Doug's Ring |
Doug Strope |
I was in high school and it was time to order our class rings to celebrate our graduation. All of the kids were excited including me. I was anxious to get home and tell Mom about the ring and see if I could get one. Times were hard in those days and money was tight. Both of my parents worked and it took everything we earned to take care of our family. In addition to our living expenses Dad was sending money to Asheville to help take care of his father who required nursing care. My parents always tried to get the important things that we asked for, somehow finding the money. When I told my mother about the ring she explained we did not have the money and she didn't think there was any possible way to get the ring. She explained every thing in detail and said maybe when things got better we could order a ring for me. Mom hugged me and said she would not forget and again said she was sorry. I knew 50 dollars was a lot of money and realized the ring was just a dream. "Maybe I can get one later," I thought. I went outside and saw a friend and we walked down to the water. We were living in an apartment at this time in downtown Hampton on the Hampton River. It was a great place to live and we often played near the water. My friend and I began skipping rocks on the water, just laughing and having fun. The ring thing was forgotten. As we walked along the shoreline we approached a pile of ashes where an old Navy landing craft had washed up on shore during a bad storm earlier in the summer. The owners had decided the boat was damaged beyond repair by the storm and was not recoverable. It was more cost effective to burn it. They dowsed it with gasoline and torched it one afternoon on low tide. Afterwards the tidewater had washed a lot of the ashes away and it was forgotten. When the tide was up you never noticed the wreckage. Today the tide was out and we walked through the remaining debris. I noticed a lot of brass screws scattered in the sand from the burning of the boat. Kicking through the debris I found the boat's skeg that was made from marine brass and was large and very heavy. This item is the part of the boat that the rudder and propeller are attached to. Seeing this I knew from past experiences with my dad that this material was salvageable and could bring good money from a junkyard. I scraped the sand and ashes away and tried to move the skeg but it was too heavy. I was excited at my find and quickly ran back to the apartment and told Dad I'd found a big piece of brass; that he needed to come and look at it. He was skeptical and said, "I watched that boat burn and didn't see anything of value. Are you sure about the brass?" "Yes," I said. We walked down to the water to see the skeg. He immediately agreed that it was brass and a heavy piece. He was so excited and ran back to get his car and drove as close to the shore as he could. Then we manhandled the skeg and loaded it into the trunk. We told mom we were going to sell the brass. She was so excited and now I know that they must have discussed my hopes for a class ring with both of them wishing they had the means to get it. We went to a local junkyard and sold the brass skeg for 55 dollars. When we got back to the apartment I don't know who was the happiest of our household. I ordered the ring the next day and was so proud of not only getting it but also helping to find the money to pay for it. I wore the ring until I started dating Nanci and then gave it to her. After we were married I had a new ring from the Apprentice School that I wore. Nanci put the treasured school ring away for safekeeping. Then Nanci passed away. After a while I decided to stop wearing my wedding ring as it was tight and had deformed my finger. Then I remembered the high school ring and tried to put it on. Since it was too small I had it resized. I wear it today both to hide my finger deformity and to remember the history of this special ring and the love of my parents for me. (Editor's Note: Nanci Coffey has had numerous stories published but this is the first one by her husband, Doug.)
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