Family Jewels

As far back as I can remember I’ve never been too fond of jewelry. I’ve never been one to wear it much. The only items I own are a nice wrist watch, a small gold chain necklace, and a fit bit. That’s all. I can’t stand wearing rings on my fingers. I once pierced the upper cartilage in my ear, but it didn’t last long. At the end of the day, they are nothing more than rare metals and pretty rocks.

People’s obsession with jewelry really brings out the monsters within them. From what I’ve noticed throughout my life.

My late grandmother gave my grandfather absolute hell for misplacing her precious rings. She never forgave him for forgetting where he put them in the house. It sure put them both through a lot of turmoil. My grandfather eventually found them, a year after she passed away.

Whenever someone has passed away in my family, the offspring have always fought over the jewelry. Rather than letting a death bring the family together, it tears them apart. This may be the situation with inheritance in general, but I notice it a lot worse in deciding who gets to keep the jewelry. It happened with my grandma her sisters, and it happened with my mother and her sisters. My father’s sister even accused my mother of stealing jewelry after our grandma passed away. Later on, my mother accused my sister of stealing her earrings. This was after an event when my sister borrowed my mom’s pearl necklace without getting permission. This is part of the reason why my sister refuses to speak with our parents anymore.

The jewelry industry has caused a lot of international problems across the world as well. Wars have been fought over precious stones and metals. Miners extract this material from the earth, toiling for pennies on the dollar.

For these reasons, I hate jewelry.

However, I know that I have no choice but to continue this viscous tradition when I marry the girl I love. There's no way around it; I'm going to spend most of my earnings on her engagement ring to prove that I am a man worthy of sharing a life with her, and to show how valuable she is to me. Then our offspring will be fighting over the jewelry all over again. It's an unbreakable, family destroying tradition.

 

Before I realized that I didn't ever want to get married, I was planning on spending at least 10k on a wedding ring.

 

Less than 150 years ago women had no vote and were not allowed to own property, hence, we have songs with lyrics such as "She's been married seven times before" because the only way a woman could hang onto anything valuable was if was jewelry or she remarried immediately. When women make as much money as men for the same labor, such traditions tend to weaken considerably, however, even in places like Louisiana their wages were as low as 66c on the dollar for the same labor, and they still make roughly 20% less than men on the average.

Haters gotta hate, because there's plenty of hate to go around and, by who you hate, by this are you truly known.

 

I wear this at all times...



Mine is a tad more "aged" after 20+ years of wear.


At one point the chain it was on was soldered together while it was on my neck... I wasn't able to take it off at all. I did eventually cut that chain and put it on a different one with a clasp, but I never take it off anyways...


I have a couple of silver rings I never remove as well...

 

When my parents died, my sisters took everything. I just let them. I don't need a bunch of stuff. I'm too busy actually thinking about the people behind all that stuff, though admittedly it would be nice to have something to hold onto sometimes. No one cares how I feel, though.

Of course, all my parents actually left me was a toy car.

 

When our parents died we split things up pretty evenly. Dad passed last and there was a whole condo full of stuff. We had already divided up Mom's stuff by then... everybody got something.

You really should have something, just to remember them by... Even if you don't spend a lot of time doing so, it should be there when you want to.

 

I never understood the appeal of jewelry either. Engagement rings are silly--no need to continue that tradition.

 

When my grandmother died she promised some rings to my sister and me but my aunt showed up at the funeral wearing them.
I didnt care, I was just a kid and it was old people jewelry, I thought it was gaudy. And I inherited some of her other belongings that I liked a lot more so it wasnt a big deal to me.
But my mom and sister were pissed about it for a while.
I guess it is a tacky thing to do, to show up at someone's funeral wearing jewelry meant to go to someone else.

I dont really like jewelry. And I don't like marriage either so the engagement ring thing isnt an issue for me lol

 

I was the only one who was even in tears. I really loved my mother and father, but I feel, due to all of abuse they leveled upon us, my sisters are hard and cold towards them. Maybe it's just because I'm the youngest. Still, they took everything...what scant little there was.

