Class reunions are a place for people to bring back memories of
the past, but for one man, it also brought back a material item he
lost around the last time his class was gathered together before
leaving high school.
“It’s like it’s brand new,” said Tom George of the class ring
that was returned to him 55 years after he lost it.
The ring was found by Hugh Brown of Kennedy, N.Y., while he was
conducting his favorite hobby of using a metal detector in an area
at Red House Lake in nearby Allegany State Park. Brown explained he
has a special metal detector that picks up objects under water.
George, a former Bradford resident, explained that Brown is only
allowed to go in the lake area at certain times of the year, and a
year ago, he was in what he described as a depressed area. After
digging down, he came across George’s ring.
Brown said he uses his metal detector about once a week and has
found jewelry, coins and artifacts from the 1800s. He said this was
the first time he’s found something with initials on it that he
could track down and return to the rightful owner.
The ring had George’s three initials “PJG” on it, and Brown
contacted the school to find out who had those initials back in the
graduating year of 1951.
“You always try to give the ring back if there are initials on
it,” Brown said.
As soon as the school found George’s name they knew it must
belong to him and contacted him to let him know of the find. Brown
said it took him about two months to track down George.
George received the call from Brown about four or five months
ago that he had found the ring. He said he must have lost the ring
when they were swimming at Red House Lake for the 1951 graduation
picnic.
“I forgot about it,” said George. “I don’t remember having lost
it frankly.”
George, who currently lives in Sarasota, Fla., was in town over
the weekend visiting his sister in Kane and ready to talk about old
times with old friends.
George said he wanted to take Brown and his wife to dinner, but
instead they met at the Bradford Club for the class reunion for the
Class of 1951 on Saturday. George told master of ceremonies Ray
Feura about the story, and Feura said he would ask Brown to stand
up and recount it.
Brown also said he has been using the metal detector for about
12 years, but he used to go out with his dad and search for things,
adding they’d read up on items in an old treasure magazine.
