I don’t know what to put it down to, but I’ve always been a collector, a completist, a statistician – and maybe a little competitive.
As a schoolboy in Canada, I was fascinated by the Guinness Book of Records and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!. I would memorise the records and amaze my friends by quoting them.
Little did I know then that in 1994 I would break a world record and feature in the book I adored as a young boy, all thanks to my childhood hobby – making paper chains out of chewing-gum wrappers.
I learned how to do it in 1965, aged 14, after seeing the older kids in the playground folding their gum wrappers into neat, long chains. I took to it pretty quickly, and entered a competition to see who could make the longest in the class. I won that, and then I made the longest one in the school.
Suddenly, all the kids in my neighbourhood were saving their gum wrappers for me to add to my chain. They even captioned my 1967 yearbook photo: “Got any gum wrappers?”
I never realised how unique my chain was until almost 25 years later. In 1992, my wife, Deborah, and I were visiting the Ripley’s museum in Ontario. We saw a giant gum-wrapper chain hanging from the ceiling as part of one of the exhibits. As we stared up at it, we were both thinking the same thing: my chain is much bigger.
Deborah nudged me and said: “You’d better do something about that.”
I spoke to the manager, and he put me in touch with Ripley’s vice-president of acquisitions. He was impressed by my chain, but told me there was a Guinness World Record holder who had a longer one.
My competitive nature kicked in. I went to the Wrigley’s purchasing department and asked them to supply me with Juicy Fruit wrappers – my favourite flavour. They gave me 5,000 to begin with, then 10,000 more. Before long, I blew past the 7,400ft (2.25km) record and reached 10,000ft.
I became the Guinness World Record holder for the longest gum wrapper chain in the world – at 12,105ft – in March 1994, and I have officially broken my own record eight times since.
So far, no one has come close to beating me. The second-longest chain I’m aware of belongs to a fellow in Germany whose chain is 17,000ft. I connect with other chain-makers via mywebsiteand I call them my “chain gang”. There are roughly 50 of us and we share photos of our chains and the lengths we’ve reached.
According to the latest official measurement, my chain is 23.226 miles (37.4km) long. Getting the chain measured is quite an undertaking. Every five years, land surveyors come over, and two witnesses have to independently verify the length. It takes many hours. In March this year, they recorded that my chain was made of 2,963,789 wrappers.
There have been plenty of exciting moments since I started 60 years ago. For example, when I reached the 10-mile mark, I was featured in a book calledWeird Virginiaand they dubbed me the “World’s Greatest Wrap Artist”. That was fabulous.
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In 2010, the president of Ripley’s Entertainment invited me to New York so he could sign the 3 millionth link to the chain in Times Square in front of the press. It was such a thrilling day. I got my brother-in-law to help me load the chain into a van and drive it all the way to the city, where we set it up in a big auditorium in front of all the cameras.
Recently, I learned I was a hit onTikTok– a video about me got 7.5m views. Some people wrote: “Get a life! What is wrong with you?” To that, I say: I have a life. I’m retired now but I had a successful career as an operations manager of four businesses, which took me all over the world, including to the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Germany. I am a busy and fulfilled person.
One day, I’d love to be able to say my chain is as long as a marathon (26.2 miles) – I’m only three miles off. After that, it would be poetic to reach 28 miles, which is the length of Virginia beach in the US, where I’ve lived with my wife since 2002. It’s the largest pleasure beach in the world.
The chain will keep growing as long as my hands keep working. To have something to show for your time on this earth is very gratifying.
As told to Lara Olszowska
Do you have an experience to share? Emailexperience@theguardian.com