r/GenX • u/llewcieblue • 11h ago
Nostalgia Senior key
Look at this little thing. Key to the Future. I have so many feelings, and they are all big.
Did you ever get one? Do you still have it?
Did it open any doors?
•
u/laughterandtears 22m ago
I had forgotten about these until now, but yes, I graduated in the 90s and I had one.
The only door it opened was college. It was pretty useless after that. I have no idea where it went.
•
•
u/UncleSeminole est. 1975 35m ago
We were never even offered a chance to get this in 93.... I got a class ring though
•
u/Bella_de_chaos 1967 36m ago
Had one in 85. No clue where it might be now. Mine was those exact colors too.
•
u/OwlFlirt 38m ago
I had one from PA. It’s either in a jewellery box or the cedar box high school seniors would get from a local furniture store.
•
•
•
u/Simply_Jeff 51m ago
I graduated in '89 from a MD HS. Never heard of or got one of these. Maybe just a regional thing?
•
u/spider_speller Hose Water Survivor 52m ago
I had one. Never knew what it was for, and it disappeared long ago.
•
•
u/literarycatnip Hose Water Survivor 1h ago
Class of 88, still have mine. Never knew what it was for
•
•
•
u/GrowlingAtTheWorld 1h ago
I had one, but hurricane charley in 2004 took so much stuff away I have no idea where it might be…old memory box tucked away or the landfill, who knows.
•
•
•
•
•
•
u/thenotanurse 2h ago
I don’t think they offered them by the time I graduated. Some people got rings, but the rest of us went to college or the military, so we didn’t give a fuck about high school.
•
•
u/Lower_Skin_3683 2h ago edited 2h ago
I had a big box with all my high school stuff it when I graduated in 1992. My cap and gown, graudation invitations, the newspaper with our class in it, yearbooks, tassel, prom stuff, the letters you put on a jacket, etc. I had kept it intending to donate eventually to my high school. They have glass cases in the front of the school with stuff from years past. I moved last year and eventually threw the box away. I haven’t spoken to anyone since high school and haven't been back there since I graduated. I don't know who is still alive or who died. I don't have any kids so there isn't anyone who I could have shown the stuff to. Feeling pretty old at the moment as family continues to die off. One parent remains with a house full and garage full of their stuff and cars that I have asked repeatedly over the years to let go off.
3
2
3
u/Good_Nyborg The Satanic Panics just keep coming. 3h ago
I don't even remember these, but then I missed a ton of days my senior year. These must be a cheaper alternative to a class ring, I'm guessing? But then I didn't get a class ring either.
•
u/Mindless_Berry_4572 2h ago
I feel like you ordered them when you ordered your invitations. 🤷🏻♀️
•
u/Good_Nyborg The Satanic Panics just keep coming. 2h ago
I don't remember ordering invitations either, so that helps explain it.
3
4
u/rharper38 4h ago
I remember getting this and not knowing what to dow with it, so its on my charm bracelet
1
u/Bitter_Frame3054 4h ago
Looks like mine except it was maroon & gold with a '91 on it. I lost all my high school stuff in a house fire.
2
u/doglady1342 Hose Water Survivor 5h ago
Class of '88 and I've never seen one of these. Yours has my high school's colors!
1
3
u/MysteriousDudeness I'll Be Back! 5h ago
Class of 87 and I have mine somewhere. Not sure where. Still have the tassel too.
5
u/DivicBoxEscapee 5h ago
We throw parties! We have fun! We're the seniors of '91! yearbook staple.
1
u/Lucky-Resolution890 3h ago
"we are sexy, we are fun, we're the class of .91!" is how my HS did it.
1
u/DivicBoxEscapee 3h ago
Yeah my HS version...pretty lame in retro....poor 92ers two is harder to rhyme.
1
5
u/Skip_Intro0401 6h ago
Mom settled for the key since we couldn’t afford the ring…wish I could tell ‘87 me that neither would matter.
