This ring was given to its owner, Clara, after its original owner, their grandfather, passed away. A Cincinnati native, the ring’s original owner lived through and witnessed many historical events, including the Korean War and the transformation of Cincinnati into its modern-day appearance. Clara uses this ring to remember the stories that their grandfather would tell them about downtown Cincinnati and is one of their inspirations for learning history and pursuing a history education degree.
This object is part of the “Unconventional Wisdom” section of the Artifacts of Experience exhibition designed by University of Cincinnati students in the “Introduction to Public History” course in 2023.
We encourage you to explore the other objects in our collection.
Transcript
Fletcher Guttman [FG]: Alright, let’s get started. Why did you choose this ring?
Clara McNamara [CM]: Because it’s essentially my good luck charm. And it means a lot to me. It belonged to my grandfather, who passed in 2019. It was given to me by my dad at his funeral. And I’ve just kind of kept it with me through situations where I know I’m going to be stressed or I need all the work I can get. So that I know my grandpa, is there cheering me on in some way. Yeah.
FG: What does this mean to you?
CM: It means that even if I feel alone in some situations that I’m not, and I have at least one person who is looking out for me.
FG: All right, yeah. When you look at this ring, what memories does it bring back? What does it conjure up?
CM: A lot of memories with my grandpa. I saw my grandpa a lot. Whenever it was my dad’s weekend, we would go and visit him. And so almost every other weekend of my childhood was spent with my grandfather. And my grandfather was a very weird redneck man. He would get into all kinds of stupid things. He would tell me stupid little ghost stories. And just stories of when he was in, in the army, he was in the Korean War. He’s a veteran. So if you’d told me stories about his time in Korea, and he would take us on stupid little midnight trips to Walmart when that was still a thing. And this, I don’t know this. Every memory I have with him. I’m laughing or smiling.
FG: Are you always learning something in those memories?
CM: He taught us so much. He would take us to downtown Cincinnati, which is where he grew up. And he would just talk for hours about what Cincinnati was like when he was a kid and how it’s changed over time and what certain buildings used to be in certain places used to be, and I would learn so much about this city that I’ve lived here my whole life, but I’ve never really been to. And so every time I would see my grandpa, I would learn something new about Cincinnati or not healthy, which is where he lived before he passed.
FG: What’s your favorite story to tell about this ring?
CM: Gosh, I mean, at the funeral when, you know, they were lowering him, I then had it around my neck. And I just, I was sad. Obviously it was my grandfather’s funeral, but I was at some kind of peace. Almost. Because I knew that even though he was gone, I had still have a piece of him with me forever.
FG: That’s nice. Do you think that this ring has like, gotten you to think more about like history and in education that sense?
CM: Yeah, it’s definitely my grandpa’s. One of the reasons I’m a history major. He…he taught me a lot about just everything. I mean, he would tell me stories when he was at war, and I would get a good sense any history lesson. Every time I saw him. And every time I spoke on the phone with him and every just every time I would even have a conversation with him. And so I he’s one of the reasons I went into history because his stories, I just, I never got tired of them. Even if he told me the same story a million times. It was just as interesting as the first time I’d heard it. So he teach you. He was teaching me a lot more about the Cincinnati history that I would learn in school, because he actually lived down there and lived through it.
FG: All right. The time is now 12:30. That wraps this up.