It was not the record for the world's biggest beer belly - although a few guys at Carowinds might have been close to stardom with that girth Saturday - but a world record was set in York County about 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
In unison, with a real Guinness guy there with a real British accent to make it all official and elite, 317 people wearing sunburns and tank tops used 317 plastic spoons to dip 317 eggs into 317 plastic cups of red, yellow, green and blue dye for three minutes.
The old record, 250 people dyeing Easter eggs at the same time in the same place, fell fast. In three minutes, the record belonged to people who just signed up Saturday and became stars. People from as far away as Ohio and Florida, and as close as across the street from the roller coasters on Pleasant Road.
Claire Bussman from Fort Mill's Pleasant Road, where her dad runs Carolina Stars gymnastics, had no comment as one of the 317 new world record holders. Claire had a good reason to shun the media and not make any public statement - she is just 9 months old. Her brother, Alex, age 6, took more pictures than the Royal Wedding couple getting hitched in a few days. He talked to anybody who asked and anybody who didn't. He held out his dyed egg, red, like it was gold.
"World record," said Alex, who will certainly be the only world record holder in his kindergarten class at Fort Mill's Sugar Creek Elementary School when he returns Monday from spring break.
Guinness has tens of thousands of records, and now a new one from right here in what was dubbed the Easter egg-stravaganza by Carowinds. But somebody needs to tell the Guinness people who said the record happened in Charlotte - Carowinds is partly in South Carolina, and partly in North Carolina. But to get in, you have to be in South Carolina. And the record was set on the South Carolina side, too.
The good sport from Guinness - the company is the beer people who also have the record book - was named Stuart Claxton. He called himself "official ejudicator." Perhaps British "ejudicators" must be named Stuart and wear a blazer with a patch on it and talk like a butler seating a duchess for cucumber sandwiches - so Stuart told the crowd before the three-minute dyeing process that they were among the most "officially amazing" people on earth.
"I feel amazing," said 9-year-old Keaton Williams of Concord, N.C.
Then all 317 dunked their eggs - just plain, hard-boiled chicken eggs. You would think for a world record the Guinness people might use dinosaur eggs, or at least ostrich, but chicken eggs they were. Maybe they were on sale in Charlotte, which wanted to claim the world record.
All dunked, as about half of the crowd was kids and about half were adults trying to be kids, and all waited. The three-minute dyeing for the record seemed to last forever. Finally, the record was theirs.
Calissa and Troy Watson, ages 6 and 4 from Mount Airy, N.C. - "Mayberry" said Calissa - became world record holders and instantly famous. Troy responded by saying, at age 4, he officially now did not like girls.
