Orig. Posted: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007
Today, I was sitting at Forsyth Medical Center on the 9th Floor, waiting to see my father-in-law. He's a patient in Palliative care, there and he enjoys it when my son visits. While my tot and I waited, I picked up a copy of "Jet" magazine.
I was pleased to see an article that finally explained to me, once and for all, the deal with the saggy pants parade - the reason youth often wear pants that droop past you-know-where.
These young folks have pants so droopy that they must hold them up with their hands, or risk showing too much. I even witnessed this at the hospital yesterday. A young man of couldn't even get on the shuttle bus without help. He needed one hand to hold onto his pants so they wouldn't fall down.
It turns out that this "look" evolved from prison, where inmates are not allowed to have belts or shoe laces to protect themselves from being hanged or choked. Without a belt, pants don't stay up. Bottom line.
Over time, a pair of pants sagging past one's buttocks came to symbolize something else...an invitation to others to ride up one's "Hershey Highway". In other words, the "wearer" was offering you-know-what from you-know-where. (This is a family web site, after all.)
Kids today clearly don't realize this. "Jet" pointed out that, a kid wearing extra-low pants, could be seen as a target by someone just released from the joint after 30-odd years. Ouch!
Certain members of the black community have even started up a campaign to collect belts and hand them out to the offenders. A Cincy mom's group tried handing out the tacky rainbow suspenders, to no avail. Additionally, Delcambe, La.made the news for banning saggy pants. Where does it all end?
Like any trend, saggy pants will go the way of bell bottom jeans. Meanwhile, let's just hope some kid doesn't find out the hard way.
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