Sunday, August 30, 2009

A lost relic comes home

This is probably the most unusual personal story I've ever experienced .. it encourages me to believe in the return of more recently lost treasures, especially since this one was lost over 30 years ago while I was working at Community Savings Bank in Watertown, NY (and not surprisingly considered gone for good). The relic in question is my high school class ring.

The story began with a Facebook "hail" from a classmate asking if I'd heard from her boss regarding my class ring (I vaguely remember a first cousin being involved in there somewhere as well, and having spoken to him .. but I can't remember where he fit in the story, so we'll just leave him out).

After waiting several weeks or more to hear from my classmate's boss, my classmate just took the bull by the horns, snagged the ring and sent it to me with the story, as she'd heard it .. in her words:

"... Someone finds your ring and gives it to the Watertown cops. They, in turn, hand it over to the Carthage cops. Carthage cops, with all the latest technology, go to the local donut shop to do a little detecting. With only a minimum of clues (high school, year of graduation & initials), they decide that it is unsolveable and they put it in the cold case files (or in this case, Chief of Police takes it home and puts it in his underwear drawer. I know - horrible thought - you better get that ring cleaned!) Anyway, 35 years later, said cop's daughter finds the damn thing while cleaning out said underwear drawer. (I can't stress to you how important it is to clean that ring!) Cop's daughter says, 'Hmm, one of my employees graduated in this class, I'll ask her.' 5 minutes later, Eureka! Moral of the story - don't trust the cops!"

I laughed out loud when I read it. And, of course, when I looked in my class yearbook, I am the ONLY KMC in the entire graduating class .. how difficult could it have been? Well, I guess when you're up against donuts, pretty damn difficult.

As a result of this little personal mystery, I've connected with a classmate who I didn't really know in high school and who in my estimation "clicked" almost immediately after we began exchanging notes (a great sense of humor, you must admit) .. and have an invitation to check out a relatively new and highly recommended restaurant in Carthage next time I'm in the area (my mom's only about ten miles away, so it'd be an easy trip) .. as there are few restaurants of that description up here in Ogdensburg, I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to give her a call!

.. and the ring still fits.

Addendum: Yes, folks, I cleaned the ring .. in my tumbler with steel shot, liquid soap and ammonia .. for about an hour!

2 comments:

Tracy Talbot said...

that's an amazing story! glad you got your ring back.

The Wild Inside said...

It's unlikely I'll ever wear the thing again, but it's so cool to have it back! Your note reminded me that I'd meant to upload this post to my Facebook page for the pleasure of several of my classmates (including the woman who was responsible for returning it). A friend of mine who gets my blog posts automatically called me after she'd received it in August and literally "Laughed out Loud" .. said I should definitely put it up in Facebook, since several of our old classmates are out there who would enjoy the Carthage police story immensely.