THE CUT RING

I've been boning up on more Super Hero rings. I dunno, I'm just attracted to these small things and thats despite not wearing any jewelry at all. It may be something in the past.

My own super heroes were my parents. Long gone now, they both wore rings. Personal, circular, emotional things.

My Dad wore a signet ring, which I still have, nestled in a tin of his medals.. The band is cut, as I assume it had to be snipped by the mortician to remove it from his finger. Its always very poignant when I see his cut ring, the circle severed. It has a tiny stoned star on the face and always makes me think of my Dad's motto, per ardua ad astra; through hardship to the stars, a motto I have always loved.

My Mum wore lots of rings. I don't think I have any now. We all got some though. I did sell one in a pawnshop in Chester circa 1984 together with a silver spoon from my young Missus. 

I was newly married, skint and young. With cash from the pawnshop stuffed in my pocket I stopped at an ear salon and then proceeded to go home on the train to Llanfairfechan with the first of the two most ridiculously impulsive things I ever acquired, a green stud ear-ring inserted into my hitherto pristine earlobe with money we sorely needed for our baby on the way.

Only now do I see the irony of me selling a chunky old and precious maroon garnet ring kept safe and sound for decades by my Mum in order for me to sell it to a stranger to pay for my cheapo green stud ear-ring bought on impulse and which stayed in situ for less than ten years. At least it was a ring for a ring I suppose. The hole in my ear has now closed.

Oddly enough I still have to this day the receipt for the pawned ring and the ear-ring itself. Why I hear you say. I dunno really. What I actually want is my Mum's ring back!

Coming full circle of sorts I'm now reading my old book about super hero rings again and with the added facility of the internet I'm able to fill in some gaps about a time that was dominated by that other invention in every home, the radio, when kids in the 1940's listened religiously every week to ....

The Shadow.

Till next time.