MEQUON -- There is plenty to do on the 4th of July. Cook outs, fireworks and parades. To try and fit it all into one day can be tough but one local community is making it easy.
Mequon set a Guinness World Record for shortest 4th of July parade.
"We'll go 88 yards to the second mail box," Bob Walerstein said. "That's the end of the parade and that's where we'll have our party."
Walerstein says Mequon holds its Independence Day festivities on the Saturday before the fourth. So he and his neighbors have set up a makeshift parade for the last few years. It would travel about a mile or so around his block but this year, he decided to make a big splash with a small parade. He called the Guinness Book of World Records to see how they could make an impact.
"They said they have 640 records for parades," Walerstein said. "But we don't have one for the shortest July 4th parade in the United States of America. I said, you're going to have one now."
Dozens of Walerstein's neighbors came out to participate in the physically taxing parade.
"This is the smallest parade I've been in that's for sure," Howard Silberman said.
"We worked out really hard this morning," Cheryl Silberman said. "We went a couple extra miles to be able to finish this one."
"It's very enjoyable and quick which is nice," Diana Hron said.
Right around noon, they were off. They traveled from the parking lot of Homestead High School and about 90 seconds later, they were done.
"It was extremely hard," Emma Brylow of Milwaukee said. "It took a lot of will power to get here."
"I'm pretty drained," Daniel Jacobs Daghuer said.
"I put a lot of miles on this car today and this parade," Walerstein said. "Killed the resale value [of my car] a lot. No, it was a lot of fun. Laughing and giggles. That's what it was."
Sandy Williams, Ozaukee County Circuit Court Judge was on hand to confirm the world record for Guinness. Walerstein says they should get their title in about 12 to 14 weeks. However, he says next year, they'll go back to their normal route around the block.
