April 02, 2004
Family ties
I have a lot of ties. Hundreds. Most of them are fairly busy, as are most of my shirts. You might say it's one of my hobbies to find shirts and ties that seem like things which no article of clothing that isn't solid could ever match, and match them.
This particular style of tie-wearing was somewhat slow in evolving, although I started on the road to it way back in high school, when I used to wear jackets and ties all summer, which was even more eccentric because I lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the time. All I can say in my defense is that it was a dry heat. Anyway, while my wardrobe at the time was not nearly so interesting, there are ties I acquired in high school which I still wear over a decade and a half later. Here's one:
I even vaguely remember the details of its purchase. My mother and I were at the mall, and while we were in some clothing store or other, I saw two ties that caught my eye. They had the same basic pattern, but different color schemes. She said I could pick one of them; I went with the one above.
Fast forward to January 2002. I was in Boston making preparations for the MIT Mystery Hunt, which I was helping run that year. One puzzle needed a bunch of books to be displayed in a bookstore window; I was delivering the books. While I was out, I stopped in a few used CD and used clothing stores. In one of the latter, to my amazement, they were selling the other tie -- the one with the other color scheme -- for a mere five dollars. Obviously, I needed it.
It's hard to describe how satisfying this was. Here is a picture of both ties together, though:
This little family reunion pleases me every time I see the two ties together in the ever-expanding tie section of my closet.
Posted by Francis at 04:11 PM in Ties