Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Bumper Stickers

First, Happy 100th Post to my blog! Thanks for reading my ramblings. You make my day!

Now, on to the matter at hand- bumper stickers. What are your thoughts on them? My husband is ANTI. As in, he does not want anything sticking or magnetized to his car. He can have a custom tag (not with "JAY Z" or anything like that on it, but he did get stuck with my "helping schools" themed tag that I got a few years ago) or a plate on the front (he has an SGI plate there for Saint George Island), but nothing else.
Where are you on the spectrum?
I feel the added pressure to represent for our family and unfortunately, my car has started to look like it might be on the NASCAR circuit soon (insert you own joke here about my driving). It started innocently with an Auburn sticker. Then a church magnet. Then our pre-school got magnets. Next I added a UAH sticker for parking on the college campus. And this is the time of year that our Junior League sells Apple Annie apples, so I temporarily have an Apple Annie sticker (that one is on the front windshield, though). THEN (I know!), I had to add a De Colores sticker after my awesome Emmaus weekend! With that last one, I had to move the school magnet to the side of the car in an attempt to disguise what I realize is a little over the top. Here is the kicker- I have an SGI sticker I bought on our last trip in the car (not on, yet) and a McCain- Palin sticker that is on order (I'll address politics in a later post, I'm sure, but know that I'm not personally against you if you are voting for the other guy, but I happen to be in the camp that falls in line with this guy/ gal team in most areas).
I think with the political sticker I'm definitely going to put it on a magnet so I can take it off after the election- no matter who wins. Don't you hate seeing a "Kerry '04" sticker on a car? (Or any sticker that indicates a really old election for that matter.) Scrape that sucker off, please! Or are you trying to show people that that's who you would prefer to be president FOUR YEARS LATER? I don't understand.
And for the SGI sticker, I just don't know where I would put it! Surely that's a sign that there are too many on there.

When I was in high school, my dad served on a federal grand jury that met in Montgomery for several days a month. He was selected for that based on a 20 page-ish questionairre and one of the questions was about the bumper stickers on his car. I remember thinking how odd that was, but it makes more sense now and I obviously have never forgotten it. I think bumper stickers show where your true passions lie. And/ or where your money goes. (So that means you don't have to write out, "My daughter and my money go to Alabama"... you can just have a classy "AU Mom" and we all know.) I can understand Jason's position that he doesn't want people to judge him based on his car labeling. It's the same reason that I don't put shirts on my children that say, "Trouble" or "Spoiled Rotten" or any label- even if they are funny. But for me it has been an avenue to discussion in many areas; several people at our pre-school have asked about our church and other friends have asked when I started taking classes at UAH.
And, as a positive effect, I've tried to drive much more considerately with the realization that there is a church magnet on the back of my car. (I think I need to put the sticker that says, "I'm not perfect, just forgiven" above it!) But, if I'm in a pinch, I've decided to just honk, cut off the offending driver and then drive away really quickly so they can't read it.
Or, on second thought, I think I'll put more stickers on there so that they are distracted by all the other stickers on my car to able to catch that one!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hillary, You have hit on an interesting subject. The thought that goes through my head when I read 90% of the bumperstickers on the road is "Is that really what you want to say to the world". There is no way I could say anything meaningful in a 4 inch by 10 inch box. As for the "funny" ones - they all look soooo tired after the newness wears off (usually about 3 days). You really look like a doofus rolling with the "Everyone Sucks but me" or "Marriage = 1Man + 1 Woman"... Is this is really what you want to broadcast to the world as the MOST important thing in your life... (Sorry for ranting on your blog)

Anonymous said...

Hillary, You have hit on an interesting subject. The thought that goes through my head when I read 90% of the bumperstickers on the road is "Is that really what you want to say to the world". There is no way I could say anything meaningful in a 4 inch by 10 inch box. As for the "funny" ones - they all look soooo tired after the newness wears off (usually about 3 days). You really look like a doofus rolling with the "Everyone Sucks but me" or "Marriage = 1Man + 1 Woman"... Is this is really what you want to broadcast to the world as the MOST important thing in your life... (Sorry for ranting on your blog)

Anonymous said...

well, i recently got a troy tag...with nothing but the numbers that were next in the series. reason being, is that i saved a little extra out for the new breast cancer research tags (that unfortunatly won't be out for at least another month and i couldn't risk a ticket for my coveted tag.) but i had budgeted so i decided to pick something else. it was my alma mater, even though on football saturday, i don't even remember that they are playing!! on either side of my license plate i have a magnet. one is the alabama A and the other is a breast cancer ribbon. and that's it. now when my kiddos start in school, i'm sure i'll add on sports ones, as long as they will let me. the reason i don't do stickers per se is the whole scraping off thing. i can never get it all off and i don't wash my car enough for there to not always be some sticky dirt left over on my car.

Anonymous said...

SO funny! LOVE your comment about being in a pinch and driving off really quickly so they can't read your Christian bumper sticker. HILARIOUS!!!
Whenever I see Christian bumper stickers, I always think of Joyce Meyer. She talks about them a lot. :)
It's funny you talk about bumper stickers. I just ranted to Ellen on the way to the beach (and the rest of the girls this past weekend) about bumper stickers. They drive me crazy. Not because of the way they look or because they offend me or something, they drive me crazy because they seem so permanent. I saw so many McCain (who I support) bumper stickers on the way to Florida. I don't mind them on the glass, but when I see them on actual bumpers, I cringe a little. I can't help but think that they will be a pain to remove. I wonder why people put permanent things on their cars. Why not a magnet? It's easily removed. Why not a sticker on the back window? When you get tired of it, you can scrape it off without ruining the paint. That makes me a whole lot more comfortable.
I feel like you...if McCain loses (I pray he won't), do they leave that sticker on? Does it then become a symbol of "what should have been" or does it become "I'm a loser. I picked the loser of the race."?
Anyway, it's funny you bring this up. I spent way too much time talking about it this weekend. :)
I love you and your bumper stickers, though, Hil!!!

Anonymous said...

hillary...you make me laugh!! i don't have any bumper stickers...i can't get over that it is permanent. maybe i should try the magnets...but our preschool only has stickers...just can't do it.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you a bit, too, Hillary. I try to think about how permanent I want it to be before I put it on. Right now I have the church magnet and the De Colores sticker. I'll always love Emmaus, so I don't mind it being a sticker. I was tempted to get the school magnet, but then decided it would just crowd my bumper. I always find it amusing to be behind someone with a bumper-load of stickers/magnets. I try not to sterotype someone based on all the info on their stickers, but it's hard not to. It does shine a ray of light onto what that person deems important enough to display it for the world (or city). So, I'm kind of in both camps---too much is, well, too much! But, I like the ones I have.

Anonymous said...

hill..you never fail to make me laugh. and i love you for that. i feel kinda like annie.. i dont mind them on the glass. but that's as far as it goes.

Anonymous said...

when Sarah and I lived at the beach the summer before our last semester of college, the gas station down the road from us sold the cheesiest, very reflective bumper stickers. We would take turns putting them on our roomates cars...it was pretty funny, b/c it would be a few days of driving around before you realized that you had a bumper sticker on your car that said, "I'd be Jealous if I Were You." That is, by far, my favorite bumper sticker of all time. In fact, our plan was to build a cinder block house next to all the fancy houses that have names in Seaside, and name it "I'd Be Jealous if I Were You" just for the irony and to make fun of the fancy houses names! Good times....

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