Tie from old Rochester store reminds me that neckties bind us to stops on memory lane

We’re watching the evening news, doing what our demographic does, and President Joe Biden comes on.

“He’s got your tie on,” Cindy says. “Your tie.”

I rewind, pause, look at the necktie. It does seem like one of mine. Gold and blue diagonal stripes on a background of red. Later, I check my ties. Some have diagonal stripes, but none are the Joe Biden tie. We’re not quite in sync.

In checking, I realize that I don’t really wear ties anymore, save for funerals and weddings. If my friends see me wearing a tie, the first thing they ask is “Who died?”

I’m not alone. Thanks to working at home, the pandemic, business casual, retirements, or the collapse of Western civilization as we know it, no one wears a tie.

Well, not quite no one.

Earlier this year, Peter Coy of the New York Times, who, at the time, had 252 neckties and eight bowties, made a case for neckwear. He puts on a tie whenever he wants to, which is just about always.

I have just 22 ties, a starter set by Coy’s standards.

A lot of my ties, like Joe Biden’s ties, have diagonal stripes. They are more-or-less interchangeable.

I like to think that each of my striped ties hinted that I was an adult, that I grew up in Westchester County in the cozy confines of quiet wealth. The ties can disguise the truth, that I’m just a hick from Cattaraugus County who grew up in the cozy confines of cow country.

I look at the labels on my striped ties. A couple say, “Brooks Brothers,” more proof of my loathsome social climbing. But a non-striped tie features row after row of the letter “H.” It honors Hamilton College, where I went.

There was a dress code for freshman at Hamilton in the very early 1960s, the abuse of which prompted a note from Dean Sidney Wertimer.

“‘Coat and tie’ is a symbol of civilized dining and gentlemanly behavior,” Wertimer reminded our class in a posted note. By way of clarification, he added: “‘Coat and tie,’ it should be pointed out, implies the wearing of a shirt. Trousers are implied, as is underwear.”

I look at more labels on my ties. Another says, “Whillock Bros, Rochester, N.Y., since 1878."

For years, Whillock Brothers was on West Main Street in Rochester, near the Four Corners, though it was briefly at a couple different locations before it closed in 1994.

My late colleague Peter B. Taub loved to hang out at Whillock Brothers, which had a nice selection of ties and tweeds, though he went for more than the clothes.

I’d go with Peter, watch him work his reporter’s magic. Lawyers would come into the shop — they needed to dress well, after all, given the trials and depositions and all the high-powered posturing that came with their jobs.

Peter would chat the attorneys up, gently depose them of tidbits, items for his column. He’d leave a happy man, confident that he had the stuff for another day’s report.

(Point of clarification. Peter was a frugal man, and I’m not sure how much he bought at Whillock Brothers. However, he was a regular at the Harley School’s annual “Next to New” sale. He arrived late when they were discounting the discounts. Harris tweed at a tenth of the price.)

Price was no object to the actor Jimmy Stewart. He was in Rochester in 1978 and admired the tie worn by Ted Curtis, himself a celebrated Rochesterian and a sharp dresser.

The next day Curtis drove Stewart to Whillock Bros, which opened early for the actor’s visit. Stewart bought three ties.

I suspect that at least one of Stewart’s ties was striped, rather like Joe Biden’s, rather like the ones I own, but don’t wear.

Though, you never know, perhaps I’ll spiff up my act, tie on a tie, become an adult again. Or, better yet, I’ll sit in my chair and sort through my ties and absorb the stories they tell about when I was, thank you Dean Wertimer, a model of gentlemanly behavior.

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Tie from old Rochester store reminds Jim Memmott of the past