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| Marching Band Complaint |  |
My daughter is in the marching band at your university. Recently, her father and I traveled to see the band perform. The marching band was outstanding. The songs were played well and with great enthusiasm. The marching was precise. Overall it was superbly entertaining. However, there seemed to be a few problems that involved other people who were not in the marching band. After a stirring rendition of our National Anthem followed by the school song, the band exited the field and moved to their specified section in the stands. It was very difficult for me to see the band after they sat down. In my opinion, if the band stayed on the field, more people would be able to not only see them better but would also be able to hear the music more clearly. After the band left, a crowd of young men ran onto the band field and started tossing a ball around. While it looked interesting, it was a bit of a letdown after seeing the marching band. Now, I know it is petty to remark on the appearance of others but I was quite puzzled by the attire of those young men. They were wearing shoulder pads for no apparent reason. While fashion trends may come and go, I cannot find anyone who misses the shoulder-pad era. Yes, it was supposed to make your waist look smaller but with more and more people falling into the obese category, the required shoulder pads to compensate for this disparity could be harmful to others within a 20-foot radius. Those young men were not obese, yet, they still wore the shoulder pads. They also wore strange-looking haberdashery upon their heads. If you recall, the marching band wears extremely attractive shako hats. The two simply do not compare in terms of fashion and style. And speaking of fashion and style, the young men were also wearing trousers that were of questionable taste. Yes, the youth of America does like to experiment with various means of expression that often involves personal clothing. My own generation is not blameless in this regard as evidenced by the one-time popularity of bell-bottoms, culottes and anything with fringe. While some young men of today’s time wear “shorts” that extend close to the ground that they trod upon, they are still clearly shorts. Pants also come in many varieties and are appropriate for different occasions. But those young men who were running around on the band field, in full view of impressionable children and sensitive adults, were openly and shamelessly wearing Capri pants. There is just no other word for their trousers. They were very tight and clearly ended at or above knee level. Then, there was this rather large gap of visible leg skin and then, finally, close to the shoes, the first appearance of a sock. I am not sure even Jethro Bodine wore such tasteless capris. The pants worn on the band field by the young men in shoulder pads tossing a ball around were not cinched by a clothesline but that hardly made up for the extreme fashion faux pas. Obviously, someone other than I also wished to file a grievance because when those young men finally left the band field, at least half of the audience in the stand also left. No doubt they were in a rush to try to gain a valuable space in line to register their complaint. The marching band returned to the field during this time, much to the delight of all who remained. I hope that you provided television screens to the people in line at customer service so they did not miss a moment of this second fantastic marching band performance. Just when I thought cooler heads had prevailed in rectifying the error in judgment, the marching band left AGAIN and the fashion-challenged young men returned. They threw the ball around for quite some time again while clad in their vulgar attire. I remained because, like the rest of the audience, I was holding out hope that the marching band would have their field returned to them but, alas, it was not to be. My husband and I plan on attending future marching band performances but we both wish to express our great desire for you to correct this unpleasant situation should it happen again. We have confidence in your sagacious discernment. Until then, maybe you could have a charitable clothing drive to help those young men dress more appropriately. Maybe some of them could join the marching band.
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