In the summer of 1965, one of my jobs at Cotton & Company grain elevator in Volga was to stuff 100 pounds of fluffy oat hulls into burlap bags..stitch them shut with a huge suspended sewing machine..stack them up five high on a wooden cart and wheel them into the warehouse. Next to scooping out moldy grain from underneath the truck hoist, it was the dustiest, dirtiest job the place had to offer. I made a vow that, if I ever got out of there, I’d never work anywhere again that didn’t require a tie. It was one of the few promises I managed to keep in my lifetime.
Things settled down during the Reagan years; mostly medium-width, calm colors and conservative stripes.It was during this time that Keloland weatherman, Dave Dedrick, came up with one of the most brilliant promotional campaigns in the station’s history.
When the ugly tie contest finally ended two years later, nearly three thousand had been received. The title of most ugly was awarded to the one that had images of sewer rats all over it.
Most of those ugly ties ended up as things of beauty thanks to the gentle hands of church ladies’ sewing clubs who transformed them into colorful warm quilts which were auctioned off for charity.
During the 90’s, neckwear fashion changed again with Rush Limbaugh, of all people, leading the way. The more wild and colorful the better.
