1969 Class Ring

[Jmann69]

Found my first class ring this morning. The cool thing is, is that it's the same high school I went to in "88" and I was born in "69". The weird thing is, I found it at the rival high schools band practice feild/soccer feild. Now the search is on for the owner.

John

 

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[Jmann69]

Some more pictures

 

[luvsdux]

Nice ring
luvsdux

 

[Sandman]

Nice ring! Years ago class rings were made of gold and heavy. Now rich parents are to cheap to buy their kids gold class rings for us to find when they lose them.

 

[Jmann69]

UPDATE! !!

After 3 days of surfing the Web for the owner of this ring, I came up with what I believed was his name. There was only one person in the graduating class of 69 with the initials RV, Robert V. Inside the ring is the initials RGV. So it had to be him. So we googled his name and came up with one hit and it was not too far from my area. It gave me 3 phone numbers and an address. Last night I called all three numbers and they had been disconnected. So today I stopped by the address after work and knocked on the door. A gentleman answered and I told him who I was and what I found. He tells me he is the brother of Robert. He told me that Roberts son lives across the street and we should go see him. So I met the son and he was amazed that I had found it. I didn't have it with me but I showed him the pictures of it. He says "Your just gonna give it back, you dont want any money or anything?" I told him "No way, this is his not mine". Just the memory of being apart of this reunion will last me longer than any dollar amount. He told me that his dad and him have lunch on Saturday's every few weeks and said he would like for me to meet them this Saturday at Cracker Barrell and that he wanted to buy me lunch. He is going to tell his dad that they are going to meet someone for lunch that has something for him. I will keep you posted.

John

 

[Mackaydon]

Outstanding, John !!
Don.......

 

[calisdad]

Great story all around.

I graduated in 1969. Between Viet Nam, drugs and auto accidents a lot of my classmates are gone. Turbulent times.

 

[Jmann69]

Thanks Don. Thanks calisdad. I can't wait to post (as Paul Harvey would say) the rest of the story.

John

 

[ezman604]

MOST excellent. Thanks for sharing!!!
SAFE & Happy Detecting!!!!
Dave

 

[jambone]

We're you able to meet the son & dad yesterday? Anxious to hear how it went.

 

[Jmann69]

Well I did meet the father (Robert, the owner of the ring) and the son (Richard) yesterday. Really, really nice people! We met at Starbucks and had a great long talk. When Robert was in high school his English teacher was Mrs. Moore. She was still at Dulles High when I was there but she was had become the assistant principle. Shes since passed. Anyway I asked him how did he think his ring ended up where it did. He told me that his first son (Anthony) use to wear his fathers class ring when he was a freshman at Willowridge high. He told me that he remembers a day when his son came home from school and said "dad this girl was chasing me today and I had to hide under the building". He laughed and said that he didn't know what he meant by hiding under the building. Back in my day we use to have what we called T-shacks (temporary buildings). So at some point where the band practice field is now, there use to be these T-shacks. So that explains how the ring got there. Robert had no idea that Anthony lost the ring. As the meeting went on, Richard tells me that there is something he had not told me erlier when we first met. Anthony passed away in 2009 in a building fire. He died of smoke inhalation in Beijing, China. His father told me that during high school he learned Mandarin Chinese and became an English teacher in Beijing. He said that they did not pay much but it included room and board. There was a fire in the building and it filled with smoke and consumed the area in which he was sleeping. To say the least, I was at a loss for words for a brief moment but held my composure. Robert asked me what he could do for me and I told him I would love to have a picture with him, so we did. End of story, right?

Not really, this morning I woke up around 5:30 am and decided to go back to where I found the ring. It was a very foggy morning, so thick I could barely see two blocks in front of the truck. When I made it to the school it was about 7am, the sun was up and I was ready to hit this virgin ground (minus the class ring) and find me some goodies. Sitting in my truck facing the field, I could see the field but not all the way across it. It was still pretty foggy. So I geared up and walk in the center of the field at the location where I found the ring. I stopped and did a 360 and it was clear for like 15/20 yards around me then nothing but fog all around. It was really strange but cool at the same time. Before I turned my ATP on, I said a little prayer for Anthony and then just suddenly started talking as if he was there. I said " Hey Anthony, I just wanted to thank you for making me a part of getting your dads ring back to him. It really means allot for me to be a part of it. Then I said jokingly, Dude you were hiding from a girl? I laughed for a minuit and told him no, really, thank you. Then I said okay Anthony, its my turn now and I fired up my ATP and started swinging. About 15 yards away I got a hit. It seamed to be a gold hit, so I started to dig. About 2" down up popped a gold piece. Now if it would have been a gold ring or necklace I would have gave an air high five and said thanks bud. But what popped out was a gold medallion with the Virgin Mary on one side and Im not sure yet what is represented on the other side. This was so symbolic I was hit with a wave of emotion. I planned on hitting a few spots today but I just felt done for the day. I stopped by Richards house to tell him what I had just experienced and he told me that he really believes his brother was working through me to get the ring back to his dad.

I would like to dedicate this experience to my friend i never knew.

Robert "Anthony" Vela
June 9, 1973 - April 25, 2009

You can now rest in piece my friend. I got your back!

John

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Very good ending I would have felt the same.

 

[calisdad]

Awesome. What a great story.

The medal looks like Our Lady of Guadalupe. Neat find.

 

[jambone]

Nice, thanks for sharing!

 

[Jmann69]

Thank you all. I could not have dreamed up a better story. To top it all off, I just found out that my ex wife's brother is dating Roberts sister. And my ex wife other brother went to school with Roberts brother. Small small world. Still tripping! !

 

[beepbeepin]

Great story