Behind the Blackboard: Writing about rings, burglaries and memories

I've never been a big jewelry wearer, but while I was twice married I wore wedding rings, and in high school I used to wear my high school class ring and sometimes a National Honor Society pendant necklace.My high school ring and other items were stolen a few years back in a house burglary, and although the Kingsport Police Department did an excellent job in finding the culprit and helping prosecute him, we never got any money or items returned.Jonathan Fink's take (he was convicted) included my high school class ring made of Lustrium, touted as the metal of the future that I remembered as combination of stainless steel and chromium. However, a quick internet search found it is a non-precious metal made of nickel and chromium. He also got gold rings belonging to my ex-wife, her high school ring that I believe was also lustrium and my father's Masonic ring that was 14 karat gold, known as 14K in jewelry parlance. (Sounds like a Barney Fife statement, doesn't it?)Oddly enough, my ex-wife to this day also laments losing a pair of pink tennis shoes apparently taken in the burglary. And just so you know, a single pillowcase also went missing, so the stereotype about a burglar using a pillowcase to carry away small items of big value rang true.We got an offer to him upon his conviction that we would forgive the value of the rings from his repayment to us if he could guide us in the direction of where they might be now and we could recover them, but we never heard anything from him.We also never got any of the promised compensation for the estimated $1,500 worth of items taken.We didn't figure we would, even though police went all out Columbo in the investigation and lifted a palm print off the window Fink used to get into the house.HOW IS THIS EDUCATION RELATED?Ironically, folks who knew about Masonic rings would ask me about mine. As far as I know, the Masons are a fine organization, but I am not a member, at least yet. However, I am a member of another group, the alumni of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.I graduated in June of 1987 after five years to get a four-year degree. In my junior year in 1985, before my first senior year in 1986, I got my jumbo men's UT class ring, with an orange synthetic stone and a interlocking UT embedded in the stone. It resembled my father's Masonic ring.I acquired that UT ring 40 years ago. Except for a few years when it got too small (my fingers got too big and I got it resized), I've worn it every day. That is, up until Monday night, Jan. 20, when it went missing.WHY NOW?You see, those fingers of mine get smaller in extreme cold, and we've had plenty of that the past week or two. I was piddling around the house — I love to piddle, don't you? —when I instinctively on auto pilot and without thought went to feel for the ring with the adjoining fingers.It was nowhere to be found.I had a warning a few days before the ring went missing. When I removed some gloves, the ring came off but stayed in the middle finger slot. That's when I should have put the ring in a Zip-Lock-type sandwich bag and put it away until outside temperatures consistently reach above freezing. If I find it, that's just what I'm going to do unless I can get a ring resizer to make it stay put on my ring finger.POSITIVE OUTCOMESHowever, as with all adversity I have found some positives from my situation:1. In searching through trash cans at work I used the day the ring went missing, I have found that I and my workplace have amazingly clean trash. I must be becoming a neat freak in my older years, or maybe someone is secretly cleaning the trash.2. Going through the car has had the benefit of me finding other things that may be missing or that I didn't even know were missing, as well as some I didn't even know I had.3. Ditto for the house. I'm finding all sorts of things, just not the ring.Still, I'm really quite upset and perturbed this has happened. I can't blame anyone but myself because I had a warning, actually one this year and one a while back. A couple of years ago, I actually lost the same ring in some hay bales I was moving around.(Don't ask. It was nothing nefarious, just helping some people by giving them some old hay for reseeding a yard. And I found the ring a couple of days letter, still in a hay bale. At least it wasn't the proverbial needle.)I also checked at the last place I visited on my way home, Kingsport's Goodwill store. They hadn't found the ring but were very nice and took my name and number.IN CLOSINGIf anybody out there has any clues where my ring might be or has found it, please get in touch with me. It has my name engraved inside the band.As a reward, I'll give you my thanks and some cash if you want. I also can donate to a charity of your choice if you prefer, but you could just do that with the cash I would give you.I guess I also could have somebody start a GoFundMe account to replace the ring, but I'm not even sure Jostens still makes the same style ring after 40 years. The memories of a ring I've had for about 40 years are still with me. I just wish the ring was.It was with me during my later quarters of study at UT, graduation day, through internships in an after college and my first regular job after college. It also was there for the birth of my three children, two marriages and two divorces and the death of my grandmother, mother and then father, plus other family members.I also bought two houses while wearing that ring and sold two, and it has been there as I wrote literally thousands of articles and other things for newspapers since 1985. No burglar or thief can take the memories, and the articles live on or will live on online long after I've drawn my last breath.Still, wish me luck in my quest to be reunited with my ring or maybe someday my dad's Masonic ring. I'll do an update if and when I find either or both of them.Two questions:I wonder, though, if you can get an Apple AirTag small enough to go on a college class ring?And should I borrow a magic metal detector that can ferret out the gold of a lost ring?Rick Wagner is an education writer and reporter for the Kingsport Times News. He may be reached at rwagner@sixriversmedia.com or 423-367-2177.