Never heard of them in Australia.
I was never interested in jewelry so I passed on on a High School. Despite it being a long standing tradition I never bothered with a college class ring.
Gave it to my ex-husband before he was my ex. He died a few years ago. If y’all ever run across a blue glass/pot metal/class of ’88, might be mine…
Mine, white gold with a blue stone, is in a shadow box in my kitchen right next to my wife’s.
I voted for the never having one option in the poll.
Mine “shrank” after about 25 years. I contacted the company I bought it from (Artcarved), and they resized it for the cost of return postage.
HS ring is in a box of similar crap somewhere in my basement. I can still remember the conversation with my mom over why we had to spend $35 (in 1973) for a piece of jewlery I would never wear. It boiled down to ‘we are paying for it, you’ll buy one, because that is what people do.’
Stolen in a housebreak, probably melted down the same day, never replaced.
My dad browbeat me into buying one. I lost it about a month or so after I got it. I never have been able to pinpoint where or how, but my best guess is that I took it off when washing my hands in the restroom at a movie theater and I left it on the sink. Looking through the movies from 1979, I can’t pick out anything from the time period involved that I would actually have gone to see, though.
My parents didn’t do this kind of joining/group identity thing, but I enjoyed college and found it meaningful, so I bought it myself.
My first college boyfriend lost my high school ring somewhere in the King of Prussia Mall: he wore it on a chain around his neck, and the clasp broke. Neither of us noticed until we’d left the mall. We tried retracing our steps, but it was gone. I was upset when it first happened, and sometimes I wish I still had it (like now, when my class is about to have our 25-year reunion).
My college ring is in my jewelry box at home. I might still wear it from time to time if I hadn’t switched to all-silver several years ago (it’s gold).
I considered getting a grad school ring, but figured I’d probably stop wearing it after a couple of years and I couldn’t justify the cost of the style I wanted.
Stolen long time ago. Still pissed. I should have put it an a lock box where I should have put a lot of stuff that was stolen over the years.
After not wearing my HS ring for 30 years, I sold it (and other unused jewelry) to the jeweler who reset my wife’s engagement diamond. Might have even turned a profit on it.
I bought a college class ring - that was definitely a mistake. Didn’t wear it very long and now I have a vague idea of where it might be. No monetary or sentimental value in it at all.
Hated high school. My mother insisted that I get a class ring. All during the stupid ring ceremony my inner self was screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Wore it for about a year. Took it off as soon as I left home.
Last time I saw it was on the jeweler’s counter, along with my wedding ring, ready to be made into a ring I really wanted.
The one time I listened to my mother about removing my rings before washing my hands…I left it in an interstate rest stop bathroom somewhere in Nebraska. No she wasn’t about to turn around to go get it after two more hours of driving.
How’s this for strange and unusual (movie quote! Name that flick!):
My parents insisted on buying both HS and BA rings - I have never worn either (tried on for size at parent’s insistence).
They are in the jewelry box by Mother’s sister bought me for my HS graduation. Cheap cardboard with fake leather covering; lid is now falling off hinges (IIRC - haven’t used it or even opened it in 20 years or so).
Like everything else: Used to be.
I thought a high school class ring was pretentious, the achievement of high school graduation is hardly worth publicizing, and we really couldn’t afford it.
I did order a college class ring because my degree is represented by a unique setting that was kinda cool. I only wore it a few times, the huge ring still seems pretentious, and it has sat in the original box for 30 years…
I never had one. I wouldn’t have wanted (and still do not want) either a ring or a wearable piece of school memorabilia, but even if I had, the rings were expensive, ugly, and huge.
I bet I could get one made if I ever regretted it. It was through Jostens and I’m pretty sure they’ll make a ring that says anything for a fee.
(A) Lots of things seem important in high school that no longer seem important afterwards.
(B) Judging from this thread, a number of people have parents who are afraid that their child will suffer regrets if they don’t have a traditional object with which to remember high school, even if it’s unimportant later in life.
I got mine ten years after I graduated from college. What few pennies I had at the time of my graduation were earmarked for more crucial purchases. Ten years later, I finally ordered it. They charged me a few extra bucks to put 1980 on it instead of 1990, but they had no problem making it.