The World's Longest Cadillac Parade

 

On August 17, 2011, Barton hosted the world's largest Cadillac Parade, which kicked off the Orleans County Fair at Roaring Brook Fairgrounds in Barton. The parade was over an hour long and lots of fun as the entire town turned out to view it. Lori Seadale organized the parade, and I don't know how she did it and did it so beautifully. The library and stores in the village closed as the cars rolled by. My camera battery died, but young friends of mine saved the day and ran into the library to get my other battery for me. I was going to post only my favorite Cadillacs in this post, but there were too many to show, so I give you the slideshow of all of the cars that I photographed (I shot over 250 of the 298 cars in the parade). 

The Cadillac Parade was the world's longest parade of Cadillacs. The Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to count and certify the achievement. The record was easily broken, but the count of 298 would have been bigger except some cars overheated in the parade and never finished the route. I heard that other Cadillacs were late, and there would have been almost 350 cars but for these problems. But the day was a wonderful success and I am amazed by Lori's efforts and achievement! Congratulations!

You can read more about the parade here:
Guinness Book of World Records
New York Times
General Motors Cadillac Press Release

You can view individual photographs here.

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Harness Racing at the Barton Fair

I posted only these four photos of the horses because you can see that all four feet are off of the ground at the same time! Cool!

All photos will open, full-size, in a new window when you click on them.

These are going to be the latarget="new"st of the photos that I blog about the Barton Fair. I have sorted through all of the ones I took and posted over 350 fair photos at my Orleans County Fair Flickr Set. On Friday night I am going to the Caledonia County Fair — the oldest fair in Vermont — with my sister (she lives in Caledonia County).

Technorati Tags: Barton Fair, Orleans County Fair, harness racing
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Orleans County Fair: The Poultry Barn

I went to the Barton Fair on Saturday with my sister and her husband. One of my favorite places is the poultry barn. Here are some of the chickens I met. Above — Buff, a Rock Rooster.

Molly, a Mottled Bantam Cochin Hen

Stewie (what an unfortunate name!), an Old English Bantam Cross Rooster

A pretty unidentified hen.
Orleans County Fair Flickr Set
When clicked, these photos will open, full size, in a new window.

Technorati Tags: Orleans County Fair, Barton Fair, poultry barn, Old English Bantam Cross, Rock rooster, Mottled Bantam Cochin Hen
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Wordless Wednesday: After The Derby

Please click on photos to view them full size in a new window.

Technorati tags: demolition+derby Barton+Fair Orleans+County+Fair Wordless+Wednesday

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The Barton Fair

Click on each photo to see them full size in a new window.

Four month old beefalo. Part of a herd of 200 in Barton.
They hope to begin selling meat in a year (I think).
(Note: read this very short piece about buffalo in the United States.)

She laid the egg right in front of our eyes!

This guy was plenty surprised, too.

She's very proud now.

Another breed I like.

A band in the mini-theater show.

They charged $2 to see the demo derby trials this year. The man at the "gate" to keep people out (I can't believe there was such a gate) of the grandstand was very rude. I asked the old grouch how we were to get into the grandstand and he muttered something. We couldn't hear what he said so we politely waited while he kept the gate open for those who were leaving the grandstand. By the time I asked again, he was nastier than before. He told us "the middle" (which I at least understood because I live here. But what if I didn't live here?). I said, "Oh! OK, thank you." As we turned to leave I saw a security guard approaching us. He backed off as we turned to go. What were they going to do? Bust two middle-aged people for not being able to hear? It was very crude behavior on their part.

I won't pay for what used to be free (unfortunately hundreds of people did pay). So we watched from outside the grandstand.

Be sure to read my post of a short history of the demo derby at the Barton Fair here.

Below: the rides. I always like how the hills and the trees are the backdrop for everything at the fair.

Lovely.

Technorati tags: Barton Vermont Barton+Fair Orleans+County+Fair beefalo chickens roosters demo+derby

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The Barton Fair: Create Personalized Google Maps

Google Street Map - map-generator.net

This is an interactive, clickable, zoomable map of the Orleans County Fairgrounds in Barton, Vermont. The fair, usually called the Barton Fair, opens tomorrow and goes through Sunday. My favorite parts of the fair are the poultry exhibits and the demolition derby. (Yes, I want chickens!)

The fair has a notorious history. You can read about it in this lengthy but excellent article that I found that gives you the flavor of my area. Edward Hoagland wrote in the article "Natural light: Life among Vermont's hippies, hunters, bears, and moose" about his life in Barton for Harper's Magazine in October 2000 that :

In Barton we had a wild, cruel county fair with (deleted) girlie shows--$3 for (deleted) – famous among carnie types as far south as Alabama, that the Quebecois poured across the border by the thousands to see.

In her book A History of Barton, Vermont, Darlene Young writes that the Vermont attorney general's office "concluded that the shows at the Orleans County Fair were 'the roughest of any in the state' and included illegal activities." She continues:

The fair did eventually eliminate the "girlie shows" [in the last half of the 1970s] from its attractions, but it was only partially in response to the public outcry. When Canadian spectators decreased, the fair directors lost their main justification for the "girlie shows": the shows simply weren't making as much money.

By that time, the fair had discovered a new moneymaker. In 1975, the Orleans County Fair hosted its first demolition derby.

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I am experimenting tonight with an embedded Google map of the location of the fairgrounds (about 3 miles from my house). I read in Create Personalized Google Maps: "The Google Operating System Blog" (it is not an official Google blog) that Google announced today that next week embedded maps will be available for blogs. You will be able to embed an interactive map just like you embed a YouTube video. That will be great because right now you have to jump through hoops to get a map here on Blogger. (See the Google Earth Challenge posts to see what many of us have done).

At this time, according to another post on this blog, Embedding Google Maps, you have two methods to embed a map in your blog post. I tried them both. Both are free.

Map Generator is the easiest to use if you know the exact address of the location you want to map (often very difficult in this area). After I found the address of the fairgrounds on Google Maps and put that address into Map Generator, it was a snap to get the code to embed my map here. However, I had to alter the code for the embedded map so that it would fit within the middle blog column. If you are not willing to do that, you could end up with a very messy blog. My Maps Plus was very difficult for me to use. I did not like the map it created at all.

However, if you can wait until Google makes embedded maps available, you won't need to use either of these sites. Have fun with your maps! Watch the Google Earth Blog and Google LatLong Blog for announcements.

If you are able, come to the fair. It's clean and fun!

Technorati tags: Google+Earth Google+Maps Orleans+County+Fair Barton+Fair demolition+derby Barton Vermont embedded+maps

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