Ties – And How To Tie ‘Em
My dad use to tell me a story of the time he was in hospital in the early 60’s; that would have put him at about 30-35 years old, I suppose. And when he was recuperating from an operation and laying around on ward, some random guy came in from the street, offering everyone in the ward his unique service: tying ties.
Buddy charged $1 and taught the men on the ward how to tie a Windsor Knot, or whatever knot you wanted. The Windsor was the most popular at the time, so that’s what the men were getting at the time. My father told me tie-guy did a brisk business, most men were interested and gladly paid $1 for a chance to learn how to tie the “new knot”.
I asked my dad why he just didn’t Google how to tie a Windsor knot, and he told me that Google wasn’t even invented back then. I was shocked. Totally.
What have we learned today from The Mayor’s wonderful and eye-opening story? 1) If you have a popular service or product, you will always have work 2) In the 60’s men cared about their appearance to the point of paying for accessory tips, and 3) The 60’s were a terrible time to live in because they lacked powerful search engines.
Thank you for your time, it’s really great having a captive audience such as yourselves.
July 12th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
On the rare occasion I wear a necktie (now…used to wear one every day), I use the “Four in hand.”
I didn’t actually know that’s what it was called until today. That’s why I am proud to be a Mitchievillian…I can now tell others that something I’ve been doing for about 40 years actually has an “official name.”
You da man, Mayor! Actually, looking at this again, I think I’ve also used the Windsor, half Windsor, and maybe even the Shell knot a time or two.
I taught all my boys how to tie their own neckties…well, I’ve still got one younger son that hasn’t needed to learn yet.
I got sick of them bringing me their neckties, and saying, “Dad, would you tie this for me?” So, I would dutifully put the tie around my scrawny neck, tie it all up real nice and perfect…loosen it…slip it around my big head and hand it to them.
They are ALL like a herd of Moose, and it never fit right when they put it on. I finally told them to “just figure it out yourself, or go to cousin Elmer’s funeral looking like a retard with the front part thingy about twice as long as the back part thingy.”
They figured it out.
I’m a good Father…
July 12th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
We did use “Ask Jeeves”.
Cheers
July 12th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
I’m bookmarking this page cause I may need to wear a tie someday.
I find your views fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
July 13th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
“and he told me that Google wasn’t even invented back then.”
Yet another reason to hate the 1960s. (Like I didn’t have enough.)
July 17th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
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