Saturday, February 24, 2007

I've never been a fan of jewelry for men. For me there is a vanity that is associated with this that I've never wanted to project, much like the wearing of cologne.

But when I was younger I had an obsession for puzzle rings. I don't know if they even still make these. It was a gold ring made up of 5 or 6 thin bands which were braided together. These could be unbraided but you had to know how to put it back together- which would explain the 'puzzle' aspect of the ring. I never could put them back together but was fortunate to have a hippy chick who lived down the street which would reassemble it for me. She tried to teach me, but to know avail. Of course, why learn if a pretty hippy chick will do it for you.

There was only one place I knew to get them and that was the Cupboard, which was a headshop one neighborhood over for us. It seems to me that I spent a fair amount of time at the Cupboard in my younger years. Wippets were legal then (at least I think they were) and that was a good place to get them. I doubt that my parents were aware of the places we spent our days. We left the house in the morning, came in for a peanut and jelly sandwich for lunch and returned for dinner, there was not a lot of unnecessary supervision. This taught us independence, leadership, how to smoke cigarettes at an early age,and where in the woods one could usually find an old Playboy Magazine.

It's fun to think back on the days when my life was no more confusing than how to reassemble a puzzle ring and help came in the form of a pretty hippy girl.

I put a new dress on this post for Sunday Scribbles



Updates: A few comments have arisen regarding what a wippet is. In retrospect I probably could have done without including it in the post. A wippet is a small canister of nitrous oxide. You would fill a balloon with the nitrous oxide (using a wippet dispenser) and inhale. The late 70's were little silly.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to see those rings around when I was younger too.
Funny when I read you were wondering about the hippy chick it brought a few people to mind who I have lost touch with.
That's what I love about being part of things like this.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

They still make them. They were originally a Turkish wedding ring -- to act as a chastity belt. The husband would give one to his wife to assure her chastity while he was off to war. If she had an affair, he would know, because she would have taken her ring off and not know how to put it back together. They are great puzzles! I own several of them.

Anonymous said...

...What's a whippet?

paris parfait said...

I remember those rings. But I don't know what a whippet is!

HeatherAnnastasia said...

My experience with whippets as a teenager was in the 90's.

At first I thought it was called whippets because we sucked the nitris out of whip cream cans, but we had a few people in our circle who were teenagers in the Seventies, and they explained all.

We gathered around and heard tales of shrooms and ludes, and taking pills and powders even when they didn't know what the hell it was (probably why they were still hanging with teenagers 20 years later).

The Seventies always sounded like Alice in Wonderland to me.

JHS said...

I remember those rings! A lot of my friends had them, but I never did. I couldn't put them back together, either.

Faith said...

What a great take on the post. I like puzzle rings too but alas have never owned one. The are difficult to find. My friend had one and I loved it it was made with three bands. One copper one gold and one silver. It was beatiful. She took hers apart to and we must have worked for a month on that thing to no avail. Finally she had to take it to her Grandmother who makes jewelry to get it put back together.

gautami tripathy said...

My mom has a puzzle ring and I love it. I used to play with it in my younger days.

My mom will eventually give it me.

gautami
Puzzled

Anonymous said...

Oh wow.
That's excellent, and reminds me of my childhood too.
Our parents never knew where we were or what we were doing....as long as we were home for supper.
Good times.

Left-handed Trees... said...

I had one of those rings too...something to do instead of paying attention in class way back when. Thanks for the memory!
--D.--

Unknown said...

I had forgotten all about puzzle rings. I knew of them and maybe even had one as a kid. Regarding Whippets--I'm glad I hadn't heard of those as a kid.