Did You Get The License Plate Number?

Today, we pay homage to the license plate. I remember the good old days of playing the license plate game on long drives - where you wrote down the names of the state license plates you saw on other cars driving down the road. Back then of course, each state had one license plate and it was pretty easy to decipher what state a car was from and if you already had that state on your list. Not nowadays - at least not in Arizona! We have a grand total of 49 styles of license plates to choose from - including our standard state issue, an organ donor plate, State University plates, historic vehicle plates, and even a pet friendly plate - just to name a few.

Motor vehicle plates debuted back in 1901 in New York state. These were typically handmade by the owner of the vehicle and simply listed their initials. In 1903, Massachusetts issued the first metal plate with a simple "1" as the plate number. Suffice it to say that license plates have definitely evolved over the years.

Back in the late 1980s, as vanity (personalized) plates were coming into their own, there was a game show on tv called Bumper Stumpers. The premise of the show was to be able to decipher vanity plate messages that might be seen on automobiles. Today of course, it's pretty hard to drive down the street or highway without seeing a ton of vanity plates - at least in metropolitan areas. I thought it might be fun for you to have an opportunity to try your hand at deciphering some "bumper stumpers" yourself! You're going to be on your honor as far as the answers go tho. I'll simply type them in white type next to the questions and if you roll your mouse over them, you should be able to see the answer! No peeking before you at least try to guess tho!!!

1. IFYTFYR I fight fire
2. NEONE4T Anyone for tea?
3. RUNVUS Are you envious?
4. XLR82XS Accelerate to excess
5. IN2PL8Z Into plates
6. DNTBL8 Don't be late
7. LCNS2ROM License to Roam
8. PRE10D Pretend
9. GNUS2ME News to me
10. ICURAQT2 I see you are a cutie too

I'd love to know how you did in figuring those out so drop me a comment and let me know. Before you go tho, check out these great items from Etsy that are made from recycled license plates! From left to right: Hugs and Kisses Belt Buckle from vintageinretrospect ; United States License Plate Map from georgiascrafts (these are really so cool!) ; Texas License Plate Clock from 8milecreekdesigns .