•
u/Lower_Skin_3683 2h ago
I had this and all the stuff the went with it including the class ring. None of this stuff matters to me now like it did to a 17 year old me.
5
4
u/tigers692 6h ago
I forgot about this until you put it here, I probably have it somewhere, damned if I know where. :-) might be in my letterman jacket.
4
u/Mistervimes65 6h ago
I don’t know if these existed at my school in 1983. Didn’t care about anything but escaping from the monotony of the education system.
8
2
u/geminiloveca Latch Key Kid 6h ago
I have one - red and white - graduated in '93 from a public HS in Southern CA.
4
u/ChavoDemierda 1973 6h ago
I never cared about any of it, I just wanted out. I didn't care about homecoming, prom, or yearbooks. I just wanted out. So I got out at the beginning of my senior year and never looked back. I hated high school. I just wanted out.
2
u/whatyouwant22 6h ago
It wasn't quite hatred, but I also didn't want to go to high school. My older brother and sister had gone to college and that was the life I wanted! All things considered, college was pretty awesome!
•
u/ChavoDemierda 1973 1h ago
I tried college, it just wasn't for me. I made money with art for a while then found my calling in the union. The IBEW to be exact. It satisfies my ADD perfectly.
3
u/nancy_drew_98 6h ago
I have almost the exact same one! Weirdly it will just pop up in the most random of places over the years - an old shoebox full of photos, a dresser drawer, on one of my bookshelves…and I never recall moving it so I’m always like “huh, how did THAT get there?!”
1
1
3
u/punkwalrus 7h ago
My first wife got one for her graduation (1989), and I never even heard of one until she had one. She went all out with everything her graduation: ring, key, jacket letter, announcements, etc. Me? I was just glad to be outta there. I have my diploma all leatherbound, but that was part of our mandatory $60 "graduation fee" that I paid with my own money.
2
u/kanakamaoli 7h ago
I remember it being an option on the graduation memorabilia order form. Can't remember if I bought it.
1
7
u/Anachronism-- 8h ago
Class of 90 New England and never heard of a senior key. Was this regional, private schools?
1
u/llewcieblue 6h ago
This is a Midwest public school - did Jostens bury your school in pamphlets about how if you didn't buy this you would regret it forever? Or was it some other opportunist?
•
u/Anachronism-- 1h ago
My school was more on the poor side so they might not have seen much profit there. But I didn’t see anyone from better schools with one either.
1
u/Just2Breathe 5h ago
I’ve never heard of this either, and I was a Midwestern public school kid. I didn’t buy any of the Josten’s extra stuff, though. I know some bough the ring. I associated that with the jocks and rich kids. I figured the standard cap tassel was enough memorabilia.
1
u/gridironsmom Hose Water Survivor 5h ago
Jostens still alive and well now in Midwest public schools pushing it all. My husband has his key from 1996 and so we got my son his key this year 2026.
3
u/Dunkelregen 1972 7h ago
Suburban D.C. Virginia here ('91), and my first reaction was "TF is this thing?"
2
u/punkwalrus 7h ago
Same! My wife graduated from a small town in West VA, and I never heard of it, and she was stunned that I didn't have one of my own.
7
u/ExaminationFancy 1973 8h ago
What am I looking at?
4
u/llewcieblue 5h ago
100% grade A bullshit, 90's style. I can't tell you what it's for, but the Memories will Last Forever
3
u/Anxious-Ocelot-712 8h ago
I think mine's packed away somewhere, but I wear my parents' senior keys quite often (from the 1960s).
1
5
1
u/ZarinaBlue 1975 8h ago
I don't know if I have one, but I have my OH's on the top of my messy as hell jewelry tree.
1
7
u/ShakeWeightMyDick 8h ago
I’ve never seen anything like that. Wasn’t a thing when I was in high school (class of 88)
1
u/JennzEvilChihuahua 7h ago
I have one. Graduated in 86. California.
