Dressing Up

As Ira was leaving our house after the Christmas celebration, he asked me if I liked his new shoes. They were some fancy black leather dress shoes. He said he'd bought them on E-bay and had paid only 20% or so of their original price. (Because of a bank merger in November, Ira transferred from a bank branch in the outskirts of Fort Worth to a another branch close to down town Dallas. That's a dress-code change of almost cowboy to suited executive.)

Then he talked about purchasing some long-sleeved dress shirts off of E-bay. These shirts didn't have button cuffs but needed cuff-links. Kelley had purchased some vintage cuff links (again) off of E-bay. I got the bright idea of looking in PeePaw's stuff to see if there were any cuff links Ira would be interested in.

These are the ones we came up with:

The tractors in this cuff link and tie bar set have "International" branded on them. My grandfather, Roy Ragsdale, (We called him Pampa.) owned and operated an International Harvester and Oldsmobile dealership during the depression, World War II and afterwards. My dad worked for him a while--and had stories to tell. I really don't know if these jewelry pieces date back that far (and I really kind of doubt it), but that makes them of far more interest than just a random tractor cuff link/tie bar set.

These cuff links are a ruby red. I don't know the story behind them. All the schools my dad attended and/or had long-term affiliation with had purple as the primary color. (San Saba-Purple; ACC-Purple; University High School-Purple) I have some recollection of my dad wearing these cuff links, but don't know any story past that... Maybe ruby because his and mom's anniversary was in July... or maybe someone bought them just because they were pretty or on sale. I think you can be sure that they weren't purchased on E-bay!

...and these.... These are just some tie bars that Ira decided to take with him because he thought they might go with some cuff links he already had.

Then Ira and I had a discussion about how it was hard for him to even imagine PeePaw dressing up. Made me stop to think that the man Ira knew as PeePaw had been retired and worn not much of anything but overalls for about 20 of the less than 30 years that he had know him. But there was a day that Ira Conner, as a public school administrator, dressed in a suit coat and tie every day for work. I somehow suspect that Ira Spies will be a bit like his name sake and after his working-career is over with will revert to whatever the equivalent of overalls will be...

Love (loved) the Iras in my life!!