Written by Sam Schauer, a junior journalism major from Aberdeen. Schauer plays alto saxophone and has been a member of The Pride of the Dakotas Marching Band for three years. The following is his reflection on The Pride’s trip to New York City to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Day 1
Despite no sleep and an early 4:30 a.m. call time, the main emotion was pure excitement. As the buses left Brookings, the sense of “this is really happening” began to sink in. Roughly half the band had never been on a plane before, so seeing these people bright-eyed and amazed from takeoff until landing in New Jersey was a joyous sight. Once we landed, we boarded buses to take us into the city—coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel to the iconic concrete jungle with skyscrapers everywhere was a feeling I will never forget. After settling into our hotel, we went out to explore. Times Square is exactly as advertised—the lights, the stores and even the cultures. Walking through crowds, you could hear so many different languages from Spanish to Korean and Vietnamese. We capped the night off with bowling, which was a great bonding moment.
Day 2
Day two started with an early wake-up call for breakfast, followed by several hours to explore the city on our own. I was lucky to have my family come along with the friends and family trip that the SDSU Foundation offered. We explored Central Park and saw the beauty of the trees, statues and sculptures. Next up was Top of the Rock with the rest of The Pride. We rode the elevator to the 70th floor of Rockefeller Plaza. At the top was one of the prettiest sights of the trip. The night ended with eating and traveling around Chinatown and Little Italy.
Day 3
The next day, we took a ferry to Liberty Island. Being so close to the Statue of Liberty with friends was surreal. That same boat took us to Ellis Island, which gave me chills. Following lunch, the group visited the 9/11 memorial. As someone who was born shortly after 9/11, I never felt the impact of that day until I walked through that memorial. It was the hardest thing to handle on the trip.
The day ended with one of my favorite moments of the trip: the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with The Rockettes. They performed in ways I thought I would never see in person. The Rockettes were so synced, and the band played perfectly. I was blown away, and given the chance, I would see it again in a heartbeat.
Day 4
Wednesday was back to business for The Pride. We drove to New Jersey to grab our instruments from the Perkins Storage and Transfer semi (which hauled all our uniforms and instruments to New York and back) and practiced for the first time in about a week. Following rehearsal, we traveled back to the city, where we performed a concert outside the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. When we played that concert, we sounded the best we could have. A lot of families, including mine, were there to see us play, and to hear that cheering made us play even better. It was quite the warmup for the big day tomorrow.
After the concert, we explored the Intrepid, which was amazing to be on a ship that had been around since World War II. My night ended with friends at a jazz club. Hearing the jazz music these instrumentalists played was spectacular and another favorite.
Day 5
Thanksgiving Day! Today was the day we had been preparing for. We woke around 1:30 a.m., filled with anticipation and excitement. At 3:30 a.m., the band was at Herald’s Square to practice our performance for the NBC producers. They wanted to make sure we could hit the center of the star, time our performance and plan for their camera angles. We were hyped and had so much energy, it was as if we had won a national championship.
Following rehearsal, we had breakfast at a nearby hotel. After breakfast, we made our way to Central Park, where we waited in line with the other bands and watched as the floats and balloons all lined up. While we were waiting, Jimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show,” came running by giving several band members high fives.
Then it was finally time. As we stepped off, I knew we were not only the best band, but the best attraction of the parade. We played “Ring the Bell,” danced in the street and swing stepped, and the people loved it. If I could live that experience again walking down the street and playing for the people of New York, I would do it in less than a heartbeat.
After nearly 3 miles, we arrived at Macy’s and Herald’s Square and lined up for our TV performance that we had been working on since September. We ran it with the best efficiency and sound we had produced all season and left as quickly as we got there—1 minute and 15 seconds to show the world who we are.
After a little down time, we celebrated with a Thanksgiving dinner cruise around lower Manhattan. The food and the atmosphere with my family were a highlight. My personal favorite moment was getting away from all the noise and moving to the back of the boat to see the New York skyline. I had never seen such beauty, and that is when it hit me that our trip was over and all the year’s effort had paid off.
The trip was an experience I would have never had without Macy’s, the SDSU Foundation, South Dakota State University and the supporters who believed and supported us since day one.
