By By Steve Swogetinsky/The Meridian Star
March 7, 2001
QUITMAN Planes, trains, buses, boats, cars … if there was a way to travel, students in the Quitman High School chorus did it at one point or another during their weekend trip to New York City.
They performed Sunday night in a mass choir at Carnegie Hall. Members of the chorus have made a similar trip every four years over the past 16 years.
This year, getting there and performing was the easy part.
Getting home was another story.
The Quitman party of 52 (students, teachers and parents) were scheduled to fly out of New York City Monday afternoon, and were to be back home by 10:30 p.m. But a major snow storm shut down the airport and their flight was canceled, according to chorus director Cissi Majure.
Through their travel agent, the group had the option of staying overnight and trying their luck with flying on Tuesday, or they could ride back to Meridian on Amtrak.
They opted for the train.
The journey home started after lunch Monday. Their hotel was about two blocks from Penn Station. Carrying their luggage, the Mississippians walked through the snow and ice to the train station.
They boarded their train and headed south. First, they stopped in New Jersey and then Philadelphia where they ran into some technical difficulty.
A transformer had blown and there was about a two hour delay.
Riding the train for 30 hours, the group got a tour of the eastern states. The train pulled into Meridian at 6:30 p.m., where they met their bus. They were safely back home in Quitman about 45 minutes later.
There were many highlights. They left Quitman on Thursday morning and were in New York City that night. The next day, they went to Central Park and played in the snow.
Also, nine students and their moms made signs and went to the studio to be on Good Morning America. They were interviewed on TV and got to meet GMA hosts Diana Sawyer and Charlie Gibson.
Practicing and singing in Carnegie Hall was also unforgettable.
Also along the way they enjoyed a night cruise in New York Harbor, a Broadway play, and got the chance to climb steps inside the Statue of Liberty.
Majure said that the chorus will be putting on a concert to sing their Carnegie Hall music in the near future. In the meantime, she's looking forward to the return trip four years from now.
Steve Swogetinsky is regional editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at sswogetinsky@themeridianstar.com.