The world according to bumper stickers

“Here’s a bumper sticker I’d like to see: “We are the proud parents of a child who’s self-esteem is sufficient that he doesn’t need us promoting his minor scholastic achievements on the back of our car.”

          ~George Carlin

     When I was about 5 years old, my family took our first vacation together. We lived outside of Buffalo, NY at the time, and we journeyed to the far north country of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. There we visited three theme parks-- Story Land, Frontier Land, and The North Pole. These were 1950's era tourist destinations for the bazillions of families with boomer children like my sister and I. What I remember, aside from a few incidents involving my sister, a goose and a stage coach "robber", was that at every location, while the family was inside the park enjoying themselves, some guys were out in the parking lot slapping bumper stickers on all the cars in the parking lot. Cheap advertizing for them, bragging rights for where they'd been for the tourists.

     I was reminded yesterday by my mother of the bumper sticker I had on my first car. Well, it was my second car, but the first one I got new and had to pay for... Anyway, as a sort of gift to each of the graduates of my nursing class, the University of Michigan School of Nursing gave bumper stickers to us. They had a white background and said in red letters "Be somebody! Be a Nurse!".  I placed this on the rear bumper of my little red mustang and drove it to my first job. Out in the parking lot of that place of employment it rained hard, and literally washed all the lettering off my bumper sticker. What was left was a blank white sticker. The glue that stuck it to the car was apparently made of better stuff than the ink, so it remained on the bumper of the car until I traded it in several years later. And that struck me as symbolic of the permanence of bumper stickers... I used to tell people I was so apolitical I even had a blank bumper sticker.

     My younger son, however, had a car covered in them. The back bumper and to some extent the windshield was covered in stickers. Some were promoting favorite bands, a few espoused mild political commentary. His car was one you noticed driving down the road, that is for sure. We have all seen cars like his-- covered in commentary, sometimes witty, sometimes angry.

     Anyway, I was thinking about bumper stickers today (we have been totally housebound in the terrible heat wave and drought here! I have thought about more important stuff and now moved on to the sillier topics...) and realized that a good bumper sticker can brighten your day a little. Some are political, some are rude, but the clever ones can make you smile. So, for your enjoyment, in case you too are too housebound to be out looking at the ones that are actually on the bumpers of cars, here are a few of my favorites:

                           

This one was on my son's car

Haiku poetry lovers will appreciate this one...   The OB nurse in me appreciates this!   Love this now that I'm retired!! On a steamy hot summer day, after dozens of days just like it, finding humor in simple, silly things can brighten my mood. I hope these helped brighten yours too!