Musings from the land of ties

I'm in richmond. Everyone up here wears a tie, or they have purple hair. There is hardly anything in between. One time when I was up here, I was sitting at my hotel bar (there's a surprise) and I was watching all these men flow into "the Tabaco Company" a well know restaurant just across the street, and they all had on the same type of uniform, so I'm thinking there's some sort of convention in town. And all these men were from a group...then on closer look I realized the blue blazer, khaki pants and tie they were all wearing wasn't some assigned uniform, it was the "richmond" uniform. It's just how they all dress up here.

Not a richmond fan. I hope no one from Richmond reads this. It's way conservative up here, or they swing to the other end of the spectrum, swinging so far left, it's punkish.

I guess it's no different where I live, there you don't even see ties. Everyone's either a surfer, Dude! Or a construction worker. Not that I have anything against either one, but now and then it would be nice to see a man in a tie, or at least something other than a ripped t-shrit, and "board shorts" And the politics in Virginia beach, we'll we all know which way they swing, can you say "religious right"?

And if you explore any region, I guess they all have their quirks. NY, too many Vinnie's. Philly: Yo!, California: plastic surgery. One of the more well-rounded areas I lived in was Louisville, of course emphasis on the "rounded" part. There are no edges in the mid-west. Everyone is polite, nice, quite, they dress to blend in, don't offend, and lay low. I used to call it land of the bland. Maybe I need to re-think my opinion of the mid-west. I can't even stereotype Louisville, nothing stood out.

Back to Richmond. It' a pretty place, and the people are nice, I guess it's sort of land of the bland, with a blue blazer, tie and Khaki's. Not so bad, but I still don't like it up here. It's like a wanna-be city. Always trying to be something. Not sure what. I'll finish up my job and head out of tie land, back to "flowered board shorts" land. I may not have ties, but at least I have a beach. And that seems to cover up all the other sins of omission.