A PERSONAL TOUCH

Do I have any fellow LPRs (license plate readers) out there? When I am stopped in traffic or walking through a parking lot, it seems I am always checking out the tags on license plates. I love people who take the time to come up with clever personalized tags on their vehicles.

It seems that every time I get a new vehicle, I get a new personalized plate. After we got married, I started off cautiously with “R HALE 2” - - I know, how original, right? From there, I went on to “FIDLDD 3.” Now, my plate on my car reads, “HMDNGR 3.”

I love personalized plates because they often show some creativity on the part of the vehicle owner. For the more cautious, initial plates seem to be popular - - the ones that either give the initials of the owner, the married couple, or some combination of the family's initials. For those who are just a freckle braver, the plate may offer a more spelled-out version of the person's first or last name. Sometimes the plates offer a way for the person to advertise their business or company.

Then there are the ones that I just don't get. Have you ever sat in traffic trying to decode a cryptic license plate? I am sure that is what would happen if you would pull up behind my co-worker, Dawn. Her license plates reads, "TTGMLP 2." I will give you a little while to puzzle that one out. Plates like hers surely have meaning to the owner, but for the most part, are lost on the rest of us.

I never understand why people pay the additional money to put the model of their car on their license plate. In Illinois, a personalized plate costs you $7 more per year. Why waste $7 each year just to put "CAMRY 3" on your license plate? What a waste! I can just imagine the owner of that vehicle, sitting at the dealership after purchasing their new car, and becoming increasingly frustrated as they struggle to come up with a clever combination for their new acquisition. Finally, for lack of any better inspiration, they reconcile with the fact that they just can't function creatively under pressure and the moniker for their tags simply states the obvious. If you were to visit these people's homes, would they have a dog named "Dog" and a cat named "Cat?"

Some clever ones that I have seen around town are "IV NAP" for a lady who is an anesthesiologist, "SSSMILE" for a local dentist, and "SAY CHZ" for a photographer. In our former neighborhood, there was a guy who drove a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder with the tag "ITC BTC." I always liked that one as well.

One thing that I have found that Chris and I often do is begin to refer to people that we see often but don't really know by the tag on their plates if it is personalized. We lived next door to a lady for six years who we never spoke to any more than just "hello" in the yard now and again. We have no idea what her name is - - we just always referred to her as "Roni" when we spoke of her because of her license plate "RONI 93."

So, anyone out there have any license plates that have caught your attention? Please...share!

(and by the way, my co-worker's plate, "TTGMLP 2" stands for "TRY TO GUESS MY LICENSE PLATE.")