The "What Kind of Mood are You In?" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I are in Northeast, MD. Stopped at Kathy's Corner to drop off a few of my photos that she sells for me in her store. Naturally plan to stop at Woody's for a crab cake sandwich and a bowl of crab bisque. While at Kathy's I look around and see these neat rings that she has near her checkout. They are silver around the sides of the ring and a beautiful blue-green color in the center. Some kind of stone I assume. I picked one out of the display and tryed it on. Fits just right. Then as I am looking at it, it changes color on me. I looked at Carol and say, "It's a Mood ring!" Yep, I remember them from back in the mid 70s. But they now have some class and style to them. After you put them on your finger they allegedly change color depending on your mood. The ring contains a heat-sensitive liquid crystal encased in quartz. As the body temperature changed, the crystals changed color also. Yellow if you are tense, blue if you are happy, purple if you are moody, black if you are depressed, reddish brown if you are insecure, green if you are easily amused, pink if you are fearful, bright red if you are excited ......... the ring on my finger is changing colors in front of my eyes. Better take it off before it stops changing. Can't handle the news. I remember the mood ring fad because it supposedly was invented by Josh Reynolds who was a classmate of mine at Manheim Township High School. His parents had the RJ Reynolds tobacco empire in Lancaster. He graduated a few years before me, but I remember how good a football player he was and that we both shared the football locker room when we were on the team together. Josh and his family also went to St. James Church where my family were members. He graduated in the late 1950s and I graduated in the early 1960s. It seems that a fellow by the name of Marvin Wernick actually discovered that the thermotropic crystals in a thermometer would change color against the body's skin, but never quite knew what to do with the discovery. Josh was a master at marketing and took the discovery to the level of "fad". He also was the inventor of the Thighmaster. Josh never really took credit for the invention of the "Mood Ring", but did claim all the profits from it! Josh is now vice-president at Brain.com where his bio referred to him as a pioneer in the field of biofeedback. Hmmmmm .... could that be the "Mood Ring"? My guess is yep! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - top pix shows what the ring looked like in the mid 70s, while the one at the bottom is what the one at Kathy's Corner looked like.