North Star Writers Group

I saw a couple the other day. One carried the letters “SHHHHH”, which must have belonged to a librarian. The other, emblazoned with the letters “CUTE GAL”, didn’t really tell the true story, however, because the woman behind the wheel was as homely as a picket fence, as my mother used to say.

Some vanity plates denote the car owner¹s occupation. Others spotlight his or her hobbies, kid’s names, birthplace, dog’s name, cat’s name, favorite football, baseball or basketball team, mother’s nickname or preference in vacation spots.

Why, I wonder, would I pay a premium price for license plates just so I can tell total strangers, including some who obviously are driving close enough to me to be cited for tailgating, where I was born or my dog’s name or my favorite TV show?

Just for the heck of it, I tried to come up with a license plate letter combination that would fit my personality and lifestyle. Keeping in mind I have to limit the letters or numbers to seven or less, here are a few of my ideas:

IN DEBT
OLD GUY
SWL DUDE
SO BROKE
XKID
SUPR MAN
GRAMPA
BACK OFF
SLOW DN
GN FISHN

I finally gave up and went with my own theory for creating a vanity plate message. I just take numbers and letters the folks at the Department of Transportation give me and create my own vanity plate.

This time around I got GW 435.

“How do you like my new vanity plate?” I asked a friend.

“Vanity plate?” he replied, eying the letters.

“Sure,” I told him. “I got it special. The GW stands for ‘Great Writer.’ Neat, huh?”

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