I love the pearls on my badge. It gives me a reason to wear pearls in general.

This was not a thing on my campus either. In fact, when I saw the title of the thread I was clueless and opened it out of curiosity. On my campus, if a non-Greek guy was that serious about his sorority girl friend, he either bought her a promise ring or an engagement ring.

I agree about the Southern part. What's interesting to me though, though, is the idea that husbands get them for their wives. In my experience, girls always got them from their parents or grandparents, or maybe from their godparents, before they were married—usually when in college.

I've had several pairs of cheap faux pearls in my life, including in college. My parents were not financially able to buy me a set of real pearls. My religion does not do godparents, either.

I have some that belonged to someone who is now dead. I don't know that I've ever worn them, though.

If you plan on keeping/wearing them in the future, you should have them checked by a jeweler. The thread can deteriorate over time and you could have a huge mess on your hands.

Fair points, and my experience on how women received strings of pearls is limited, and probably dated, to be sure. (And my religious tradition doesn't do godparents either, but I did have a friend or two who got pearls from godparents.)

Are you talking about pearls or about some conversations on GC? ;)

hahahaha. I guess both!

I was once told to never wear any kind of hairspray or perfume around my neck when wearing pearls because it can also eat away at the pearls. I'm not sure if this is true or not but, it's something I am always aware of and I try to keep my real pearls in good condition.

I think it's less about the pearls and more the strand. The pearls SHOULD be individually knotted, so a break should only result in 1 pearl lost, but if it's not done that way, yes, one too many zaps with the hairspray and CRACK.... pearls everywhere.

I have a set that I inherited from my grandmother, a set that I inherited from my mom, and a set that my brother bought for me as a "thank you" for handling my dad's estate.

I don't wear any of them.

Just not my thing. I'm going to save them and give them to my grand-daughters or daughters-in-law or something.

In Hong Kong I fell in love with colored pearls. Own black and chocolate brown ones. Wear them often, with simple white t shirts. It works for me. Love them. Coveted the Tahitian pearls and these were an affordable knockoff. But those Tahitian pearls…sigh. Astronomical prices. Next lifetime.

My now-deceased great aunt worked at Macy's for something like 40 years...consequently had all sorts of beautiful things from Macy's bought for super cheap. She got me the most gorgeous pearl earrings, necklace and bracelet set that I wear whenever I'm going to fancy sorority events. They're very popular down here, but not so much back home.

Interesting article about pearls

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126354&page=1

This thread made me decide to wear pearls today---just because.