Tying One On

Bowties, neckties, and bolo string ties, I own some of each. Mostly I have neckties. While I worked as a nursing supervisor and was considered middle management, I often wore neckties. I collected holiday ties that I could wear to celebrate Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, etc. Our clients seemed to enjoy the ties, as well as the staff. I had some ties given to me by other staff members. One I’ve written about before. It was sewn from a woman’s blouse. I had several musical Christmas ties and one with black cats for Halloween. I wore it one evening and gave it away. The shift was an unbelievably horrible shift from beginning to end. Coincidence, I’m sure, but I was taking no chances.

One of my friends from church also has a collection of ties. I imagine that between the two of us, we own nearly 200 neckties in all colors and with quite a few genres from patriotic to cartoon characters. I often tease my friend we should start a business of renting ties to men for special occasions and call the business a “Tie-brary.”

One type of tie that I’ve had difficulty finding has been a Thanksgiving tie that isn’t covered in cartoons of  Pilgrims or turkeys. I have a gold tie with wheat sheaves and another with a harvest of fruits and vegetables I wear for Thanksgiving, but want something that says “Be Thankful” or has the word “Thanksgiving” written on it. You have to remember I’m frugal and that I find most of my ties in thrift shops. I may have to break down and hit Amazon or Google.

When I was in high school, my grandmother Rebecca Rugg Miner gave several of my granddad’s wide neckties to me. This was when the very narrow ties were in style. I coerced several of my friends to wear some of the wide ties to class. My geometry teacher wasn’t impressed and actually acted like he was going to strangle me with the tie I was wearing. Believe it or not, right after that, fashion changed and wide ties were all the rage. Who knew that I was a trendsetting fashionista? Ha, ha.