The belles have rings!

Memories like birds--fleeting.  "Catch us if you can!"

SCHOOL RING OR CLASS RING?

That is the question.  Blogger always assumed that the ring students received back in the mid ‘50s was the school ring.  When what to her wondering eyes should appear but rings and photos of rings from earlier years.  There was some reason to think that the ring of the ‘50s was the traditional ring because it lasted far into the ‘80s and maybe beyond (if only memory were sharper!).  Surely it was not changed in all those years given its history.  Wrong!  It did not have the history blogger assumed it had.   By 1949 the ring had changed at least four times since the early 1920s.  The first two rings above are easily identified as to year; the third ring is dated on the sides 1929, and the fourth, 1939. (It is not known when the high school inaugurated a class or school ring.)  Time marches on and so do tastes and interests.  Around 1990 the company selling rings was offering side panels that indicated the students’ athletic and/or club interests as well as well as ideas for new designs for the top of the ring.  After all, NDA’s design was old after nearly 40 years.  The ring began a new series of changes in the years that followed until a few years ago when a new version of the “old” ring was devised.

The variety and the spacing in years of new styles makes the question that opened this blog a pertinent one.  If individual classes could go to a new style of ring, did it become a class ring rather than one that easily identified the school of the wearer, regardless of year?  If you are an alum, how do you think of your ring?  Is it close to or identical to one you see below?

So here they are, the rings or photos of rings the archive possesses.  Some of the photos are blurry because of camera limitations, but are clear enough to demonstrate changes and give some sense of the ring’s appearance. 

Any addition to the ring collection will find a welcoming home in the school archives, by the way, regardless of year.  Who knows how the NDA ring history will expand!  If anyone knows of a NDA ring earlier than 1921, or any other interesting bit of history, be sure to let us know: giblind@ndapandas.org.