The Christmas Tie

Many years ago my father's step-mother sent him a tie as a Christmas gift. As ties go, and as they went in the 60's, it was pretty darned ugly. It was a pinkish big-flowered thing as I recall. But, it's the thought that counts, right? And this woman thought my dad looked like a big-flowered pink tie wearing guy. Now, Dad was a curmudgeon and a really good one at that. He held up the tie with one finger and we all had a good chuckle. Sweet, well intentioned Emily had sent that thing for our Dad to wear? Never gonna happen.

Fast forward a Christmas. My oldest brother Jay, in the midst of his present opening orgy, comes upon...you got it...a big-flowered pink tie. Gifted to him by our dear old dad. Thus began the legend of the Christmas tie. Year after year the tie was exchanged between Dad and Jay. As the years went on the gifting became more and more clever in an effort to surprise the giftee. As I recall one year the tie was rolled up tight and presented in a jam jar. Think you're getting strawberry jam or some apple butter? Sucker!! You're now the ?proud? owner of The Christmas Tie.

After the opening the tie would be placed unceremoniously on the mantelpiece in either the living room or the dining room. There it would collect dust until about the beginning of December the following year. At that point it would disappear and we knew something was afoot and that it was assuming a very un-tie like form in anticipation of being surprised upon its next giftee. Sadly, the tie met its demise at the hands of my brother's less than sane at the time first wife. The Christmas Tie was no more.

Fast forward to this Christmas. Regretfully, my dad and my brother are both gone. Dad died in 1994 and Jay died in 2010. I have just become the recipient of Jay's ashes which I am taking to my mother today so he and Dad can hang out on the mantelpiece in the living room together. Not content with taking him down in just a plain white box, this funny guy with a great sense of humor. No that would not do for Jay. So I went down to the Goodwill and picked up not one, but two really ugly ties and I have wrapped up his boring white box with these and will present him to mom later today. I'm guessing she's going to laugh. 'Cause that's the way this family rolls.