Personally, my arthritis has kept me from ever wearing one, but when my dad owned a dive bar they had a nail on the wall where they’s put all the rings they’d swept up each night for later reclaimation. Also, when I lived in Reno I’d see bums scavenging under the Wells Street bridge when the Truckee River was nothing but rocks in the Summer (so maybe that bit in the opening of “The Misfits” was true). From converstaions IRL, I’ve observed that women tend to do so in grand, unretractable gestures via a large body of water or the toilet (I’ve only seen that melting ceremony on TV), while men drop them into the same drawer as the mystery keys and can openers and bicycle-pump needles.
If you’re looking for accidental stuff, I have a story (not mine, I’m not married). My dad lost his ring in our yard, while raking leaves, well over 20 years ago. He knows where he was standing when he noticed it was gone, and had been in the yard all day, but all these years later we still can’t find it. They even bought my brother a metal detector for one birthday (I think he was around 7 or 8) and his first task was to attempt to find the ring-- no luck.
Oddly enough, my mom lost her original ring too, but in a rather more suspicious way. She didn’t wear it every day and had it on a small shelf in the kitchen; it vanished after a certain scummy uncle of mine (her own brother) had been in and out of the house several times in one day. That one’s never turned up again either.
The ring my ex (but not husband) gave me is sitting in a drawer, waiting for my jewellery-designer friend to have a few spare moments. It will be made into something I will like and enjoy, rather than something that holds painful memories. It’s a beautiful rolling ring with one band each of yellow, white, and pink gold.
Or maybe, I’ll have it made into something for my niece. No biggie.
Unless I lost it in the move. Come to think of it, I don’t really know - yeah, there it is.
I left mine on the bureau. She had thrown hers at me, a while earlier. I hadn’t thought of it since, until this very moment. That was the first time I had ever taken it off. It was the only piece of jewelry I have ever worn more than a few hours.
Tris
“It was a woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.” ~ W.C. Fields ~
Sold it for $40 and bought gas and groceries, but then, I’m an old softy.
Well I found my ex’s ring in the bathroom cabinet a few weeks after she moved out. I doubt if she knows if I found it or not although I suspect she may have looked for it when she has come over a few times.
It now sits with my ring in a box full of collar studs ans my pocket watch. One of these days I might make some grand gesture or sell them for a few bucks but despite all the crap I have a thing about keeping things like that around.
No.
My wedding and engagement rings are in my jewelry box, waiting, along with my class ring and a few other pieces, to be traded in as payment for making the ring I REALLY want.
It’ll happen someday. Maybe.
Yep. Into the trash at a Diamond* Shamrock gas station.
[sub]*ironically enough.[/sub]
The week my divorce was final happened to fall during a vacation in London – I was in the Navy and stationed in Sicily at that time, and was visiting a dear friend who was stationed in London. My friend had been Maid of Honor at my weddings, BTW. Anyway, we planned a little “ceremony” for the day. We were going to take a river cruise, toast the end of my brief marriage with tequila and chuck the ring in the Thames. Unfortunately, we drank most of the bottle while looking for a good spot to do the toast and ring-toss. We shared the bottle with a couple of cute guys from South Africa, one thing lead to another and we left the boat for an evening of partying with the fellows with the ring still in my pocket. The next morning I flushed the ring down the toilet, figuring that it would still end up in the Thames and I could just tell people the “river cruise, solemn toast and ring toss into the Thames” story and leave out the rest.
I kept my first wedding ring because, to me, it represented the good times of the beginning of the marriage rather than the deterioration of the relationship that eventually followed. I preferred to think of the hope and joy at the time I received it. Unfortunately it was among the jewelry stolen in a burglary several years ago.
My old wedding ring is somewhere in the northern dry lake bed in Edwards AFB, as you’re driving out toward Rosemond.
I still wear the ring my ex-BF gave me. I put it in a drawer for a long time but then figured symbolism is symbolism, but jewelry is jewelry.
I actually had to have my original wedding ring cut off my finger. I’ve gained weight since getting married, and I was working in construction at the time, so I had developed a painful callous just under the ring. It would constantly split open and it hurt. But I couldn’t just pull the ring off my finger. Had to get it cut off.
