No Girls in the Marching Band

Front Cover

Back Cover

Spine

Synopsis

"No girls in the marching band" were the first -- and last -- words said to me one bright, sunny day in September 1952 as I stood, attempting to enroll in that ensemble at the University of Wisconsin. The words have haunted me ever since, not only because they curtailed my career as a percussionist (not resumed until I became a senior citizen) but also because it never occurred to me to object. Ever since, I have wondered what other thoughts I have been unable to think, what other rules I have simply accepted without question, as if written in stone. This autobiography deals both with these, and with other conventions I have more successfully struggled against throughout my life: questions asked and questions answered.