Dear Grandparenting: When you get to be my age, one starts to take stock of what is no longer needed. Last time I looked, I had at least 60 ties. Some I bought for the job, but an awful lot were “inherited” from family members in the same position I find myself in now.

When our family got together over Labor Day weekend, I dumped my ties into a big box and brought them along. I figured my grandsons would want something. Two go to college, two are in high school and one is in the seventh grade.

I told the boys to help themselves. Three passed completely. The other two each took one tie, but I think it was mainly to make me feel better. One of them said he wanted a career where he can “move up while dressing down.” Guess he’s gone casual for life.

I don’t know if ties will survive. How well I remember the dress code when I was a kid. Every adult male wore a tie every single day. Maybe I should give the ties to my granddaughter, Lisa. She wants to sew them all together to make herself a mini-skirt. What do you think? Sam England, Grosse Point, Michigan

Dear Sam: Ties do seem to be on the endangered list, part and parcel of dressing down’s sweep across America. Just a few generations ago, fashion was governed by one widely accepted standard: men donned suits and ties and women wore long dresses. Now it’s wide open.

For decades, ties were among the few ways men had to express their individuality or affiliations. There are so many more acceptable clothing choices and today, more colors, and less social disapproval of casual dress in places where it wouldn’t get you in the door, like corporate America, upscale restaurants and certain high culture performing arts venues. Church is no longer sacred, and people long ago ceased dressing up for public travel and vacations.

Here’s the new reality: that little guy over there with a grey T-shirt, jeans and sneakers could be a modern superstar like Mark Zuckerberg. As the cofounder and CEO of Facebook, he is an elite, among the world’s richest, most influential people, and he is almost always photographed wearing a grey T-shirt. Instead of Armani, we get Under Armor.

We don’t begin to understand modern fashion. “Distressed” clothes are in, meaning they have that authentic, well-worn look. The big craze now is buying “distressed” jeans that come with holes cut in the front. Of course, they can cost more than jeans without any holes, because they require more labor. Holes don’t come cheap. Got that?

GRAND REMARK OF THE WEEK

Greta Jankowski from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, reports she was “amazed by the maturity” of granddaughter, Deena, 8.

Deena was the subject of some vicious social media gossip earlier in the week. Instead of sulking or lashing back, she kept her cool.

“Be thankful for all the difficult people in your life,” Deena told Greta. “They show me exactly who I do not want to be.”