I have a big tie collection!

I went into my clothes closet Friday morning and looked at my collection of clothes. There were the button down white shirts, the blue shirts and the grey shirts. All are long sleeved. All are dress shirts and I even have one that is pink and another that is beige. I have three patterned shirts. I have black slacks and navy slacks.
Nothing seemed that special. Most men’s clothing is not all that fashionable. I really don’t know what I was looking for but Friday morning it seemed pretty drab.
But I do have a really huge tie collection. As some women have been prone to collect shoes, I have collected ties and inherited even more from people who have grown tired of wearing those fixtures around their necks.
So having decided on a pair of dark khakis, and a blue button down shirt, I began looking for the perfect tie to match my state of mind. Should I wear the red tie with the blue poppies for Remembrance Day or something different?
Did I have a feeling reverence or did I feel up beat?
For that day it was a toss up between a yellow and blue stripe and a mixed no pattern dark blue and yellow.
Men don’t wear ties they way they used to. Dressing up included wearing a tie, and going to church meant getting on your Sunday suit with starched white shirt and tie. We’re more casual today.
My collection of ties now numbers over 400 and only a couple of ties are duplicates. The collection has grown over 45 years. I have moved through the narrow ties, to the wide ties to the moderately wide ties. Some of my ties have even gone out of fashion and have returned to fashion.
I have a tie with a painted bass launching itself into the air. Its fun to wear with my denim shirts as is the “Jungle Book” tie. I have travel ties, kangaroos from Australia, scenes from Paris, and custom’s stamps in silk.
And somewhere I inherited a painted lady on a tie.
I think that from the style it probably was painted in the mid 1950’s or earlier.
I have solid red, blue, pink, yellow, gold ties. My tie collection includes paisley’s, stripes, patterns and even a snake pattern. Another tie from Australia is and aboriginal scene showing a watering hole, and the snake depicting the river.
Every occasion has a tie. My two sons began building my Christmas collection with the help of their mother when they were still toddlers. There are now 25 Christmas ties. The two boys always enjoyed the ties. I’ll wear a different Christmas Tie each working day of December leading up to Christmas Day.
As we turn from fall to winter, my choice of ties will change, as it will from winter to spring. Spring will probably have me wishfully looking the tie with the baseball player diving back to first base. Or I’ll be wearing the tie with flowers or tulips. In spring, I look forward to my wild animals of Africa tie.
If news is going wonky, my two “Peanuts” character ties seem to give me a lift, and if politics becomes too wild, I have my pink elephant tie.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I will wear my snowman tie. And my polar bear tie will make an appearance too.
I have received a lot of ties as gifts. Many know I enjoy a glass of wine and have been presented with two ties filled with grapes and vines. My fondness for coffee provided the reason for a tie with the steam and aroma of fresh coffee rising out of golden cups.
The ties often mirror my moods. If I am feeling down, a tie can lift me up. A tie can make me laugh. A tie can make life feel upbeat and help me believe the next season is just around the corner.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher