Falling in Luv

Before church this morning, I was looking for something to adorn my outfit.  Once upon a time, I had a ton of costume jewelry that soon became mixed with my daughter's and was eventually relegated to a box in the storage closet.  I dragged that out.  OMG!  What memories I found in that box!

One treasure was a pin...an ISU pin.  Illinois State University, with a little chain off to the side with "69" on it--my graduation year.  Just a deoration, right?  Wrong!!  That tiny little pin represented hopes for the future--giddy little female things.  And now it lives in a box out of sight. 

The ISU that I attended from 1965-69 had no sororities or fraternities.  It was one of the things that attracted me, aside from the fact that both of my parents attended there, and my father graduated in 1941 and is now in their Football Hall of Fame.  I lived in a dorm that made the residents of our floor  our own little sorority of sorts.

There was a hierarchy of love.  If you were dating someone, great.  After that, however, were the "milestones" of intention.  If you got an ISU lavalier from your BF, that meant you were going steady.  Getting "pinned" (with the pin that I mentioned above), you were pre-engaged.  Engagement, of course, required a diamond ring.  And each level of commitment required a candlelight ceremony on the dorm floor. 

Lots of candlelight ceremonies occurred on Sunday evenings after gals returned from weekends at home, etc.  We were called together to sit in a circle on the floor and wonder with amazement who was the lucky gal to be lavaliered/pinned/engaged.  A lit candle was passed around until it reached the right person who then blew out the candle.  We would all shriek and be happy for her.  Whoop-de-doo!

In my old age now, I wonder how many of those candlelight ceremonies resulted in marriage...and how many of those marriages lasted.  The pin that I got from my BF back then is now in a box in storage.  I did get a diamond ring out of the relationship but I eventually gave it back when I figured out that I was just caught up in the moment and that marrying him would have been a huge mistake.  I made other huge mistakes in my life thereafter.  Thankfully, that wasn't one of them! 

I'm so very glad that we aren't always held responsible for stupidity in our 20s.  At that age, people think they know everything about themselves and life.  HA!!

I'm not going to throw the pin away.  Guess my daughter will have to figure out what to do with it after I'm gone....or maybe I should offer it up for someone to buy?  We'll see!