Big red wagon coming to La Grange Pet Parade

LA GRANGE – Yes, that’s a giant red Radio Flyer wagon, like the one you rode around in as a kid. Yes, this one has an engine. Yes, you can ride in it. Just call Rick.

A few years ago, Rick Sullivan saw a photo of a wooden, motorized version of the red wagon that has rolled down American sidewalks for nearly a century. It triggered memories of his childhood in rural Odell, when he and eight siblings would tie a Radio Flyer to their bicycles and pull each other around.

“We tore up a lot of them,” Sullivan said.

So Sullivan, who with his wife, Kathy, runs Kathy’s Collision Center in Clinton, decided to make his own in December 2010. In four weeks and four days, he transformed a wrecked 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlas Cierra with just more than 70,000 miles into nostalgia on wheels. Sullivan’s wagon is 18 feet long and 8 feet wide with a 7-foot-11-inch handle running up its windshield. The handle isn’t 8 feet because it has to fit in Sullivan’s garage.

“The police stop me all the time,” said Sullivan, who will drive his wagon for Tate’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream in the 67th annual Pet Parade June 1. “I’ve had them do U-turns in the middle of the road.”

Never, though, have they asked for his registration or insurance. Like others, they just want to see the big red wagon.

“They don’t even say something sometimes but the smile on their face, they can’t hide it,” said Sullivan, who’s had people tell him they still have their Radio Flyer from 60 or 70 years ago hanging in their garage. “It brings them back to their childhood.”

Which is exactly what Maria Marciniec, owner of Tate’s, is going for. During the summer, Marciniec, whose parents, like Sullivan, grew up in Odell, plants coins in nearby parks and rewards the kids who find them with a free scoop of ice cream – a modern-day Willy Wonka’s golden ticket game.

The old-fashioned feel is why she recruited Sullivan, who will make his first Pet Parade visit, but definitely not the first appearance with his giant red wagon. Almost every weekend, Sullivan and his wife leave Clinton in the wagon to appear in parades, car shows and other events. They hit 75 mph on the highway, and no, the black handle does not obstruct their view, as its 7 feet away from the driver’s seat. Sullivan built the vehicle with all necessary safety measures but left off a roof to maintain the appearance of a wagon (he requests no rain). Look at the car from its side and you won’t see the steering wheel.

The Sullivans don’t charge anything to appear with the wagon – they won’t let you pay them – but will sometimes take donations to the Arthritis Foundation (their niece has juvenile arthritis). They participate in 160 events per year with the wagon and have made four in a single day.

“You get two or three who want to go for a ride, and I’m coming up the day before,” said Sullivan, who more than anything enjoys making people smile.

The publicity has helped the couple’s business, which they started in 1990 six months before they married.

“I don’t even have to run newspaper ads,” Sullivan said.

With their wagon, the Sullivans have driven Ronald McDonald in the Illinois State University homecoming parade, appeared in the Hot Rod Power Tour in Detroit and led a parade in Effingham with $64 million in Corvettes. Multiple times, Sullivan has been asked if he wants to sell the wagon.

“I would bury the car before I’d sell it to somebody,” said Sullivan, who is weighing a visit to Radio Flyer’s headquarters on Chicago’s west side during his trip to La Grange. “You’ve got to be real careful how you drive on your city streets.”