Storm shortens Corvette parade
By
Heather Stauffer
The Carlisle Sentinel
August 26, 2007
Last updated: Sunday, August 26, 2007 12:33 AM EDT
For 15 minutes they lived the dream, those drivers in the Corvettes at Carlisle parade: Gleaming cars, screaming spectators, the air filled with the fragrance of exhaust.
Then came the rain. And just like that, before the first fat drops turned to pelting sheets, Larry Gilbert's prayers weren't answered.
Before the parade, as he sat in his shining cascade green 1957 Corvette, the top down beneath gray skies, the Maryland resident said he heard it was raining on Interstate 81.
He was hoping and praying it didn't rain, he said, but if it did, “You're going to see us pull over to the side of the road real quick” and put up the tops.
The other half of “us” was his wife, Mary Lou Gilbert. Her car, parked directly behind his, was its mirror image - same year, same colors, same American flag waving from the back.
“We have twins,” she said happily. “His and hers.”
Wherever they take them, said Mary Lou Gilbert, the duo draws stares, and it's not uncommon for people to come up to them and say, “Didn't I see you two at ___?”
No other twin sets
The answer is probably yes, she said: In all the 'Vette events they've been to, she has yet to see another couple with a comparable pair of cars.
Being a twin is especially fun during parades, she said: “They want us to rev the engines, they want us to race, they always want to know who's the fastest.”
And, she said, her husband is usually in for a bit of ribbing when people discover the one thing about the cars that isn't identical: While hers is a four-speed, his is automatic. That's because they got his first, about three and a half years ago. By the time Mary Lou turned 57 two years ago, she knew exactly what she wanted: A '57 Corvette to match his.
“When we found her, she did not look like this,” said Mary Lou Gilbert, standing near the car that she now says is cleaner than her kitchen. But one complete overhaul later, they were ready to parade.
And parade they did, cruising side by side down Clay Street near the front of pack, beaming proudly and jokingly expressing dissatisfaction when a man with a video camera stopped in front of Mary Lou's car, causing her to fall behind her husband.
The crowd loved it, rows of people on either side of the street clapping as the two approached.
But then, the crowd loved everything: The newest models, also near the front of the lineup; the ones with the antique license plates; the ones that revved their engines; and especially the ones that hung back momentarily and then did a quick hop between the gas and the brake, speeding off trailing smoke.
“Smoke those babies!” they yelled, cameras at the ready. “Do it, do it, do it!”
Some yielded to their requests, grinning proudly. Others merely smiled and drove on.
One who could easily have gratified them was Paul Drula, a Maryland resident whose black 1957 racing Corvette plates bore the words “inthe7s,” a reference to how fast it once went on a quarter-mile drag racing strip.
Drula, a law enforcement officer who doesn't use the 'Vette on the job, said that back then, it had a 1,000-horsepower engine. These days, he said, it's half that - 500 - but still has plenty of kick. It's a lot of fun, he said, and he frequents as many parades and shows as he can.
So all was fine and exuberant, and the cars passed on their way to downtown Carlisle, and reluctantly the assembled spectators dispersed.
“It was pretty nice,” said Michael Bailey, a Virginia resident who has been coming to the show for several years. He couldn't pick a favorite, he said. Beside him, Morgan Bailey had been videotaping the procession so he could sit back and watch it again later, mining it for ideas for his own Corvette.
Slightly more daring was Greg O'Reilly, a North Carolina resident who filmed from the middle of the street until police told him to move.
“This is my 16th year,” he said excitedly, explaining that he follows the same procedure every year. It's worth it, he said, because of the great footage he gets.
And then, just as the cars moved out of sight, the clouds spilled the first drops and everyone headed rapidly toward shelter.
Not too long after the storm worsened, two men were pushing one of the cars toward a gas station, while others parked by the side of the street or headed back toward the fairgrounds. Would-be spectators huddled in doorways, and it soon became apparent that despite the brave beginning, this was one parade that couldn't survive a storm.
Art
Will Cooksey Lays it Down at Carlisle!
Thanks! 
I tried the News,But it wouldn't let me!!
Linear Mode
