High school rings: Passe or not?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Pundit Lisa mentioned high-school rings in a tangential way yesterday, noting that these overpriced things are not only still in existence, despite the fact that most parents are aware that they’re ripoffs, but that her daughter’s high school actually had a ceremony for putting them on for the first time.

I was surprised as she apparently is; I not only didn’t get one in 1981 when I graduated, but my two high-school kids, one of whom is a senior, have not mentioned them once, let alone asked to get them.

To me they seem like an archaic 1950s throw-back, where girls wore their boyfriends’ rings wadded with yarn to make them fit, or on a chain around their necks. Or even older, something like being “pinned” to some guy in a 1940s sorority.

Apart from the 'burbs of Cincinnati, :wink: does anyone still do this any more? Do any of you have high-school rings and cherish them as dear? I didn’t even get a college ring, and that would be much more meaningful.

#2

I thought they were out of date in 1974. My mom made me get one anyway. My kids were not interested enough to get one in the 2000s. We did get the forms and, as parents, we kind of felt like we had to do it if they were interested. When the oldest asked “why would I want one” it was enough for me to drop the subject.

#3

Yeah, I got a high school ring when I graduated from high school in 2007. I thought about getting a college ring but then I got distracted. The ring I got is relatively smooth and silver with a flat blue stone in it. I liked to think that it didn’t look glaringly like a class ring and it lacked most of the busyness of a traditional class ring. It cost me about 200 bucks. Was it a worthwhile purchase? I dunno. I still wear it sometimes.

#4

My son wanted one. He’s a high school senior this year, and we bought it last year, because it made sense to us to get him the ring while it still was meaningful as a high school thing. He wears it regularly.

The big improvement in class rings, IMO, is that the purchase price includes insurance against loss for four years, I think, and he can have it resized for free as long as he owns the ring (or until Jostens changes their mind :wink: ).

#5

My son graduated high school in 2006 and purchased one. I have mine from 1982 and I have my deceased father in law’s in my safe from 1963. I hadn’t heard they went out of style. These rings were from three different states as well.

#6

I got one in 1992 (I think.) It was pretty standard in my all-boys Catholic school to get high school rings. Looking back at it, it was pretty silly, but how else were you going to show your high school sweetheart you love her without giving her your ring with some yarn tied around it (because it’s too big to fit her delicate fingers) while you’re dating? (Alternatively, they would wear it on a necklace.)

I actually wore mine through my freshman year of college, but not since then. I’m not exactly sure where it is, but I’m sure my mother knows.

#7

passe

#8

I thought they were a joke back in the early 70s. Bought a non-class ring instead that I still wear. But there are still a large number of my students who think a class ring is something to be treasured.

<sigh>

#9

My daughter wanted (and got) one when she was a senior a couple of years ago. However, she has always been very school-centered, not to mention usually marching to a different drum. I knew it was meaningful to her.
My son will graduate in a couple of years and I’d be surprised if he wanted one.

#10

I think the design itself is tacky, but I do admit that I’ve seen some designs that are prettier. They just scream cheap bling to me, but this is of course my humble opinion.

#11

I thought they were silly and told my mom so when she asked me if I wanted one in 2000. But I didn’t think high school was a particularly special time in my life and I have no particular interest in memorializing it. I’m sure other people feel differently. Hey, if it’s meaningful to you, go for it. My impression if I see someone with a high school ring is that they peaked in high school, though that may not be a fair judgment.

#12

I teach intro college classes. The students that wear them are typically from small towns. It’s rare to see them wear them into the second year.

#13

I graduated in 2005. My mom mentioned rings, and we looked at the Jostens catalog together. Briefly. Until I looked at the prices and told her I didn’t really want one that badly. She bought me a yearbook and the senior class t-shirt instead and that was enough. I’d never wear the ring anyway. If it had been more like the yearbook price ($70ish) I might have gone ahead but not for $350. If I pay that much for something it needs to be used regularly.

#14

Me neither. I graduated in 2003 and my friends all had them. I begged my mom for one at the start of my freshman year. She put the kibosh on it because of the cost, though.

I even got a letter for marching band, but I couldn’t get a letterman’s jacket. I wanted one!!

#15

They had a box full of them at the bowling alley. Apparently people didn’t come back looking for them often.

#16

This. I graduated in '99 and my parents offered that if I was interested, they’d spring for the ring. I had no interest, but then I was more into socializing with my friends than anything having to do with school (and none of that socializing had anything to do with academics). I can see how if you were a star football player or really into theatre or band, you might want one because of the little customized doo-dads you could put on the sides.

But from the sounds of things, they aren’t quite what they used to be.

I vote for passe.

#17

My fiancee graduated in the early 2000s and had a class ring. He wore it for like four years and still has it now, so I think he’d say it was worth it.
Of course, he had a better high school experience than I did. He was moderately popular, whereas I don’t really have many good memories of high school. To me, high school was just something to get through, and once I was done I never looked back (I didn’t even attend my graduation). I never considered getting a high school ring and I don’t regret the lack of one.

#18

Kids in my class seemed pretty enthused about them. We had a junior ring dance and a Mass where they passed them all out and so forth. I didn’t get one because I just wasn’t that interested.

Some people I know still wear theirs, but most have pretty much forgotten about them, as far as I can tell.

#19

Graduated in 1987,I wore it my senior year in high school and haven’t since. I sold it earlier this year when gold prices were so high. No sentimental value at all. I do still have the band jacket, but I wore that for 4 years of high school.

#20

I still have mine, even though I don’t wear it. It’s a pretty ring, and it has sentimental value. It was also my first “big purchase” that I made myself, so I was really proud of it at the time, as stupid as that sounds now.

My mother still has her’s, too.