As a life long suburbanite, I’m a vocal defender of the burbs. From my observations, folks in the big city might have more options culture-wise, but many rarely take advantage of them. Conversely, it’s not like we don’t have the internets out here in the hinterland. We are capable of tracking down the latest must know information from a new museum exhibit opening, to the latest salvo fired in the Obama-Clinton battle and of course the latest with Lindsay or Britney. Who all do you think is coming into the city and filling its theatres, clubs and museums? It’s us, baby.
That point made, I’ve got to concede that sometimes the suburbs completely deserve the bad rap we get from snooty city folk who don’t own cars because they can’t afford the monthly parking fee. It was in my car, a mini-van, that I saw the latest example.
There I am minding my own business driving the family truckster down the highway on a mission to buy, buy, buy. After all, someone has to spend us out of this recession. I’m sure the president and his team is grateful.
Anyway, I’m driving along contented listening to my two kids in the back seat talking about all kinds of things. Those guys have quite an imagination. When some SUV aggressively cuts me off. Shaken from my revelry, I was of course annoyed.
Then, I saw his vanity license plate holder. Instantly, my emotion changed to pity. And I realized that yes sometimes the suburbs is a tacky tacky place.
Coming clean, I must tell you that the very idea of a vanity license plate holder is a pet peeve of mine. We don’t really need them. Let alone, do we need one with a message. In the case of the jerk (that’s right, I said it. I’m not afraid to go there) who cut me off, his vanity license plate message wasn’t “GO YANKEES” or “USA NUMBER ONE” or “FOREIGNER RULES” all of which would have irritated me for different reasons. His message was “MY OTHER CAR IS A CORVETTE”.
If my two kids hadn’t been in the car, I might have been more tempted to slam the front of my mini-van into the back of his car that isn’t “a corvette”. Here’s why. The guy was driving a brand new Nissan Murano. There I am driving my several years old mini-van and this guy has the nerve to taunt me with the fact that he’s kind of embarrassed by the car he’s currently driving and so wants me to know he’s got a Corvette he’s proud of in some garage somewhere.
Have you seen the Nissan Murano? It’s a pretty slick looking SUV crossover hybrid kind of thingy. Point is he’s got no reason to be indirectly complaining about having to drive one through his vanity place holder.
I’m pretty sure that when the geniuses who came up with the idea for the “MY OTHER CAR IS A CORVETTE” vanity license plate holder, the whole point was that it would be a great gag for people driving junkers.
So, maybe my highway friend was completely missing the joke. In others words, he really does have a Corvette and feels the need to advertise this to the rest of us even when he’s not actually in it. Or, he’s embarrassed to drive a brand new Nissan Murano with a spiffy paint job. I’m betting on the former. But either way he’s not someone I want to share my suburbs with and he’s still a jerk for cutting me off.
There. I feel better.
