Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

-- Mark Twain

A great thing about middle age is that you usually quit outgrowing your clothes.

Life gives you the size and shape it wants you to keep for a while and -- because you also become somewhat indifferent to fashion -- you hold on to menswear until it becomes menswear-out.

This works with almost everything in the modern man's closet but neckties.

Ties never go away.

I say this from experience. I have hundreds of ties in dozens of colors. Over the years, the collection has grown, and often proved useful.

Take last Monday, St. Patrick's Day. Not only did I have more than a dozen green ties to recognize the occasion, but I also had one dark-green tie with light-green stripes and lime-sherbet-green shamrocks. I knotted it proudly.

"Where'd you get that?" Mrs. O'Kirby asked at breakfast.

"I don't remember," I said looking up from my bowl of Lucky Charms, "but I found it in the back of the closet on a hanger filled with green ties."

Yes, I tend to organize ties by color.

I have hangers of purple and maroon ties, brown ties, blue ties, black ties, yellow ties and three hangers of red ties. I have bolo ties and skinny ties and a full selection of '70s ties -- all wide as lobster bibs and loud enough to set off burglar alarms.

I also have hangers of theme ties. One has 14 baseball designs; another recognizes holidays, with seven for Christmas, three for Easter and two for Halloween. (The black one reads, "This IS my costume.)

"Most gentlemen ... just keep all of them," said Chris Rodrigues, of Lionel Smith Ltd., the Aiken men's store known for its "famous Smitty ties."

I called Mr. Rodrigues because I figured Lionel Smith is a tie expert and I wanted to know what I should do with all this neckwear.

"The best thing I can tell you is if you feel like you can part with it, give the tie to charity," he said.

Charity, I found out, is happy to take them.

"We do!" said an enthusiastic Meredith Vasquez, the executive director of Goodwill Industries.

"One of the best things you can do with a tie is donate it," she said Friday afternoon, explaining the benefits of practical generosity.

Some women who enjoy crafts come in to buy ties for their fabric, but usually it's men looking for an affordable fashion accessory.

"We get a lot of ties," she said, and they also get many tie shoppers, eagerly pursuing necktie bargains.

Some even find them.

Occasionally they're green with lime shamrocks.