They were invariably dirty, often greasy and not rarely were smeared with dog excrement. For a grade schooler to tote one was a conspicuous sight and more than fifty years ago, they were heavy, big and sometimes came with rusted accessories attached to them, like bolts, nuts and "ticker things" (in the parlance of my older brother and myself, i.e. small metal plates with the two digits of the formerly new year that were bolted over the old year's in one of the plate's corners). These were quite unlike today's lightweight, aluminum ones.
We learned early on that they were manufactured in prisons and that certain letters adjacent to the numerals referred to their issuance for motorists residing in certain parts of New York state. What attracted us to them? And why did we collect them with a quasi-religious fervor? Perhaps they were a bridge to adulthood; their availability was not assured and alertness and good fortune were factors in gathering them to our bosoms. They were artifacts, relatively small works of art with colors alternating from year to year or at an interval of several years. They were substantial and each one was unique. They proclaimed their identities in no uncertain terms and they silently exuded somehow, a certain confidence and independence. And yet they obediently permitted our harvesting.
In New York, the yellowish gold of numerals and letters contrasted with black backgrounds and then these elements exchanged colors in alternate periods. The motto "Empire State" with the abbreviations of year and state, "'55" (for example) and "NY", respectively, appeared above or below the characters. Very infrequently, but memorably, we found one in an empty lot or close by one of a service station's steel drum trash barrels that was a strange color and from another state! These discoveries were exotic and thrilling for an eight year old. Sometimes they were temptingly visible but nearly inaccessible. This was the case with a dark green specimen with white lettering and a curious image in its center, separating the alpha numeric grouping. "Why, that's a pelican!" said a genial old janitor from my school who sensed my excitement for the rectangular piece of metal lying in the short grass behind a very tall chain link fence painted black and protecting the community garden adjacent to the public schoolyard where I played during recess from classes in the nearby building. I was just learning to read, but the registration "tag" was upside down, though on its obverse. An older student with a hoe heard us conversing and we caught his eye. Perhaps the adult's authoritative as well as friendly ways encouraged the pre-teen. He was asked to simply throw the plate over the fence. Obediently, he complied and as it barely cleared the top of the structure, we thanked him. With a wave and a whistle the oldster left me to my treasure and the young gardener returned to his seedlings. I could clearly see the outline of the pelican now and tried to decipher the words below the numbers and letters. "S P O R T S M A N ' S P A R A D I S E" it spelled out. Below were the letters "L O U I S I A N A" and the numbers "'56". To this day, this plate hangs in the badly decayed wooden toolshed that my grandfather built in 1954 in our backyard.
So many plates were collected from the early '50s until into the '70s that some "pruning" became necessary over the years. Today, there are only several dozen remaining, but some of these have found a home in my brother's house and I even found a very utilitarian use for a rare pair of '57s. My antique Ford of that year sports them in lieu of regular historical plates. New York's law permits it as long as the vintage tags are not identical in number and/or letter sequence to an existing current N.Y.S. plate. Such a situation is a near impossibility, given the configuration and number of characters of modern era plates. By any measure, and certainly through an adult's eyes, typically more so than that of a child's, these souvenirs of American automotive history, or more usually one's own or family's history of car ownership, can easily help preserve that history by the collection of these objects. Enough dry space and a bit of care can keep them indefinitely.
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