There are practices that appear to come and go inside our culture. It feels as if we keep away from things that are necessary to our parent's generation and then our youngsters or their children go back to them. I'm of the opinion a major part of this is that we would like to be more sophisticated and with it than our elders are so we rebel against what they do. Some of this leads on to progress and some just to change for the sake of change.

One of the things that my hippy folks rebelled against was come of the traditions of wedding. My elders were wed, however it was an out of doors marriage in which they wrote their own promises and wearing non-traditional clothing. My pop was against the standard mens wedding bands so he never wore one. My mum had a ring that was made for her by a friend of theirs that was into making jewellery. She asked me to come with her on the outing. I had just been married so I new what was in style for men's marriage bands in several of the bigger jewellery stores.

I asked the old lady if she wished to have something that was like hers, or if she was going to go looking for something traditional.

we made a decision that we might contact their old buddy to work out if he was still making jewellery. After some phone calls to old contacts, and looking on the web phone directories we were eventually able to find him.

He ran a tiny shop in the urban area of the state we are living in. He had become quite successful in his jewelry making and had a really nice display. He was excited to see my mother and to discover that she was still wearing the ring he had made.

He didn't have any rings for men that were similar, but he agreed to make one for my pa. My mum wanted a simply band that would have similar detailing as hers. He agreed to make it and to come to the anniversary party and deliver it himself. My pa was really happy with the ring and giggled that after 40 years others would know that he is spoken for.