For a few years I didn’t wear a wedding ring. Then my wife bought me a new one. It’s a little too big for my ring finger, but it fits the middle finger of my left hand, so I wear it there. Different and a little distinctive.
I lost mine in Geneva. Used to take it off at work and put it in the side pocket of my laptop bag (you know, the black ugly kind). The edges were a little sharp and it always bothered the webbing at the base of my fingers. I didn’t mean to lose it, I just figure it fell out of the case one day somewhere. Searched and searched for it. If you run across it, I would pay the postage to get it back. Could also go down to the jeweler’s and get another, but I am not that sentimental.
I lost my wedding ring while re-potting some large house plants. I found it again by checking each flower-pot with one of those small metal detectors you get for checking walls for electric cables and studs. After the third pot I got a beep and retrieved the ring.
Well here are three stories.
My Dad
My dad lost a wedding while we were working in the yard. We had just moved into a brand new house and there really was no yard but just a big pile of soft red clay Oklahoma dirt clogs. So we made a yard. We leveled it, put down sod, and planted shrubs and a willow tree. End of the day his ring and there was no finding it. About 12 years later we had removed the willow tree and when we pulled out the stump one of the trees roots had the ring on it. I was there I swear to Cecil it happened.
My wife
My wife is an actress and the other night she was coming late from a performance. (she is currently in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) She and a fellow actor were riding the train together and we talking a lot. After he left to switch to the L train my wife noticed that she hadn’t put her rings back on after the play. So she gos into her purse and gets out the rings and puts them back on. Then she notices an old woman sitting across from her giving her the nastiest look.
Myself
I was married previously but I honestly can’t remember what I did with my old wedding band. I know I put it back in it’s box and it sat in a compartment in my headboard but what I did with it after that I don’t recall.
Hubby had his ring from his first marriage when we met, and he eventually gave it to his brother who is constantly short of cash. He and I didn’t have rings till we’d been married several months - we’d eloped and we didn’t bother with rings at first.
My original band was lost when I was pregnant. My fingers tended to swell, so I moved the ring to my pinky. I was working in the yard, flinging weeds, and during one fling, the ring went flying, never to be found again. A few years later when we could afford it, I got a replacement band.
Hubby’s band was damaged when he wore it while welding - it’s in my jewelry box. His replacement ring is gone - we’re pretty sure he lost it on the road - probably left it in a hotel room one night.
Maybe we’ll get new rings for our 20th - 2 years down the road…
I forgot to mention my husband’s story in my previous post. I don’t know if he had a ring with his first wife – they were only married 9 months – but if he did, it was long gone by the time I came along. He got a ring when we were married, but lost it at about our 10th anniversary. I’m not very sentimental and wasn’t terribly upset about it – as far as I’m concerned, we could have just skipped the rings in the first place. He is sentimental, however, and very traditional, and he was upset to have lost it. A few months later, his ship went to Italy and he had a 3 day liberty in Naples. One of his liberty days he took the ferry to Sicily (where we were stationed when we were married) and bought a new ring. Seemed a little silly to me (although very sweet), but it made him happy to at least have a ring from the same country where we bought our original ones.
I once lost my wedding ring. I searched EVERYWHERE and in (seemingly) EVERYTHING I own. I finally gave in to the fact that it is gone forever. My wife, wonderful person that she is decided to replace it. The new ring was a very unique and beautiful ring and I was feeling better. Later, while preparing for a meeting, I looked into the inner pocket of my brief satchel for a pen and there it was – the old ring! I was elated and quickly shared the news with all who all I had mourned the loss with.
So now I have two wedding rings and I’m thinking about hocking them both! Just kidding. They fit on my finger amazingly well as if they were somehow destined to be there together.
More specific to the post, after breaking an engagement I threw a $2000 ring into a nearby lake. This girl was breaking up with me because she felt I was to caught up in money matters. Hell, I was! I was constantly saving to buy this ring!
-Waneman
What lake and where exactly were you when you threw it in? That would be worth recovering.