Parading around

The magic that comes with marching through the streets of New York City on Thanksgiving Day is all but over for Clinton High senior Bailey Waters. But while her dream was achieved, the memory of that special day is one she said she’ll cherish forever.

“It was really fun, Waters said in an interview after returning from her New York City trip, where the CHS band student had the opportunity to perform in the Macy’s Day Parade.

”I got to meet a lot of people, and I’m still in contact with them,” she gushed. “It’s something I’ll never forget, and the trip, itself, was really cool because I got to see a lot of stuff that I’ve never seen before, because it was my first trip to New York. The actual parade was really cool, because when you’re marching down the road, there were millions of people everywhere, I just can’t say enough about how much of a really cool experience it all was.”

That unforgettable experience came when Waters was one selected as one of hundreds of students across the country that earned a spot in the Macy’s Great American Marching Band for this years Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While playing in the parade was the main reason for her venture, the trip wasn’t filled with only band and marching practice. There was an itinerary full of activities, with places to visit and entertainment to see. Waters said she saw myriad new things she’s never seen, but among all she took in, there was one that stuck out as her favorite.

“Aside from being able to go, I would probably say the Rockettes show was my favorite,” she attested. “Whenever I was little, I took dance because I wanted to be a Rockette so I’ve always dreamed of seeing their show. So, it was super cool to see it in person, and it was a really good show.”

Waters didn’t make the trek to New York by herself; her loving band teacher, Geoffrey Tart, who recommended her for Macy’s, came along for the trip. This was Tart’s second consecutive trip. Last year, he traveled to the Big Apple to march in the Macy’s Parade, himself. This year, he came along as a spectator only.

That, in itself, was an extremely emotional moment for him, Tart said, another moment that forged yet another lifelong memory for the band teacher.

“Well, the weather was rough but throughout the rain and cold, and waiting for the parade at 4:30 a.m., it was amazing,” Tarrt said. “That was the first time I have been a visual spectator watching a parade in probably about 30 years. I’ve always been in it, so seeing a student that you’ve taught marching down the parade route, during Macy’s, it was an emotional experience, to be honest with you.”

That moment truly touched Tart’s heart. Watching her as she marched by, he said, brought tears.

“An event like this, it’s one of those teacher moments that highlights all the work you put into your job and into every student,” he said. “Seeing a student performing at a national level, it was emotional and it was very heartfelt. You can tell that the people in New York appreciated what everybody in the parade was doing, because they know the sacrifices that are being made.

“While she couldn’t hear us calling her name, the gratitude for the hard work that each student was putting into it, especially Bailey, and the effort, being at the national level, it was very heartfelt and emotional for me,” Tart stressed.

Touring New York was plenty of fun but it wasn’t all play for Waters. Practice for the actual parade was hard work, she pointed out, and a real experience for a first-timer.

“Well, we had a lot of long practices,” she recalled. “Our first practice was over six hours, we didn’t have as much time, so it was very go, go, go,” she said, laughing. “It was just like one thing after another, and our band director was a lot more strict, because we only had, like, three days, total, to prepare. We had practices where we were marching so it was very fast-paced. Thankfully, I picked it up quickly. Also, our actual show part that we performed in Herald Square couldn’t be as detailed as we’d liked but we tried to make it precise with the things that we were doing.”

That hectic schedule and those jam-packed rehearsals was something Tart recalled from his own personal experience.

“When you see some of the other bands performing, like I said, the last time I went, these are band members coming from places where they’ve been practicing together the whole time,” he said. “Whereas this group, and the group that I was in, they come in and they have just a few hours to put together what you see.

“It’s a lot different because you don’t know any of the people,” Tart expressed. “So it’s like, I’m coming from here, where everybody gets along and we’re all family, and going to somewhere where you don’t know anyone and it’s a bunch of strangers.”

It helped, Waters interjected, that everyone got along.

“It was easy to make friends,” Waters attested.

When asked what it was like to march alongside those new friends in the freezing cold and rain on one of the biggest stages in the world, Waters summed it up in one word — excitement. Getting to see Jimmy Fallon also had it’s perks.

“It was really, really cold at the start, because we had to stand for like an hour and a half in just the cold, and it was miserable until we started marching,” she said. “Once we started marching, it was like everything went away, and you were just focused on getting to Herald Square.

“Oh yeah, I also saw Jimmy Fallon, and once I saw him, I started jumping up and down and screaming,” Waters added, a huge grin spreading across her face. “I wasn’t cold anymore after that; I was just so excited. But, yeah, once you hit the stage area you didn’t feel cold anymore.”

Even performing in front of millions for their television portion of the parade wasn’t enough to crack her nerves.

“I honestly wasn’t thinking about being filmed, because I wanted to hit my marks, so I was focused onmy marching,” she said. “I feel like all the attention wasn’t on me, it wasn’t like I had a solo or anything. So it felt more like we were all working together, and it was less scary, because everybody was going through the same thing.”

“‘I just really enjoyed it, and it was a really cool experience, one I’ll always remember for a lifetime,” Waters attested.

While her first ever trip to New York and Macy’s has come and gone, Tart said the dream won’t end there if she wishes it to continue.

“She was asked to go back to be a part of the alumni group in two years if she wanted to do that,” Tart pointed out. “Because in two years, it would be the 100th Macy’s Day Parade, so she was also asked, if she wanted to do that, she can be a part of that.”

For Waters, the idea sounded novel but she was uncertain if she would intend since she would be a budding college student by then.

“I don’t know if I’ll go back then because I’ll be in college, so I don’t know,” she said. “Plus I’ll be focusing on exams and stuff at that time, but I’m hopeful and I’m thinking about it, although, I’ll have to see if some of my friends are going. If they’ll go back, then yeah, maybe I will too.”