Blessed Be The Tie That Binds

One of our rain trees leans toward the power lines.

Not good. Every hurricane season we loose power for a week or two; no sense jeopardizing our electricity with extra branches which might fall on the lines.

As Ginny and I dabbled in our garden Saturday, she asked me to straighten the rain tree. So I drove in a metal stake and tied the tree back.

When Ginny ties a plant back, she prefers to cut the legs off old pantyhose.

Tacky.

Not me. What better to tie back a plant than with a real tie?

Back when I worked in an office I wore a necktie to work each day. I prided myself on never wearing the same tie twice (no reason, just a vanity), so I amassed hundreds of the things.

Now that I work from home, I no longer wear a different tie each day.

I know that when anyone pictures me as a writer in my study, they envision me in a smoking jacket with satin collar and trim — like Alistair Cooke hosting Master Piece Theatre.

That’s not entirely accurate.

In fact I usually write wearing debonair swim trunks and an Etcher tee-shirt like the one in the photograph.

When gardening, I use my old neckties to tie back plants.

Here’s a photo of me (in writer’s garb) selecting an appropriate tie for the rain tree:

When she was in high school, my youngest daughter, Patricia, took a dozen or so of my brighter neckties, ripped out the stitching to remove the liners, and sewed the ties together lengthwise to make a skirt. Because all the wide points were down, Patricia’s skirt flared and swirled when she danced and she gleaned all sorts of accolades whenever she wore it.

Once my three sons and I got together in a late-night bull session and among the things we discussed was which son would get what heirloom when I die. Fred gets the engraved sword with the eagle-head pommel. Donald gets the Civil War sword and my great-grandfather’s shotgun. Johnny gets the other shotgun and my bowie knife…

Then, I mentioned the problem of what to do with my massive necktie collection.

The strangest expression fell on the faces of my three sons. They looked at the floor. They looked at one another’s faces. They looked at me. They burst out laughing.

One of them, I think it was Fred, said, “Dad, when you die we’re going to wind those ties around your body to wrap you up like a mummy and bury them all with you”.

Nice fellows, my sons, but alas, not a one of them has inherited my exquisite taste in gentleman’s apparel.

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As we gardened Saturday, Ginny wore shorts and a tee-shirt. Since it was just the two of us, she did not wear a bra.

As the day grew hotter and hotter, she worked up a sweat, I teased her suggesting that she remove the tee-shirt and work topless.

She said, “I do not expose myself in view of any passerby”.

I assured her that the vine hedge which surrounds out backyard insures privacy.

“I will not take off my top in either the front yard or the back yard,” she said.

“Nobody has asked you to take off your top in the front yard,” I said.

“A lot you know,” she replied.

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Sunday we skipped church and drove around downtown to view some architectural features in slum neighborhoods.

Afterwards, we strolled along the Southbank Riverwalk viewing the city skyline.

Since the day was so hot, we decided to ride a water taxi over to the northbank to Donna Maria’s Mexican restaurant for lunch.

As we waited for the water taxi, we sat on a sea wall between two levels of dock; there is about an eight-foot difference between the two levels.

When we saw the water taxi round the point, I encouraged Ginny for us to drop down over the wall onto the lower level to meet the boat, but she refused.

“It’s only a few feet down,” I said. “Jackie Chan makes jumps like that all the time”.

“Jackie Chan has better insurance than we do,” she said.

We walked around the seawall.

We enjoyed a long leisurely lunch on a terrace overlooking the river, then, instead of taking a water taxi back to the other bank, we strolled over the Main Street Bridge then sat a long while talking in the park by Friendship Fountain.

38-years married and still deeply in love.

What a blessing!