Lorie Seadale is getting nervous. With three weeks to go, she has about 70 percent of the Cadillacs she needs to beat the Guinness Book of World Record for a parade of the top-of-the-line General Motors’ sedans.
She doesn’t yet have 103 Cadillacs registered for the Barton parade, the number necessary to beat the current record of 102 set in 2002 in The Netherlands.
“I don’t want to fall short,” she said. “I’m at about 70 percent, not all of them in hand.”
The Cadillac parade will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 17, on opening day of the Orleans County Fair, and officials from Guinness will be there to see if it breaks the record, which relatives of the Cadillac’s founder are urging Vermonters to bring back to the United States.
In addition to Cadillacs, Seadale is looking for volunteers, particularly flaggers. Guinness Book of World Records officials have very specific rules about what constitutes a parade, she said. For instance, it can’t be interrupted by more than two car lengths.
“I need seven flaggers for different points on the parade route to make sure the line doesn’t get broken,” she said. “I can’t afford to lose this on a technicality.”
Seadale started organizing the parade last winter after she learned that Henry Leland, the man who invented and built Cadillacs, was born in Barton in 1843. He became an automobile engineer who built and sold the Lincoln and Cadillac. He sold the first Cadillac in 1902.
People have registered cars for the parade from all over New England. A pink 1959 convertible is coming from New Brunswick, Seadale said.
There are 3,000 Cadillacs registered in Vermont alone, she said, so the critical mass exists — making the world record is just a matter of getting the requisite 103 Cadillacs to Barton on Aug. 17.
A special invitation has been issued to Bruce Springsteen, the rock singer who is a Cadillac enthusiast.
On a You Tube video, Doug Leland, a distant relative of Henry Leland’s, invites Mr. Springsteen to show up in his Cadillac, saying that both he and the car are American classics.
Leland goes on to make an appeal to all U.S. Cadillac owners, saying that the record for a procession of such an American classic as the Cadillac should return to the U.S. rather than be held by a European country.
Seadale said she’s picked up some interesting Cadillac items on e-Bay, and they will be incorporated into seven custom-designed trophies for the Cadillac car show that will follow the parade.
The show’s categories will include: oldest Cadillac to participate, the car that traveled the furthest, the people’s choice, the Orleans County Fair president’s choice, the Henry M. Leland family’s choice, the most festive display of American pride, and the best dressed driver and passenger in vintage or period clothing.
The trophies for each of the categories will include a vintage Cadillac hood ornament.
Other prizes that will be awarded to the public through a drawing include a two-page frameable copy of a U.S. patent for a 1933 Flying Goddess hood ornament, ten-packs of Car and Driver’s Cadillac Collection collector cards, and a 33-year-old, mint condition collector’s card printed in Italy about Henry Leland.
It could be that some people may just be planning to show up for the parade, Seadale noted. But she urges them to pre-register.
“For my sanity, that’s one reason,” she said. Also, she said the more cars that are pre-registered the smoother parade day will go. “It will save a lot of time in the morning, the day of the parade.”
