If you’re a kid brother, you’re always going to be a kid brother, no matter how you old you are.
And kid brothers, as it written in the sibling rule book, tease their big sisters.
Heck, for you kid brothers reading this today … well … you just know that you’re going to toss out at least one jibe in the direction of your big sister at Thanksgiving dinner later this afternoon – even as everyone else is passing the mashed potatoes.
Isaiah Harvey is no exception to the above.
Last week, he sent a good-natured salvo in the direction of his older sibling Cearah, as he mused in advance over what he’ll be doing on this day.
“Well, if nothing else,” the University High School senior said in mock-seriousness, “I can go up there and learn from her mistakes.”
Isaiah is spending the holiday in New York City.
Two years ago, Cearah (sounds like, “Sierra”) did the same.
The-then UHS student successfully auditioned for a spot on the honor guard in the Macy’s Great American Band, an elite group annually consisting of 185 of the best high school marching band musicians from across the country.
That kid brother of hers made the 2023 edition of the Macy’s musical assemblage.
Isaiah, who plays trumpet in the Hawks marching band and the program’s concert and jazz ensembles, found out this past Oct. 6 that he, too, would be carrying on a now-Harvey family tradition for this year’s parade this morning.
Oct. 6 would have been a big deal, anyway, but it’s a date now especially meaningful for Isaiah, he said.
Exactly one month before, Sept. 6, his mother, Beth Harvey, the operations manager of Monongalia County Schools, died after a long, brave battle with cancer.
While he knew he wanted to audition earlier, Isaiah let it pass.
His mom was in the final stage of her fight then. He didn’t want any distractions. He didn’t want to take away from family or her.
Cearah, who was in her freshman year as an education major at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, also moved back home to help – and has since transferred to Fairmont State University, where she’s studying to be an English teacher.
Both Harvey kids circled the wagons for their father, Rick Harvey, a provost for academic operations at Fairmont State.
“I didn’t want to put that on them,” Rick said, “but that’s how they both are.”
Then came a trumpet call from the Big Town.
Macy’s, as it turned out, was convening another round of auditions.
A quietly amazed dad picks up the tale.
“The original deadline to audition for the parade was July,” the elder Harvey said, “and our lives were in chaos then, so ‘Zay just kind of let it go.”
“When we heard they were opening up the auditions again, he thought about it and decided he wouldn’t miss another chance,” Rick said.
“So, he gets notified that he’s in, and I’m wondering if his mom didn’t have something to do with it.”
Hail to the Chief
“We had to audition through YouTube,” Isaiah said.
“I just put together bits and pieces of things we play in the field show and went with that.”
Don’t think it was on-the-fly, though.
Not from a musician with a bent for public service who might someday be playing his horn in the Oval Office.
“I don’t know about that,” he said, laughing. “I did want to be president when I was a little kid, though.”
While he’s still mulling over what college or university he’ll attend after high school, the senior definitely knows he’s going to law school.
He also knows that the school he picks for undergrad will have to be in possession of a marching band. Non-negotiable.
“I’m gonna stay with music for rest of my life,” he said.
These days, when he gets to kick back and be a fan, he listens to Miles Davis.
Old-school Miles. Blue Note Records Miles.
Look for courtrooms to figure in with music scores, Isaiah said.
His career goal is to be a prosecuting attorney somewhere – the post he was elected to at Mountaineer Boys’ State, the annual gathering at WVU-Jackson Mill that introduces young people to the political process.
Isaiah was also named this fall as a U.S. Presidential Scholar nominee on top of other accolades from the classroom.
Believe
Through it all, even with the sad inevitability of his mom’s illness, he still had the flat-out celebration of the Friday night lights.
That’s when he and the Hawks marching band would take the field for halftime.
The crowd. Hitting your marks.
Hearing the music, and not hearing it, at the same time.
“Yeah, you just kind of get snippets of it because you’re always moving,” he said.
“You don’t hear it the way people in the stands do, even though you’re right on the field.”
Today, Isaiah follows his sister’s footsteps in the Macy’s parade route from Central Park West to 34th Street and Herald Square.
That’s right in front of the entrance of Macy’s, with its Tom Turkey perched over the entrance and the “Believe” lettering draped halfway down the building.
The iconic parade named for the iconic retailer has stepped off during the Great Depression, two world wars and Sept. 11.
It’s been around since 1924. Like a mother’s love, the parade endures.
Which is why that word on the front of the Macy’s building is carrying extra weight in the Harvey household, Rick said — for Thanksgiving Day and every day.
As he said, he believes Beth may have orchestrated some things from beyond to make another opportunity for her kid to audition.
Isaiah, as it can also be said, does too.
“That’s Mom.”
