Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 26, 1994                 TAG: 9407260041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK              PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 
COLUMN: MY FAMILY
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   82 lines

TALE OF WEDDING BAND HAS IRONIC RING

   FEW THINGS can be worse than having a weeklong dispute with your wife. But 
I found a way to top it. I lost my wedding band in the midst of our tiff.
   Now, I don't recall specifically what we were arguing about, but it didn't 
help matters that we were staying in a beach house full of relatives in 
Corolla for a week. Some of those relatives were the problem.
   They kept urging me to do things with them. Daylong things. Like deep-sea 
fishing. My wife was jealous.
   She wanted to spend time with me, and her brothers were denying her, as 
they had throughout much of her childhood as she grew up the youngest of six. 
She was determined that they weren't going to get away with it now that she 
was an adult.
   But they got away with it for one more afternoon. We headed for Sea Scape 
Golf Course, where a rain delay stretched our round beyond the normally 
snail-paced five hours to a gut-wrenching six hours.
   As I loaded my clubs into the trunk, I knew she'd be mad. It was nearly 
dark. We'd blown the entire afternoon on the golf course.
   We pulled into the driveway of the rental house, and I was prepared to take
my punishment when I realized I'd left my wallet, keys and wedding band in my 
golf bag. So I opened the trunk and started digging through my bag.
   Dig-dig-dig . . . wallet. More digging . . . car keys.
   Now, I usually put my wedding band on my key ring when I play golf because 
it hurts my finger to grip the club with the band on. Plus, if it's with the 
keys, I don't have to dig excessively through my golf bag to find it.
   Dig-dig-dig . . . dig some more. About now my heart started racing.
   I'd had a friend who on his honeymoon lost his wedding band while swimming 
in Bermuda.
   His wife remembers in detail.
   ``He comes out of the water and says: `What's the worst possible thing that
could happen? I lost my wedding band.' He searched the water the rest of the 
weekend and found Volvo keys, an earring, money. But no wedding band.''
   Rookie mistake. But I was a five-year veteran. This was not good.
   ``You what?'' my wife agonized. ``That's just great.''
   I didn't sleep that night. Early the next morning, I went back to the golf 
course. I searched the parking lot. The cart attendants let me rake through 
the cart shed before any of the carts went out. No luck.
   I combed the drive-through where we'd stopped on the way back to the beach 
house.
   I went back to the golf course and left a note with the pro, just in case 
anyone found the ring.
   Wedding band lost. Inscription ``RR to LK 5-20-89.'' If found, please call 
Rich Radford.
   It also had the beach house's phone number, as well as my office number.
   Fat chance, I thought. That ring could have been anywhere. While playing in
the rain, I'd pulled my rain slicker out of my golf bag three different times.
Too much jostling to have any idea where it would be if it had fallen out on 
the course.
   A day later, the phone rang.
   ``Is Rich Radford there? I found his wedding band.''
   I was ecstatic. The young man on the other end told me of how he'd found 
the ring in the middle of the fifth fairway. When he went to turn it in at the
pro shop, they gave him my note.
   I thought, what are the chances of finding that ring? Billions of blades of
grass everywhere. And how did it escape the lawn mower blades?
   Cupid was looking out for me.
   The young man was going out to dinner that evening but would leave the 
wedding band in the mailbox of his beach house. I scribbled down the address.
   On my way to pick up the ring, I bought a sleeve of golf balls to leave as 
a reward.
   When I opened the mailbox, the ring was there, with a note inside it rolled
up like a scroll:
   I know how much your wedding band must mean to you since I asked my 
girlfriend to marry me just last night. Ironic, isn't it?
   Kid, I wish you a lifetime of happiness in your marriage. And whatever you 
do, don't lose that wedding band.

ILLUSTRATION: Photo
          Rich Radford: ``I thought, what are the chances of finding that 
          ring? Billions of blades of grass everywhere.'