Childhood Jewelry Question???

[Briana90802]

When I was about 8 years old my mom threw out a gold necklace. I of course saved it and put it on. I wore it all through junior high and then my mom gave me a really nice silver one which I'm afraid to say was masculine. But now that I think back over the years as an adolescent I realize that I had a jewelry box and lots of girly necklaces that I liked to try on in private.

Just wondering if anyone else experienced the same. Did you collect jewelry as a kid?

What's your story?

[KaceyR]

Hmm. Can't say i had jewelry... main thing was (still have it and it fits actually heh..) was a name bracelet from back in grade school times..
but I guess it's more masculine. Think metal watch band (that expands) but with a plate with a name etched. Had a couple other simple silver chains but don't think true silver. I remember a few rings (birthstone and another one) that was eventually lost. some pins too. Among all that though... was that they were in my jewelry box I had.
Which was a football :)
So I dunno overall about what any of that means :)
That was about it tho until I left home..and was later necklacing with stuff from medieval groups and new age stuff (crystals...shiny! :) )

[Nicole_]

I was fascinated with ankle bracelets. Always wore the surfer type, but wished I could wear a silver one & get away with it.

[Diane Smith]

My mom and grandmother openly shared their jewelry boxes with me up until I was 12 or so -- I would frequently wear their necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Never outside the house that I can remember. I loved the shiny metals and stones. I had a great-great uncle who collected gems and stones around his home in Arizona and made them into jewelry with silver and gold settings -- my grandmother's house was full of his stuff. I have inherited some of it now.

I got my ears pierced when I was nine and wore either small gold hoops or simple ball studs after that, but I only had a few pairs to choose from because, oddly, none of the other women in my family had pierced ears.

- Diane

[Beverley Sims]

I was given gold jewellery to play with when young.
Gold is worth a lot more now.
Yes I still have it.

[Rhonda Jean]

I must have been 6 or younger when shopping with my mom and sister I begged my mom to buy me a pendant necklace. My mom gave in and bought it for me. I don't remember any of that, I've just heard her tell it several times.

When I was 8 or 9, again shopping with mom and sister, they bought self-piercing hoop earrings. I don't know if they even still make them, but they were little thin hoops about 1/2" in diameter. I do remember begging for her to buy me those. She didn't, but to shut me up she said that when she got through with hers if I still wanted my ears pierced I could use hers. My sister was in her early 20's, and I remember that she was livid that my mom was going to let me pierce my ears at that age. Besides, boys did not wear earrings back then. True to her word, when she was took out the self-piercers a couple of months later she asked me if I still wanted to pierce my ears. I don't think I'd ever been so excited in my young life! I remember it vividly! She put a dot on my ears with an indelible pencil and put that little hoop on there and I was in heaven! I remember keeping my hair pulled back so I could see my earrings in my reflection at every opportunity. I remember going to the grocery store and the cashiers comments (she knew us) and being so thrilled for everyone to see my earrings. That was all short lived, though. As thrilled as I was for adults to see them, I could not face my friends or other kids. She'd told me that I couldn't take them out for 8 weeks. The idea of my friends seeing me and going to school wearing earrings was not pleasant. I could temporarily hide them behind my hair, but I knew that was not going to work for long. Being anxious to show them off pretty quickly turned to panic, and I didn't want to leave the house. My mom told me that I was the one who wanted earrings and I was just going to have to get over it. After only a few days I was a panicked, crying mess, begging my mom to take them out, which she did.

Some time after that I'd still sneak into her jewelry box and "borrow" her clip-on earrings. For some reason I usually gravitated to these big heavy oval cameo earrings. I don't know why. Looking back, they were hideous. One day I was putting them on and the clip broke off. I carefully put them back in the jewelry box, hoping she'd think the clip just fell off of it. I didn't think she'd ever be wearing clip-ons again anyway, so I hoped it wouldn't be a big deal. I don't remember how long it was before she noticed, but she asked me if I'd been playing with her earrings and if I broke the back off that one. I admitted that I had. She was mad, of course, and told me not to be playing with her jewelry without asking. She told me that those earrings were about the only thing she had that had belonged to her mother, and they were very special to her. She said she had other clip earrings that I could have, but not to mess with the cameos.

She gave her other clip-ons to me. About 6 pair, as I recall. No mention of where or when I could wear them. Just "These are the ones I don't wear anymore. You can have them." I wore them occasionally around the house, and only outside of the house if I was pretty sure none of my friends would see me. She never commented one way or the other until one time when she came to visit after I had married and moved away. I kinda thought she might like to see that I still had them, so I was wearing some when she got there. "You've still got your earrings! They look so good!" I think she was happy I'd hung on to them.

I don't remember getting rid of them, but I don't have them anymore. Wish I still had them. I wouldn't wear them anymore, but I wish I had them around.

[Sarah Beth]

I had then and still a few bits and pieces I gather up when I was younger. My mom sold avon so I had these little sample lipsticks and perfumes, things like that. My favorite was a strand of faux pearls I got from my grandmothers house I found them in the bottom of a box of junk in her basement.

[I Am Paula]

When I was about 13, I bought some clip on hoops that I wore everywhere. I used to take them off on my way home from school, thinking my parents would object. At dinner one night my Mom asked if I was wearing earrings. Hard to deny, sitting six feet from her. She said the clips were too bulky, and I would do better with pierced ears, and simple hoops.
That was easy. I've worn earrings ever since.

[BillieJoEllen]

I had rings, boy rings....hmmmmmph!

[LaraPeterson]

I never thought about jewelry as a kid. My focus was always on stockings. It didn't matter what else I was wearing, I always wanted to wear hosiery. That hasn't changed--I still love my hose, but now I wear toe rings and an ankle bracelet just about all the time.