Published on August 24, 2011                      

For a gallery of classic Cadillac portraits please click here

To see Bethany M. Dunbar's video of the parade please click here.

This pink 1959 Cadillac owned by Rick and Branda Goguen from Maramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, led last Wednesday’s Cadillac parade. Photo by Tena StarrBARTON – The Orleans County Fair Association did, indeed, break the Guinness Book of World Records record for a Cadillac Parade. In fact, it demolished it.  Smashed it to smithereens.

The parade needed 103 Cadillacs to beat the previous record of 102, held by the Netherlands.  Instead, it ended up with 301, although three conked out, so the official tally was 298.

At the end of the day, Lorie Seadale, who organized the event, was exhausted, exhilarated, and plain stunned.  “I’m totally amazed,” she said.  “Two weeks ago, I thought we’d get 150.  I never thought we’d get almost 300.  We got almost double what I’d thought.”

A month ago, Mrs. Seadale was far from sure that even the necessary 103 cars would appear.  In fact, she’d been on pins and needles, worrying that officials from the Guinness Book of World Records, as well as Cadillac, would come to Barton only to witness a paltry show.Dara Freeman (left), Cadillac’s district manager for New York and Vermont, with Lorie Seadale, who dreamed up and organized the Cadillac parade 

Officials did show up, but what they witnessed was a resounding win. “There is no question, you have a new record. You’ve almost tripled the record,” Guinness’ adjudicator Morgan Wilber told Mrs. Seadale.

The parade was scheduled to leave from Lake Region Union High School at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 17, and arrive at the fairgrounds at noon.  It showed up an hour late as last-minute registrations poured in, and Mrs. Seadale and her helpers scrambled to register them. 

Mrs. Seadale was at Lake Region at 6 a.m. that day getting ready for the parade.  By mid-morning she noticed that Cadillacs were lined up on the Lake Region Road beyond the underpass.  Then she got a call from Jason Sicard, her traffic control officer.  He said Cadillacs were lined up on Route 5 as well.

“I said, I can’t believe they’re still coming,” Mrs. Seadale said.  “I went to the bottom of the Lake Region Road, and they were out of sight.  My jaw just dropped.”

What stunned her most of all was that she discovered that, by 9 a.m., enough latecomers had registered — cars that hadn’t pre-registered and that she didn’t know were coming — to break the record. 

“We registered enough last-minute arrivals to break the record by themselves,” Mrs. Seadale said.

As she drove from Lake Region to the fairgrounds, she was moved to see that, all along the way, people were out on their lawns or porches, or had set up lawn chairs by the roadside to watch Barton’s potentially record-breaking parade.

Sal Santoro shows he has some skin in the game, as he helps set the world record for largest Cadillac parade at the Orleans County Fair, Wednesday, August 17. He drove his white 1959 Eldorado up from his home in Rockaway, New Jersey, to be part of the event. Photo by Joseph GresserAt the fairgrounds, entertainer Mark Shelton told people in the grandstand that it was touch and go — the world’s record was 202 Cadillacs in a parade, and as of Tuesday night 192 had been registered for the Barton parade.  Eventually, someone corrected him, and it was apparent that the record was already broken. 

But that didn’t diminish the excitement when the Cadillacs finally started to roll in, led by a classic pink 1959 model, owned by Rick and Branda Goguen who had driven from Maramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. There were sedans, convertibles, Devilles, Escalades, Fleetwood Broughms, XLRs, the snazzy red official pace car for the seventy-fifth Indianapolis 500, an ancient ambulance, pickups, new Cadillacs, old ones with fins and engines that purred with the audible thrum of a powerful and well-kept V-8, and cars that looked like they were surely carrying a load of bootleg whiskey. Some were beautifully restored.  Some had seen better days.  Some were everyday working cars; some were antiques.  Some looked like they’d been pulled out of the junkyard and jimmy-rigged to function for the one day.

The car that was from the farthest away came from Alaska, although its owner did not make the trip specifically to be in the parade.

They poured onto the racetrack at the fairgrounds until there was barely room for them.  And still they came. People began to wonder when it would end. 

It was hot outside, and there’d been a great deal of idling.  Some of the cars had air conditioners and used them.  Most put up with the heat and with overheating engines.1959 Cadillac Eldorado displays the wide grille, panoramic windshield and extreme tail fins that made the car an American icon. Photo by Joseph Gresser

One flew a black and white flag reminding people to remember those who are missing in action or are prisoners of war.  Others advertised their businesses, or Cadillac dealerships. But the majority was driven by Vermont families who happen to have Cadillacs and had come to help bring the world record back to the U.S.

One man in the crowd watching the cars roll onto the race track said, “I could die now.  If I had a heart attack and died now, I’d die happy.”

Rumors abounded.  Some people said there had been so many last-minute people registering that organizers had run out of paper, and no one actually knew how many vehicles were in the parade, it could be upwards of 400.

Mrs. Seadale laughed at that.  She said she had a printer on site at Lake Region and plenty of registration forms.  “I don’t know where that came from,” she said.

Descendants of Henry Leland, the Barton native who created the Cadillac, wait in a place of honor for the procession to pass in review before them. In the front row, from left to right, are George Leland, Curt Leland, Mame Delaney, and Anna Leland. Seated behind them are Paul Racine, Jack Delaney, Laurie Grenon, and Jan Delaney. Photo by Joseph GresserDara Freeman, Cadillac’s district manager for New York and Vermont, said she heard about the event through a blog.  She came from Rochester, New York, and coordinated with Cadillac to make a presence.  It was a remarkable showing, she said, and she praised Mrs. Seadale for doing a terrific job of organizing. 

Mrs. Seadale conceived of the idea of a Cadillac parade back in February as a way to attract people to the Orleans County Fair. Henry Leland, who invented the Cadillac, was born in Barton.

The appeal to break the record was, eventually, patriotic.  “Help bring the world record home to the United States, home of the inventor, Henry M. Leland, home to Barton, Vermont,” said the fair’s promotional literature. 

A member of the Leland family also posted an online video promoting the same message. He invited Bruce Springsteen, the rock and roller and a Cadillac aficionado, to come, but Mr. Springsteen didn’t show up.  

By 2 p.m., as the cars continued to pour in, it seemed likely he was one of the few who hadn’t.