The following is an email I, Richard Hay, received in my capacity as webmaster of the aggieband.com website. It moved me, as I hope it does you. Here's the email:

From: "Randy Alderman"[alderman@airmail.net]
To: rhay@tamos.net
Subject: A thank you...
Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 10:15:29 -0600

This past Saturday (October 31st), I took my mother to the Oklahoma  
State/Texas A&M game.  My mother was so excited, not to see Oklahoma  
State, or even the game, though I am an OSU grad.  She wanted nothing  
more that to see the A&M Band.

We went up early and watched the homecoming parade at 9am, which she  
really enjoyed as she loves watching a parade, especially the marching  
bands.  She was hoping that the A&M band would be in the parade, but  
really enjoyed it anyway.  We spent the rest of the day roaming around  
the campus and visiting... resting frequently as she is almost 68.

We arrived at the game a full two hours before kickoff and sat in the  
constant drizzle waiting for game time.  We had what we thought were  
terrible seats (Section R), all the way down on one end.  You should  
have seen the look of joy on my mother's face as the A&M band members  
started coming in to sit in the section right down below us.

You see, my mother is deaf.  She came to see your band, though she would  
never be able to hear them.  But, thanks to the ricketty old stands of  
Lewis Field, my mother could feel them, and even though she's been deaf  
for some twenty years, she still remembered the cadence.

I can't thank your band enough for how happy you made my mother.  She  
had waited her whole life to see your band, and will remember it always.

An Aggie fan (now both of them)
Randy Alderman