What is One of the Most Expensive Things That You've Ever Bought?

I was probably eleven or twelve, living in Horseheads, New York, maybe thirteen. I saw someone wearing a black onyx ring with their initial. So cool.

One Saturday afternoon, while window shopping downtown, I saw it in a jewelry store. The ring, gold band, black onyx setting, initial K in gold. Mom look! Inside, I scampered to inquire how much. It cost more money that I had ever possessed at any time in my life. My allowance, fifty-cents a week (ten-cents to church each week). Mom strolling by, “hum, guess you better save you money.” And she walked on.

Until then, owning a Cub Scout ring was the fanciest piece of jewelry I owned. Jewelry wasn’t part of the Maynard family’s middle-class lifestyle. I certainly owned no jewelry. It was quickly clear that asking was futile, as no family member was going to gift me such a valued object.

My memory of this story is now patchy, with only a few random images surfacing. I don’t remember what made this ring so significant. What was the appeal? Vanity? I cannot recall.

The cost, maybe thirty-five dollars? Thirty-five dollars was a small fortune considering a loaf of bread was a quarter, a soda -twelve cents, including the deposit. This ring would now cost about $350.

How would it be possible to purchase such a treasured object?

I had a couple of dollars, so I visited the Jewelry Store on my own, and, as was an option in-the-day, established a layaway plan.

It highly motivated me to gather: loose change, returned soda bottles, a nickel here, two cents there. Then each week I took what I had and slowly, over time, paid the balance.

I often bought two sodas for dad (twenty-four cents) then kept change, money from returning the bottles. On a lucky day, I might spot a penny or a nickel on the ground. One birthday, I even found a dollar tucked inside a card. Over several months, I slowly made payments—bit by bit—until that last day, when I received the ring and the receipt, proudly stamped: Paid in Full.