I attended a Catholic boys' high school. We observed a rigorous dress code: no jeans, no facial hair, button-down collared shirts, no hair below those collars.

I attended a Catholic boys' high school. We observed a rigorous dress code: no jeans, no facial hair, button-down collared shirts, no hair below those collars. We wore ties and attended Holy Mass (in the gymnasium) on Fridays; underclassmen wore the official school sweater, and seniors wore their Letterman's jackets if possible. I was deeply involved in band, on baritone sax, especially pep band that played at the athletic events such as basketball and football. On a regular basis, our band director would declare a "Hawaiian Shirt Night" for us all, and we donned our Aloha shirts. So I amassed a collection of several Aloha shirts in my closet, ready for this special occasion. It really was fun to watch the band play with us all in a riot of polyester or silk, tropical colors, parrots, and palm fronds. It was even more exciting to be in the middle of the action, making the music, entertaining the fans, cracking jokes and having real camaraderie with the other boys. Our director is a kind man with the best sense of humor and a real knack for herding cats. Recently, it occurred to me that I really missed the comfort and style of Aloha shirts, and I was shopping in a nice Christian thrift store in the neighborhood, and they had a really excellent Aloha shirt with parrots on it that was just my size. So I snapped it up, and I love to wear it around here in the hot weather. It's a little "loud" for church, but out and about, at the shopping mall, it's literally the coolest!