine, I used to wear my mother’s sometimes.
(I would have liked to have gotten a college ring, but I just couldn’t afford it.)
Herff-Jones is trying to sell us one through the kid’s school, but they start at $289! I have found them on the ‘net as low as $66. Did you know even Wal-Mart sells them?
I called the guy who made my wedding band and he doesn’t make class rings, but he echoed what a lot of people are saying in this thread…that they don’t stay special long…and he recommended just buying a nice ordinary ring as a keepsake. I’ll suggest it, but I can tell you right now it’s not gonna fly.
I never bought one. What I do wear and am extremely fond of is my dad’s HS class ring. We graduated from the same high school, 51 years apart (1925 and 1976). It looks pretty much like a signet ring. No stone, just the school initials. And it’s rose, white, and yellow gold, which is very cool.
Never bought one. I didn’t want to spend that much money (or ask my parents to) for something I knew I would never wear, because IMHO they look gaudy as hell - like dollar-store jewelry, really. Also, I had no great desire when I was in high school to latch onto anything that would in any way glorify it.
My sister bought at the beginning of 12th grade and wore it periodically until she got her college ring her second year, which she wears all the time - it’s a Big Thing at the school she went to. I don’t have the heart to tell her that it looks like something a second-rate Vegas pimp would wear.
My parents wouldn’t let me get one in high school. I ended up wearing my mom’s high school ring, though, so I guess my grandparents didn’t make a completely foolish purchase.
I stopped wearing it in college, I think.
I got a college ring almost 10 years after I graduated, simply because I liked the style (a decorated band, not the usual ring + hunk of simulated stone) and had always wanted one.
I’ve been wearing that one regularly since I got it.
My grandparents got me one because they’d gotten one for my sister and they were big on treating us all equally. I still have it and go through spurts of wearing it - more because it was a gift from my much beloved grandparents than any strong connection to high school. Graduated in '86 if that means anything.
Interesting that this thread should appear today. I was in a waiting room earlier and noticed a school ring on the hand of gentlman I’d estimate to be in his mid to late 50s.
I did wear my HS ring for a long time, so I think I got … close to my money’s worth, even considering the stupidly overly inflated price on those things.
I have it in a jewelry box now, and I while I don’t wear it, I would be sad if it were lost. And I didn’t remember until just recently when I looked at it closely that my best friend and I exchanged rings immediately upon receiving them, so the ring I have in my box is technically someone else’s class ring. We on purpose selected rings that matched and represented both of us – I guess we had a lot of time on our hands.
I let my now ex-husband wear it and he lost it. Actually, with what I know from later in the relationship I’d be willing to bet that he either destroyed it somehow, or pawned it. One way or another, he wouldn’t have wanted me to have it.
I’d wear it occasionally now if I had it. It was a bit different from the typical class ring, and I think it would still be pretty to wear once in a while.
Got mine when I was in 11th grade. Chose the cool looking March birth stone since blue was one of our school colors and November’s is a pukey brownish-yellow.
Didn’t go for the super expensive ring but liked what I had and wore it with pride for about a year.
When I was changing the oil of my car one day, I naturally took my ring off and placed it on the roof of the car. Finished the car maintenance and drove off and 20 minutes later, I look down at my hand and notice there’s no ring. Like an idiot I pull over to see if the ring was still perched on top of the car roof.
My high school ring came from ArtCarved; I got it through a local jewelry store rather than through the school. Interestingly, wool coats bearing the school’s logo were more popular with my classmates than rings.
I need to get my college ring resized so I can wear it more often…it’s a really nice looking ring. (I also need to get the graduation year changed…I ordered the ring just before I decided to change my major.)
Sure there is. I’ve seen the catalogues and flyers. We got all the promotional crap from Jostens trying to sell class rings. They just aren’t popular in Canada, or aren’t anymore if they used to be.
Graduating from high school just isn’t a big deal anymore. It used to be.
I’ve still got mine - class of '72. Back in the olden days, we really didn’t have any choices regarding our rings - pretty much the only option was if you wanted your initials engraved inside or not.
I’ve been thinking of selling it, but I think it’s just 10K gold, so it’s probably not worth much. Still all it does it take up space in my jewelry box, which I never open anyway…
Our grade school had junior high class rings. All we 12- and 13-year-old girls got ours a couple of sizes up so we could exchange them with our not-yet-existent boyfriends, and of course all the 12- and 13-year-old boys got theirs sized up in hopes of going through puberty soon. Of course we all paid so much* for the damn things our parents would have killed us if we’d actually exchanged them. I wore mine (wrapped with yarn so it wouldn’t fall off) for at least a 2 or 3 years. I felt a definite lack of school spirit come high school, and anyway the HS ring my older sister got had a stone that distinctly resembled reflector tape, but I still have not only my jr high ring, but my former step-brother’s, plus my mom’s university ring.
*I seem to remember they were around $70, but keep in mind this was a poor rural area in the late 1970’s.
