Lost & Found

A class ring lost in the chaos of life finds its way home – 45 years later.

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

When Crystal McCullough put on her Moore County High School class ring in 1980, she never thought she would spend more years without it than with it. Back then, she loved Columbia blue, played in the band and sang in the choir, and wore the school’s old Confederate-soldier Raider logo set in a light-blue stone. For every MCHS junior, the ring was more than jewelry; it was a rite of passage.

But not long after she got it, the ring just disappeared.

As a teenager, Crystal worked Jack Daniel’s scholarship jobs around Lynchburg and Tullahoma. She scooped ice cream at the old Lynchburg soda shop, waited tables at Miss Mary Bobo’s, and stocked shelves in the JD warehouse. Somewhere in the middle of all those jobs, school, and small-town life, the ring was lost.

“I was pretty sure I lost it at the Mr. G’s Pizza job in Tullahoma,” she said with a laugh. “But honestly? It could’ve been anywhere on the Square.”

She was 18. Life moved on to Motlow, then MTSU, then a long teaching career, theater, and family. The class ring became one of those teenage things you mention in passing, half-remembered and half-forgotten. Crystal even got a college ring to replace it, joked she probably couldn’t fit the old one now, and put away whatever feelings she once had for it.

And then came Rocky Bass.

A Set of Initials: CDM

Rocky didn’t know his uncle had found a class ring. After his uncle passed away, Rocky inherited a lifetime’s worth of odds and ends – a collection of “treasures of stuff” from a man who liked using a metal detector at old job sites and empty lots in Tullahoma.

While Rocky sorted through jewelry and trinkets, one item stood out: a Moore County High School ring from the class of 1981. Inside, it had three letters. “There can’t be that many CDMs from Moore County High School in 1981,” Crystal said. “Small school. Small class. He knew he had a shot at finding me.”

Rocky posted a photo of the ring on the Lynchburg Locals page. Fifteen minutes later, the comments started pouring in, like a reunion roll call.

Crystal messaged Rocky to confirm the band-on-one-side, choir-on-the-other details. “That’s it,” he told her. “And it says CDM inside.”

A lost ring, found. A simple post, answered. It was a small digital miracle in a town where everyone knows someone who knows you.

The Serendipity Twist

Then Rocky shared his side of the story, a twist that made the whole thing feel like it belonged on a Sunday evening news segment.

He also graduated in 1981. He also lost his class ring. And, unbelievably, his ring had just been returned to him after 40-plus years. A woman in New Orleans found it and mailed it back.

“It’s wild. Both of us losing our rings, both of them coming back 45 years later,” Crystal said.

A Mailbox Moment

The ring arrived at Crystal’s home a few days ago. “I came home from subbing at Tullahoma High School and saw it,” Crystal said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s the ring.’ ”

It’s a story about small towns and long memories. About strangers doing kind things just because they can. It’s a story about time, how it circles back and returns small pieces of who we used to be.

And now, after 45 years, Crystal’s high school class ring is home.

A Familiar Ring

Crystal,

I hope this goes better than the first time! Enjoy your ring once again!

Sincerely,
Rocky Bass