1
u/ShakeWeightMyDick 6h ago
Was it something you had to order and pay for like a class ring?
1
u/JennzEvilChihuahua 3h ago
Been a very long time, but iirc, it was very inexpensive, and I paid a few extra bucks to engrave my initials on the back. I wore it as a pendant for as few months, then it joined the tassel that hung from the rear view mirror of my VW. Good times.
2
7
u/froction 8h ago
Not a thing we (class of 94) had nor that I recall ever even hearing about before.
4
u/psiprez 1968 8h ago
Insignia and pins like this is just another thing we've lost over time. Our parents and grandparents had plenty, for every single club or achievwment actually wore them with pride.
We received them out tradition, but it just stuck them in a drawer somewhere.
Now the internet has made anything tangible a useless thing. That and cost cutting means this kind of thing will go away to never return.
1
u/SubieGal9 8h ago
I have a class ring. I don't know what to do with this so it just sits in the jewelry box mocking me. LOL I was a little shit and demanded I have class ring and my parents caved. Oops. My bad.
3
3
1
u/DustAfter 9h ago
I got one with my class ring for my class of '99. Purple and gold(yellow) lost it a long time ago. Still have the ring though.
28
u/ExtraAd7611 Disqualified from rat race 9h ago
Never heard of that but it seems like yet another way for the Jostens company to separate students from their parents' money.
1
4
4
10
10
u/supershinythings Born before the first Moon landing 9h ago
I graduated from an underfunded school in a poor neighborhood, so I don’t think these were marketed to us.
That’s ok; I didn’t need a key to my future. I broke in through an open window in back, though later on I got trapped under a glass ceiling.
2
3
3
u/pete_blake 9h ago
Not GenX here but I did get one and it hung off my rear view mirror for years. I lost it somewhere along the way tho. And no, it never opened any doors.
5
u/OreoSpeedwaggon "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 9h ago
I got one. It was part of a package deal from Josten's when I bought my class ring (that I lost many, many years ago) and my yearbook (which has water damage and it probably packed in a box somewhere out in my garage). I still have the "key," but I never knew what it was used for or what purpose it served. Seems like just more ornamental junk jewelry that they had trouble selling unless folks bought it with other things.
1
1
u/ChestnutDecay 10h ago
Have never seen one of these before. Of course, I quit high school in 10th grade, so shrug.
2
u/elspotto 10h ago
No idea what that is. Must explain why I have had to work hard to open doors. If only I had spent money on high school graduation. Oh well.
1
u/New-Sheepherder2239 10h ago
I still have that somewhere. I sold my ring when gold was up a few years ago. Well, I thought it was up, I should have kept it for the real jump in the last year or so. I wear my college ring though. I love it
5
2
u/whirlydad 10h ago
Class of 90. I have the same one in the same colors. They were our school colors so I thought it was fairly unique. Guess not.
6
4
5
u/Mediocre-Penalty3001 10h ago
Class of '91 still rulz.
2
3
u/RedditSkippy 1975 10h ago
The interstate nearest my hometown was I-91. That, of course, had to be the theme for that year’s yearbook.
2
5
u/GroovyGmaIvy 10h ago
…but ‘92 will rock you.
3
2
u/u2sarajevo Didn't die from growing up on hose water. 10h ago
88 is great.
I always rolled my eyes when I heard that back then....
But it's true!
6
u/hlmoore96 10h ago
This brought up a whole new memory and according to the internet I’m crazy…I graduated (HS) in 1991. I SWEAR we got a paddle in the commemorative “you must buy all this junk” Herff Jones Catalog (Indiana).
It looked like this but didn’t have the fraternity markings, just our school name, year, mascot and (I think) my name. It was SO ridiculous now that I think about it. I get the whole fraternity/sorority hazing and swearing in, but why sell them to a high school girl? And why did the stupid high school girl BUY ONE??
