Where should I put a ring on it?

/ April 5, 2014
A very old dime and quarter may still spend.

A very old dime and quarter may still spend.

So Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I were circling past a Syracuse Housing Authority complex a half-dozen blocks from our home in the city neighborhood of Eastwood.

Ellie B’s nose was down as we strolled past the halfway point in our walk.

My eyes were down, too.

And I spotted a couple of coins on the pavement.

Old.

Worn.

I picked them up and wiped to the ridges on the outer edge.

They really were a quarter and a dime, I decided, before sticking them into my pocket.

A bit further down the walk I spotted something else entirely.

This ring may have sentimental value.

This ring may have sentimental value.

Sitting on the pavement was a ring.

It may have been sitting out under snow for awhile.

It was not shiny. It had two dull, small stones in its setting.

It is worth next to nothing was my best guess.

Then it struck me that it may worth a sentimental fortune to an unlucky soul who dropped it.

What to do?

I looked around. I saw nobody in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

The apartment house next to the walk where I found the ring.

The apartment house next to the walk where I found the ring.

Less than 50 feet from the spot where I found the ring was an apartment house.

Ellie B and I strolled up to the front stoop. We listened.

No noises.

All was quiet on the housing front.

So here is where I put the little ring.

So here is where I put the little ring.

What to do now?

I weighed my options as Ellie B sniffed around the landing.

Obvious from the start was that it would not be right to stick it in my pocket next to the found quarter and dime.

I didn’t think it would help to drop it back out on the pavement.

So I bent down and placed the ring on the steps of the apartment building.

My best scenario was that it would be found by the person who dropped it on the pavement.

The next best outcome would have the ring picked up somebody who’d heard a story about a neighbor who had lost a ring that meant the world to them.

Or maybe a little girl will shine up a new piece of costume jewelry with which to play dress-up.

What would you have done with the unassuming little ring that was lost on the pavement?

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32 thoughts on “Where should I put a ring on it?”

  3. I honestly wouldn’t have thought to leave it on the doorstep, maybe a note or something but you’re right regardless it would be a wonderful thing for someone. They’d either get the ring they lost back or have a little treat [as long as they don’t have a boyfriend that they want to propose and assume it’s a wacky way of asking – just saying].

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  4. I surely would have put it in my pocket, headed to a pawn shop… as I have no soul (since I am an atheist)

    Now, what I said above is certainly (for anyone who really knows me–not the Atheist part–the stealing the ring part) false.

    Anyhow, I do not know what I would have done. My best guess is, if I had had the time, I would have tried to find the owner.

    Failing that, I suppose put an ad in the paper. But who the hell reads papers these days?
    So, I do not know.

    What I DO know, is that I like this post and thanks for sharing.
    Next time I find a ring…well…we will see.

    Cheers,
    Lance

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  6. I hope it all works out. I am not sure what I would have done, my Mom says leave it where you found it. I have also told people that sometimes the finder has a special place to keep things. I like that you worried and wrote this story about it. It gave it meaning and worth, Mark! Smiles, Robin

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  9. That was a great solution Mark. I think I would have done something similar. At least the hoping part would have been! I can’t think of anything else to do. How wonderful if someone came out that door and looked down and wondered how the ring they lost forever ago showed up at their doorstep. 🙂

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  10. oh, wow. i think you did the perfect thing. my hope with found objects is that they either find their way back to the original owner who has meaning attached to it that only they understand, or that it will fall into someone else’s hands who needs to find a special thing to make their life better somehow and it will take on new meaning for them. great post, mark. i really like this story.

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