Guys With Ties fashion knots to promote good relationships

Ever since a "Guys With Ties" publicity photo ran in the paper, I've repeatedly been asked, "Where's your teal tie?"

Thing is, I wasn't even in the photo, which in itself would have been quite the feat since I took the picture.

So ask me about my tie. Go ahead. It's OK, it's time.

After all, as baseball's opening day came and went Monday as March faded into history, I kicked sand in the face of tie tradition.

For once I chose not to wear either of my Chicago Cubs ties -- neither the one shaped like a Louisville Slugger bat nor one festooned with baseballs and Cub logos in varying hues of red and blue. Guess I'll just save them for the World Series.

Now that April has arrived, with it comes the Guys With Ties sexual assault awareness campaign highlighted by its distinctive teal, the color associated with the national and local effort.

So from now until May 1 you will often see guys like Judge Matt Headley and Judge Denny Bridges in their tantalizingly teal ties. Of course, those two can slop soup on theirs and still wear them with judicial decorum since their robes hide all but the top couple inches.

By the time I've tied mine more than a couple of times, it'll refuse to lay straight, twisting in the wind and undoubtedly bearing the unmistakable scars of Almost Home broccoli soup or McDonald's special sauce.

But look around town. You'll probably spot Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter in his characteristic bow-tie look, albeit teal not black most of this month. Or tie guys like Jim Ensley or Tom Sutherlin or Tom Helmer or Alan Zerkel or a dozen more.

Here in the newsroom, Assistant Editor Jared and I can glance across piles of papers and over our computer monitors to check out each other's teal tie.

Geez, to think we nearly wore matching lavender shirts one day. That office crisis averted, it's hard telling how the rest of our junior high class will react when they spy identical ties.

Oh well, it is all for a noble effort, organized by the fine ladies at Putnam County Family Support Services, who this year have even instituted a companion Girls With Pearls project.

When you ask any of the Guys with Ties about their teal neckwear this month, they are supposed to speak out against sexual violence to help promote awareness of the issue. Encourage righteous relationships. Decry improper physical activity. Embrace everyone's right to say no.

The campaign is also designed to demonstrate respect and trust toward others, which is actually one reason behind wearing a tie in my role as editor. And it has apparently rubbed off. I've since seen Jared gravitate toward fashionable neckwear, including an occasional bow tie. And now the new guys in the office, sports editor Jay and reporter Kyle, have followed suit ... or tie.

To me it seems so logical out of respect for the positions we hold. Out of respect for the public with which we deal. Out of respect for the folks we will encounter for the first time that day ...

That's the way I've looked at it.

Believe me, I have been no easy convert. Not after growing up watching my dad trudge off to work in a suit and tie. Early on that made me vow I was never was going to be "that guy."

Was never going to be the guy in the Windsor knot and button-down collar. Was never putting that noose around my neck and cinching it up tight. Was never going to give in to such conformity.

So I guess my more recent fascination with stylish neckwear makes me a teal-wearing tie hypocrite (I prefer tie connoisseur) since for the better part of the past 25 years I've wholeheartedly embraced the necktie.

Yep, my fascination has outlasted wide ties, skinny ties, that nasty double-knit craze and even the psychedelic paisley period. What I once considered conformity has basically become quite the opposite in this camo-cloaked Duck Dynasty world.

Actually, I delight in doing the tie thing purely for the fashion sense, matching bold tie colors with a companion shirt. Pairing up a bright tie with just the right socks. A simple pleasure really.

After all, it's intriguing when folks ask about your tie. Whether you're in line at McDonald's or taking your chances riding the courthouse elevator, it's quite often a conversation starter. And here's a hint, men, women kind of dig guys with ties ... teal or not.

Like the ladies at Round Barn. The women in the court offices. The gals at the Downtown Cafe. The gang at the Putnam Inn on Friday nights. All have routinely commented on ties I've worn.

Or GHS Principal Russ Hesler, who for one, never fails to note your neckwear. He can spot one of my Jerry Garcia ties a mile away. (As a side note, love that Garcia even gave his tie creations names like "Paris in the Rain," "A Poet Absorbs the War" "Emergency Elephant," "Overlooking the Desert" and the like.)

But for now -- at least for much of April or until monotony simply ties me up in knots -- dominating my wardrobe will be a shiny, solid teal-colored polyester version with the notation warning "hand made in China" on the reserve side.

So go ahead, ask me about my teal tie. It's fine. It's all for a good cause.

Just don't ask about my socks ...