An incredibly skinny cotton tie without a label.
This tie is also heavily worn, I just can’t imagine by whom.
Maybe my father or one of his brothers used to steal this tie and wear it recklessly. Or maybe it was my grandfather that used it as a makeshift headband at a backyard BBQ. In any case, the tie is skinny enough it could almost constitutes as a bolo tie, save its lack of clasp and aglets.
Here’s a cotton tie made by American Eagle. American Eagle?! I know, right?
When we inherited these ties, my brother and I joked that this was my grandfather’s “casual tie”.
We knew that my grandfather never would have worn a “casual tie”. He usually wore ties at work, but when it came time to being casual, let’s just say that my grandfather was no stranger to cut-off khakis.
Here’s a very wide silk tie made by Jordan Marsh Company.
I still have a few more of my grandfather’s ties to post. Most of what is left is in my brother’s possession, or are ties that I wear regularly (as regularly as I wear ties, that is).
Posting these last few ties is bittersweet.
I know I should keep up with regular posting, but I’m not. I think my procrastination is a result of not really wanting to finish this blog.
Andrew and I were recently speaking about our last few posts, and we came to the conclusion that there were going to be stories that came to mind that we wish we could have posted, and because there are no more ties to pair to the stories, these stories are going to go un-shared.
I think that’s okay.
The original concept for this blog was focused on the ties. Old ties. Ugly ties. Our granfathers’ ties.
I think for both of us, the idea quickly turned into a vehicle for getting to know our grandfathers better through consistent writing. To that end, I think that we both succeeded.
So, to end this post, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite Gampa-sayings:
“There’s going to be a Revolution!!”
I was visiting my parents back home recently and I was searching high and low for more ties. Anyone who has been reading this regularly (I’m looking towards Sean here) has noticed I’ve been spacing posts out weekly. That means I am out of ties. My time has come.
But when I was home I got the chance to talk to my mom and she showed me pictures of my Grandfather that I hadn’t seen before. These are pictures of him when he was a young man, maybe even my age. Yes, he was wearing a tie. Actually, he was wearing a tie in almost every photo my mom had—dinner with the family, action shot at work, awesome poignant portrait staring off into the distance (see above). Always a tie.
Another thing I noticed in the photos was that he he had massive eyebrows. To be truthful noticed it when he was older too, but I just assumed that eyebrows were naturally “full” at his age.
I have a favorite barbershop, and a couple haircuts back, the barber offered to trim back my eyebrows. Truthfully, I had noticed they were a little, ahh, full. Still, I was surprised because I had never heard of anyone trimming back eyebrows. I had to decline the offer. I like my eyebrows, and they are part of who I am and thats just how they grow.
So when I saw this photo I realized that I had inherited a whole lot more than a collection of cool ties. Hopefully, as life goes on, I’ll find a lot more of my grandfather that I inherited as well.
Oscar de la Renta.
High fashion, I guess. But it looks kind of messy to me.
I never saw my grandfather angry. I can’t actually imagine that he ever was angry. He always laughed. He’d pay attention to whatever you said, and looked happily surprised when he heard a new story or some good news. At least once a conversation, you’d probably hear his favorite exclamation, “holy mackerel!” It’s like every day of life was a pleasant surprise. I guess life is, and I guess he knew it as well as anybody.
Holy mackerel!
