Wedding ring lost and found
So last week I was moving a stack of assorted papers around down here in the shop and heard a clatter of something small and metallic hitting the floor. There, on the floor just under the front of the fridge was a silver Claddagh ring. A big one at that. It wasn't mine, I don't have a Claddagh ring. I rarely even wear my wedding ring. Where had I seen this ring before?
In my experience as a mechanic and before that as an electrician, I learned that rings can get you into trouble. They get stuck in places you can't get out of, short of gnawing off your hand. I'll admit, my high school ring did save my fingers once when the screws holding a very heavy transformer broke, causing it to fall straight down against the steel frame of a machine that I happened to be working on. The transformer wedged in the opening it was falling through when it jammed against my class ring. If not for the ring, three of my fingers would have been sheared off.
I do have a few rings that are fun to wear sometimes. I've got some sort of silver religious ring that was my Grandfather's when he was young, I can see it in a family portrait from 1928. Whatever the saint is on the front is pretty well worn off, maybe it is the Virgin Mary? I'll have to do some homework as to whet church they belonged to in that era, and maybe I'll be able to figure it out.
I've also got a couple of 18th century rings that came from archaeological digs. Those are fun to wear at living history events. One is a siple band with some of it's gilding still on it, another is copper with a pattern, and a third has a paste stone on the front, with traces of the gilding left on. The stone has deteriorated away to almost nothing.
My wedding ring is a sterling silver reproduction of an 18th century ring that is in the Peabody-Essex Museum collection. The museum is a great resource to study trade and New England's maritime history, but that's a whole 'nother post. Wendy and I were to go on our first date to the museum, and I bumped into a guy at Ticonderoga who makes reproduction silver jewelry. It was the perfect ring to get at our 18th century wedding! I just can't get in the habit of wearing one though.
What I don't have, is a Claddagh ring. Especially one big enough to fit around my thumb. Where had I seen it before? Then it dawned on me! Paulie wears a silver Claddagh! And Paulie, well, he's a pretty big boy...
He had gone off to Maine to a gun show and I didn't know how to get ahold of him. Yesterday I ran into him down at #4, and sure enough, it is his wedding ring that he didn't even notice had fallen off. It seems that this is not the first time he lost it either. Another time it turned up in the woodpile at the fort.
I generously offered to pin it to his finger, much the way you would pin the brass tip onto a wooden rammer. It would only hurt for a minute, provided there were no infection. He declined.
In my experience as a mechanic and before that as an electrician, I learned that rings can get you into trouble. They get stuck in places you can't get out of, short of gnawing off your hand. I'll admit, my high school ring did save my fingers once when the screws holding a very heavy transformer broke, causing it to fall straight down against the steel frame of a machine that I happened to be working on. The transformer wedged in the opening it was falling through when it jammed against my class ring. If not for the ring, three of my fingers would have been sheared off.
I do have a few rings that are fun to wear sometimes. I've got some sort of silver religious ring that was my Grandfather's when he was young, I can see it in a family portrait from 1928. Whatever the saint is on the front is pretty well worn off, maybe it is the Virgin Mary? I'll have to do some homework as to whet church they belonged to in that era, and maybe I'll be able to figure it out.
I've also got a couple of 18th century rings that came from archaeological digs. Those are fun to wear at living history events. One is a siple band with some of it's gilding still on it, another is copper with a pattern, and a third has a paste stone on the front, with traces of the gilding left on. The stone has deteriorated away to almost nothing.
My wedding ring is a sterling silver reproduction of an 18th century ring that is in the Peabody-Essex Museum collection. The museum is a great resource to study trade and New England's maritime history, but that's a whole 'nother post. Wendy and I were to go on our first date to the museum, and I bumped into a guy at Ticonderoga who makes reproduction silver jewelry. It was the perfect ring to get at our 18th century wedding! I just can't get in the habit of wearing one though.
What I don't have, is a Claddagh ring. Especially one big enough to fit around my thumb. Where had I seen it before? Then it dawned on me! Paulie wears a silver Claddagh! And Paulie, well, he's a pretty big boy...
He had gone off to Maine to a gun show and I didn't know how to get ahold of him. Yesterday I ran into him down at #4, and sure enough, it is his wedding ring that he didn't even notice had fallen off. It seems that this is not the first time he lost it either. Another time it turned up in the woodpile at the fort.
I generously offered to pin it to his finger, much the way you would pin the brass tip onto a wooden rammer. It would only hurt for a minute, provided there were no infection. He declined.
posted by MVTCoPete | 2:07 PM
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