Dot`sThoughts

I was just sitting here thinking of all the rings I own and I can`t even wear one of them.

I received my first nice ring when I was about 10 or maybe a little older. It was my Birthday and my Mother had sent away for a ring with a Saphire in it. My first Birthday stone ring. I loved that ring so much and wore it every day.

I had only owned that ring for a couple weeks when an Uncle offered to take all us kids (along with his daughter and another of our cousins ) ice skating. Near our home was a very large wooded area that origionally belonged to my Fathers parents. They had both passed away long before i was born. One of my Dad`s brothers and his wife then lived in the old farm house. A few years later one of his sister`s husbands passed away. Shortly after that a bro of Dad`s wife died in child labor. So the widowed sister moved into the farmhouse to tend to the baby for her brother. Another bro lost his only son in a car accident and later lost his wife. So the others had him also move home with them. So, two of Dad`s brothers and one of sister`s were living in the farmhouse when i was small. Well, the reason for mentioning all this is to explain who then owned the farmhouse with all that wooded property that extended from the farmhouse all the way to the Feeder Canal. This canal was our private swimming hole when we were growing up. But the canal would freeze over solid every winter-- giving us a huge skating area.

Now to get back to the ring! This day, an Uncle on my Mother`s side of the family took responsibility for all us kids to go skating with him. This Uncle was married to one of my Mothers sisters. We were all so happy to be allowed to go skating with him. We had skated about 5 miles up the canal and another 5 miles back and were all having a wonderful time. We would have skated up further if there wasn`t some water locks named "The Five Combines". This was where they could close the locks and prevent any boats from going thru when it was closed. When closed it also cut down on the height of the water in the canal below that lock. But, even if we had skated down the canal the other way, we still would have eventually arrived at another set of locks, only those were even closer. Shortly before we got back to where this canal touched the farmland, I removed my gloves to rub my cold hands. That`s when I noticed my ring was mssing. I checked my gloves, hoping to find it inside the glove, but no such luck. My Uncle even turned the glove inside out to be certain it wasn`t stuck to the material someplace. A brother and a couple others skated back up the canal for about a mile or so looking for it. But we never found it. I knew it could have slipped off my finger at any of the many times I had removed my gloves to rub and warm up my cold hands. As my Uncle said, it was starting to get dark so we had to get off the ice. That was our last skating for that winter so I never was able to go back hunting for my birthstone ring.
I felt terrible from losing my ring. I also felt bad having to tell my mother I had lost that ring she had gotten for me. Why do I say mother got it for me when she used my Dads money to buy it. So, actually it was a Birthday present from both of my parents. I got other gifts along with the ring, but the ring is one I never forgot about. Like the first Doll that I had named Joan, this was my first ring that wasn`t fron the Five and Dime store. It was a tiny bit lose, but being so young I never thought of taking it off and leaving it at home. I wish my mother had thought to tell me to take it off so I wouldn`t lose it. Back then they didn`t have the ring guards they have today to make a ring fit tighter onto a smaller finger and my parents couldn`t have afforded using a jewelry worker to cut it down. This reminded me of the year both my sister and I spent a week at Church camp that was being held in a College in Vermont State. Why I am thinking of that now is because of something my mother wrote in one of the letters she wrote to me. This is what she wrote " Tell Betty to take off Buddy`s ring if she goes in swimming so she won`t lose it. " I still have that letter today. I still wonder why she didn`t just write a letter to my sister and tell her. My sister Betty is 2 yrs older than I am and Bud was her boyfriend and is her husband still today. We were about 15 and 17 at this time. But, who knows, mybe my mother remembered me losing my ring and caused her to fear Betty might also lose a ring. Or maybe her boyfriend mentioned he hoped she didn`t lose his ring while she was gone. Either way, I will never know.

It was many years later before I ever received another ring with a Sapphire stone on it. Actually my Mother`s ring has 3 sapphire stones amongst the other stones. Two of my daughters, plus the step daughter were also born in September- so Sapphire stones. Plus there is one for Feb., stepson in March and 2 for the twins born in April. I love this ring and wore it for many years.
Then I had a mishap with a steak knife which left the smaller finger on an angle and so sensitive that I could no longer wear a ring on the left hand ring finger. The ring made the damaged finger pain too much. But this steak knife is another story.

Then the arthritis got so bad that my fingers turned just crocked enough to prevent me from wearing any of my rings. Worst part was when they had to remove my wedding and Engagement rings for the first hand op -on my right hand. I did manage to put the rings back on for a few years. My wonderful Husband even bought me a larger Diamond Stone engagement ring to replace the smaller one he gave me before we married. He wanted to also buy me a more expensive wedding ring, but I refused. No way was I ever replacing the three Diamond stoned wedding band he gave me on my wedding day. He thought I would prefer one with three larger Diamonds, but how can any ring mean as much as the origional one from your Wedding day. I made them tape over my wedding and engagement rings for every cessarrian- I wouldn`t let them remove my rings. So the three hand ops over the years were the only times they were allowed to remove my rings during operations.

I also have other pretty rings that still sit in my jewelry box. All those pretty rings and I can`t wear any of them. My knuckles are a bit enlarged from arthritis, so if I had pieces put into the rings to get them over the knuckles , then they would be too loose to fit tightly onto my fingers. I can`t take a chance on having any lose rings on my hands while working with all the tools in my woodshop. it would be just too dangerous.

There was a short time when I wore my husbands larger wedding band because I just couldn`t seem to put it away with the others. Till one day while working outside in the yard, I somehow lost his ring. One of my daughters and I hunted for a long time and never found it. But the next day one of the sons went looking and found it inside a cement block in the stair steps of the outside cellarway. A Daughter and I had used a flashlight and checked every one of those blocks, and still there it was in plain sight the next morning. I wonder if the rain over night had something to do with it. Maybe the ring had ended up standing on end in a spot where it didn`t show and maybe the rain caused the ring to drop down flat. Just something to still ponder over. That convinced me to put his ring away for safe keeping

When I look back and remember that it was my mother`s sister`s husband that took us skating and it was thru the property owned by my Fathers family-- just reminded me how well my Father`s and my Mother`s families all got along. I sure was so lucky to have such wonderful relation on both sides of the family.

With all that Doctors know today, I wish there was a way to straighten out the crocked knuckles and fingers that show where arthritis has made itself known. They might not have been so bad if I wasn`t born with double jointed knuckles in the middle knuckles which had allowed those knuckles to bend backward a short ways further than most peoples knuckles. Straightening out the fingers after the hand operations ended up with those knuckles bending inward a little ways when the fingers are held wide open. But, they sure could be lots worse. As long as I can still have fun making things, I have no reason for complaining. I can even still crochet using those pencil enlargers to make the needles larger so they don`t slip out of my fingers. So, I know how lucky I am But I still do wish we had found my first Birthstone ring. Had a girlfriend who lost her grade school ring and when they sold their parents home about 30 years later- the new tenents took the kitchen sink pipes apart to repair it. Lo and behold, there in the sink piping was that old grade school ring. Last I heard one of her grandchildren was still wearing that ring. So, sometimes miracles do happen. I still have my grade school and my high school rings, but the high school picture is off the hight School ring. I was repairing a bicycle, using double wrenches to remove the two nuts when one of the wrenches slipped, hit the ring, and the emblem went fyling. A bro helped me hunt for it, but we never found it. We even emptied boxes and boxes of bike parts to search in the boxes. That was over 30 years ago when we were still repairing bikes in our cellar. We later built the bike shop to work in. Who knows, maybe one of these days when I am cleaning in the cellar, a miracle might happen and the emblem might be found.