LEDGER COLUMNIST

"As we stroll along together
Holding hands and walking all alone
So in love are we two
That we don't know what to do"

Recognize those lyrics? They're from 'So much in love' by The Tymes, a chart topper and million-seller record in 1963. If you're my age or older, you might also remember "You Little Trust Maker" and "Ms. Grace" by the same group.

Why do I bring this up and how could it possibly have anything to do with current events?

I'm glad you asked that.

Monday night, I attended the Ring Ceremony for the Gaffney High School class of 2010. Just so you won't have to think too much, this group now makes up the junior class. I went because my youngest daughter, Abbie, is in that class.

After a brief ceremony in which class officers explained everything you ever wanted to know about rings and ring ceremonies, members of the class walked across the stage and received their class rings while parents, other family members and friends watched.

What a difference 40 years makes. Actually 39. That's when the GHS class of 1969 had its ring ceremony. The most obvious difference to me is that we received our rings during our senior year.

That, and as I recollect, just about the entire class participated. Despite what current principal Marlene Davis described as the best turnout in recent years, I'd guess less than 100 students attended Monday night's event.

But then, our ceremony was held during school. That might have had something to do with it.

Oh, one other minor detail about differences in the ceremonies almost slipped my mind.

In our ceremony and those before it, students asked classmates of the opposite sex to 'go through the ring' with them.

"The ring" was this class ring-shaped structure that was big enough for a couple to walk through.

Dee Gee McElveen accepted when I asked her to exchange rings. Yeah, we did that, too. The girl put the boy's ring on his finger and the boy put the girl's on hers.

I admit, it sounds kinda hokey now, but back then, it was A BIG DEAL.

There was music, too. The song playing when Dee Gee and I 'exchanged' rings was, you guessed it, "So much in love."

It wasn't like we were this huge item or anything. We dated some and had been friends for years. And we still are, even though we seldom see one another.

Monday night, several of the class officers mentioned 'memories' and how the ceremony and class rings would be something they would cherish for years.

One explained the "turning of the ring," which was new to me. The ring wearer asks 10 people special to them to turn their ring around once, with the last one being the most special.

I'm not sure where that tradition originated, but I dove right in.

"I want to be number 10," I told Abbie as we walked to the car afterward.

She protested that wouldn't be fair to her mom, who agreed. I quickly suggested that we could each turn the ring half way. There was a method to my madness. I was doing a pre-emptive boyfriend strike. The matter was left unsettled. I think I lost.

Back in my day, couples who were really "items" exchanged rings after the ceremony. The guys wore the girls on a chain around their neck and sometimes the girls did the same. Another way the girls showed off their 'bling-bling' was cramming the boy's way-too-big ring full of wax until it fit their dainty little finger.

I can tell you one thing for certain, though, as much of a highlight day as it was for seniors to receive their rings, freshman dreaded it. For several weeks after 'ring day' freshmen were terrorized by senior boys who used their rings to 'pop knots' on their heads.

My GHS class ring sat in the corner of a drawer for years after I graduated and went off to college.

That's probably why they are given out in the 11th grade — so the students will get more wear out of them.

What do you do with a high school ring after high school, anyway?

You can't go around hitting people in the head or wear it around your neck, can you?

A few years ago, I had mine melted down and made into a ring for my oldest daughter, Katie.

The form may have changed, but the memories remain. I can hear the sea gulls now.

(You'll have to listen to the song.)

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.