After a 4 a.m. departure time and covering 1,400 miles over approximately 27 hours of driving, the LHS marching band finally arrived in Jersey City, New Jersey.
On their first day in New York, the band planned an ambitious itinerary that included visiting the Oculus, the 9/11 Memorial and a rehearsal at Macy’s Herald Square starting at 9 p.m.
“We got into town a little bit late and that kind of created a domino effect of challenges on the first day, but we overcame them all. No trip ever goes according to plan,” said band director Dan Carlson, who was also on the 2000 and 2008 Macy’s trips.
With breakfast served at the hotel from 6:30-8 a.m., the band geared up for their second day in New York. The schedule included visiting the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square and the Broadway rendition of “Back to the Future.” With such a packed agenda, students had to stay focused to avoid getting sucked into the city’s distractions.
“The crazy drivers and the slow walking, the people were not conservative about the space around them, going every direction without paying attention to their surroundings. Also, the timing was hard, getting from place to place with all the traffic,” said junior Matthew Marlette.
On their third day in New York, before the big parade, the band had a “jam session in Central Park” and rehearsed at the Soccer Coliseum in Teaneck, New Jersey. Unfortunately, band members were not impressed with the barbecue dinner they had that nigh
t. Luckily, it was lights out by 8:45 p.m. and band members were able to get some sleep before the big day.
“I think everybody knew that it was both a business trip and a pleasure trip, just like a mullet, where we knew when we could have fun and we also knew when it was time to get down to business and get things done,” said Carlson.
With alarms buzzing as early as 3 a.m., the band members finished their pre-parade breakfast buffet at Bubba Gump by 6:30 a.m. As luck would have it, just as the sound of “New York New York” and “American North” began to ring through the streets, cold rain started to fall.
“It was rainy and it was cold but I would say we were more pumped up for it than we would have been if it was sunny and cold. We had pride and were ready to show the people of New York what we had been working on for about half a year,” said sophomore Max Ulmer. “The entire time, there were tons of people that didn’t even know who we were or had never been to our state who were cheering their hearts out for us.”
As the band began marching, parents who had traveled to New York and all the supporters back home looked for the Spider-Man float, which they knew was directly in front of the band.
“As the darkness lifted and the rain shifted from mist to drizzle to a steady stream, the sidewalks filled with people, making them nearly impassable. We were a solid mass of people in ponchos and under umbrellas, trying to stay dry and keep from being squished or nudged into the person next to you or the side of an umbrella,” said Amy Eckart, a parent of two freshmen in the band.
While the parents managed to stay mostly dry, the band members were soaked from the beginning. This made for a parade full of great moments that many members will never forget.
“My favorite moment during the parade was when we were staging to go on the star. The people behind us were the toast and the butter and the guy with the bread came and put the bread over the top of me and Max’s head and it was really cute,” said Melanie Nyberg.
After a long 2.5-mile march through the streets of New York, the band members celebrated their journey on a yacht floating down the Hudson River overlooking the unmistakable New York skyline. Dressed in formal attire, they enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner together, bonding over their experiences over the past half-year of practice that made them a family.
“I really liked when we were on the yacht and we were all together eating Thanksgiving dinner; it was really nice to be surrounded by all your closest friends and family,” said Nyberg.
Despite accomplishing their goal, the marathon was not over yet. The band still had one day left in New York and a long bus ride home.
“On the way back, one of the saxophones on my bus spent a lot of money on legos, specifically buying the DeLorean; it was definitely funny because seeing the ‘Back to the Future’ Broadway show while we were there was just kinda right in that moment it felt right for him,” said Marlette.
Others on the bus had already begun reminiscing about the unforgettable moments of the trip, some more glamorous than others.
“Throwing pieces of hot dogs into crowds and watching the pigeons swarm was kinda cool, but really just the entire parade, I won’t forget,” said Ulmer.
Arriving in Sioux Falls at 10 p.m. on Saturday, the band members were given one day to rest before returning to school, doing everything as usual on Monday. On Monday, some non-marching band students began the challenge of finding a healthy band member, which was a difficult task after they had spent so many hours together on the bus rides and marching out in the cold rain for hours.
“I saw an incredible maturity amongst the group; a third of the band was freshman and I saw them grow before my eyes into a pretty mature group; a lot of those young kids looked like seasoned vets by the end,” said Carlson. “Every time we’ve had a major trip, it’s been like an injection of energy into the program. Hopefully, we didn’t just get people excited about Macy’s. Hopefully, they fell in love with the rest of what we did through the regular season and they come back to do that again.”