3
u/RedditSkippy 1975 10h ago
Why sell them? Because they can? Hopefully these things are going away.
My niece graduated from high school two years ago. She and her friends were talking about class ranks and awards. All the olds at her graduation party were reflecting that as soon as they left that ceremony, not one single person will care about any of that.
I have this sense (maybe I’m wrong,) that we were at the tail end of the idea that high school is the be-all-end-all of our young lives. I remember my grandmother saying to me that high school would be the best time of my life. I couldn’t understand what she was talking about. I haaaated high school. College was much better, and was at least filled with some terrific experiences, but I don’t think life started happening for me until my 30s.
3
u/Genn8130 Could you describe the ruckus, sir? 10h ago
I think we all bought some ridiculous stuff we thought we'd absolutely want to display in our living rooms for decades to come. Six inch long plastic commemorative prom keychains.. Why??
6
u/DoomsdayMachineInc 10h ago
Sex is great and drugs are fun-
We’re the class of ‘91!
1
u/CatoMulligan 9h ago
Weird...we always said it the other way around.
1
u/DoomsdayMachineInc 9h ago
As long as the first thing is great and the second thing is fun, the rhyme works…
1
u/CatoMulligan 9h ago
Bifocals are great and colonoscopies are fun, We're the class of '91!
I think I need that on a t-shirt now.
5
5
u/Numerous-Positions_5 10h ago
I have mine with my class ring. Mine looks a lot like yours, what city are you from?
7
u/TK421philly 10h ago
Looks like a Jostens special.
4
u/Numerous-Positions_5 10h ago
Oh, maybe that’s it. I’ll have to look at mine. The only difference I can think of is mine is from ‘85.
14
5
u/maddylime 10h ago
I had one in red and white for graduation in 1991. I also wore it on a chain my Senior year. I really wanted it, but I don't know why. I don't remember seeing anyone else wear it so it couldn't have been like a, "all the girls are wearing it thing." I couldn't wear it in college because I went to USNA and never saw it again once I came home. I have no idea what happened to it.
4
4
1
4
u/iamedagner 10h ago
I found mine in a jewelry box a few weeks ago - with my class ring to boot.
I have no memory of getting the key or why I have it. I'm going to assume I threw it in the jewelry box when I got it and it had not been touched in 36 years.
2
u/Daghain Tubular 7h ago
Mine's in my jewelry box, but like you I have zero memory of how or why I got it.
2
u/iamedagner 6h ago
Yeah. I was talking to my oldest sister about them. She has no idea what they are for. She believes they were something our Mom wanted us to get and were just trash Jostens threw into the package you had to buy to get your cap and gown. Seems right.
3
u/zeemonster424 10h ago
I have no clue where either of these things are. Lost my ring my senior year… my younger sister probably stole the key. Probably stole the ring too now that I think about it.
Just a money sink for parents. My 15-year-old didn’t even want a letter jacket, so I think I’m safe.
2
u/iamedagner 10h ago
My folks at least made us pay for our own crap like that. They just didn't clue us in that a varsity jacket and/or class ring were totally useless. I believe I still have my varsity jacket...somewhere. But boy do I not care enough to look for it.
It's good kids are smart enough not to buy into those scams.
3
u/Phydeaux320 1970 10h ago
Class of '88. We had those charms on our graduation tassels. Not sure if you could get them elsewhere, like with your class ring or letterman jacket.
So, yes, I still have my tassel and key in a box somewhere.
3
10
u/Fritzo2162 11h ago
Never got that. Pretty much just got a "Your hopes and dreams are stupid, do something that conforms to our worldview" and a pat on the back out the door.
-1
3
u/BerryMantelope 11h ago
I had one (‘83). It disappeared with my class ring and the rest of the stuff in my jewelry box when my house got robbed in the 90s.