As it is, I've lost all of the objects I have to remember them by, though I know where they are. They're at a friend's house that I ransacked when I was suffering psychosis. He's half forgiven me. It's going to take a little more time, I guess, but I don't know if the car my parents left me or the blanket my mother knit for me will still be there. It's a long and complicated story.

As it is, I have absolutely nothing to remember them by. They didn't leave me much to work with, though. And it's been a rough journey. I don't know if I'll ever get all my belongings back. And honestly, all they left me was a worthless toy car. But I had some other stuff I took care of that was theirs. It's just become the property of others.

And all of these others do not give a damn about how I feel, it seems. I just can't understand it. It feels absurd.

 

Not that I specifically wanted the jewelry. There were a couple of pieces I played with when I was little, but I'd rather my sisters have that. That's pretty much the way it is...I just like for others to be spoiled I guess. And it seems like they never realize that I'm giving them everything and think of me instead.

 

Hey, I hope you'll be able to find those

 

I know where they are. I'll probably never find that worthless car again, but the blanket wouldn't be hard to spot.

Why the fuck did my mother want me to have a green model t toy car? It has no value... I'm not into cars. It's just like, what the fuck? Does anybody know me?

 

jewelry to me is about like holidays. just something to celebrate because you decided you needed something to celebrate. fuck all that; have fun when you want to, not when the calendar says, and be happy about owning a thing that makes you happy, not a thing that made someone you know spend a lot of money.

 

When I was in the car business I bought my wife lots of expensive jewelry. She has a few things that she now wears but most are just stowed away. I've tried to hint to her that she should give some away to younger nieces and great nieces but she hasn't. For example, she has a gold watch that she hasn't worn in the ten years since she retired. Now she did ask a jeweler what they'd give for it once and they said they'd give her what the gold value was, which I believe was only $300. I just don't get why she didn't give it to someone.

OK, I confess, I have a few that I've kept. I still have a silver Seiko watch that I bought my first deployment in the military in 1967. It quit working just this year and I started wearing another Seiko, a gold one, that I bought when I got into the car business in 1975. I also have a gold master parachutist wings on a neckless that I wear most of the time. My wife had it made from my high school class ring years ago. And, of course, my wedding ring. Well, it's not my original wedding ring. I got this ring after our 30th anniversary. Long story...

Well, what they hey? I'm not doing anything else right now so I'll bore you with that story;

I was working in an office with 10 women and I was the only guy. They all knew my wife and, just before our 30th anniversary, one of them asked what I was getting my wife for her anniversary gift. I, trying to sound serious, answered, "nothing". I paused for a moment and added, "you can retire from most anything after 30 years and I'm retiring from marriage". The silence was hilarious.

Well, not long after that, and after our anniversary, we were with another couple at a restaurant one evening. My wife and the other wife were in conversation and I told my friend about what I'd told the women at work. Well, my wife and the other lady overheard. My wife simply said that, if we're no longer married then she wanted a friendship ring.

So, that next morning I googled 'friendship rings'. What I found was the Irish Claddagh. So I ordered her a ring and one for myself. We've been wearing those for the past 17+ years now. We even got Claddagh tattoos on our 35th anniversary.

 

I assume the idea is that you judge it based on monetary value and that's why the emphasis on big diamonds. Since I don't care about that I realised a while ago that an engagement ring, to me, would have to demonstrate how well the guy understood me rather than how much money he had. I do like that idea. But then that's the wedding ring too. No need for a separate ring.

 

I have a very persistant prejudice about guys wearing a gold chain... but seriously. I had as principle thoughts about jewelry as i had about make up. I'm past that for awhile Just am not interested in it. Gold and expensive watches are just kind of gay imo (not in the homosexual sense)

I would make one out of driftwood :-D

 

Wise. But I'd have to decline despite the good taste due to your taste in almost everything else : )

 

The 'would' implies its a hypothetical situation

 

Yes and the "would" in the abbreviation "I'd" implies I am saying what would happen within your hypothetical situation.