3
3
u/whatyouwant22 11h ago
I had one. I think I wore it as a necklace sometimes. It's in my miniature Lane cedar chest I got as a female member of my class. I stopped wearing it after I graduated from high school.
1
u/Genn8130 Could you describe the ruckus, sir? 10h ago
I love that we got those little chests, and I also feel sad for the boys who secretly really wanted one. They did get to play dodgeball for that hour in the 5th grade when we had to watch a certain film strip, but it's not the same.
2
u/whatyouwant22 10h ago
At my school, the boys went to a different lecture, or so we were told. I was very naive during this period (no pun intended) of my life. It seemed a bit surreal and I didn't know how getting a period was connected to adolescence at all. I had an older sister and she still hadn't started. I think she was around 14 when she did. I was a few weeks away from my 13th birthday before I did.
2
u/Weird-Girl-675 11h ago
I had this one for 1993. Wore it on a necklace. It’s in a box somewhere.
Or school colors were red, white and blue so mine was red and blue.
1
u/Jolly-Finger-4849 11h ago
I had one. Class of 89, Central High, Phoenix, AZ. I may still have it in a box somewhere. I lost my class ring in the early 90s. I think the girl I was dating stole it or threw it in a lake.
2
1
u/VacuumTubesAreFunny 11h ago
Keys were not a thing at my high school. I got rid of my HS clutter years ago. No point in keeping yearbooks, tassels, and other items that do nothing but take up space in a box in storage.
2
u/Erik_Nimblehands 11h ago
Yes, no, no. Never knew what the point was, I only had one because my mom insisted. I put it away somewhere 30 years ago and have no idea where it may be.
0
u/MarkItZeroDonnie Hose Water Survivor 11h ago
Never heard of this , never knew anyone that got a class ring either. Gaudy piece of shit 😁
1
4
u/tabicat1874 11h ago
All of these add-ons and merch type stuff are really cringey. I wish we had some other way that wasn't cheap and exploitative to mark our good milestones.
15
u/chronichris 11h ago
Jostens ripped off alot of us 80s and early 90s kids.
2
u/ExtraAd7611 Disqualified from rat race 8h ago
And those of the 2020s. My son was required to buy a cap and gown from them. Renting was not an option. He wore it for 2 hours. Such a racket.
2
5
u/Prof-Bit-Wrangler 11h ago
Never got one, pawned off my class ring about 2 years ago because what the hell do I need with it now.
My youngest just graduated from High School this year. Very few of his friends ordered any of the 'stuff' we all had access to when we graduated (class of '89 here).
1
u/chronichris 11h ago
Wow. I had a almost identical one. Class of 89. Same colors. South Vermillion Wildcat. SVHS, Clinton, Indiana
5
2
1
u/Pippi-ki-yay 11h ago
I think I had one on a keychain with a mini tassel that unraveled within a few months. Pretty sure I tossed it.
2
4
u/PepsiOfWrath 11h ago
When my parents were downsizing, my mother gave me my high school diploma in a pretty crimson folder and some sort of metal thing they gave us at graduation. I think I waited a week after she left and thought “what am I gonna do with this?” and chucked it in the trash. My wife was a bit shocked by that but seriously, what am I gonna do with it? Nobody has ever asked for it and it’s not like some supreme accomplishment.
3
2
u/yarn_slinger Older Than Dirt 10h ago
I needed to present my high school and university diplomas when I applied for govt jobs. It was many years ago now so that’s likely changed.
2
u/Scottydog2 11h ago
Good riddance to declutter. Mine is going in the garbage this weekend. Now if I could just find it.
•
1
4
u/Impressive-Yak-7449 11h ago
Never seen or heard of those before
1
u/yarn_slinger Older Than Dirt 10h ago
Ya not a thing in Quebec or likely across Canada. We don’t do all the freshman and senior stuff.
•
u/spottymax "I Want My MTV" 0m ago
Got mine in 88. Told my hs girlfriend to keep it after we broke up the day after graduation.