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"In memory of..." on cars. WTF???
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Cadaver
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Mar 24, 2006, 09:26 PM
 
Perhaps its an east coast thing, but over the last year or so I've been seeing tons of cars with "In memory of" (insert name of dead relative/friend and year born-died) or "In loving memory of..." written on them. They are usually stuck on the rear window in calligraphy-like vinyl stickers. Obviously carefully (or professionally) done.

What's with this trend?? Why on a car? And exactly what is in memory - the car? The car is dedicated to the memory of dead grandpa? Some dude dedicates his car to the memory of his dead grandpa?? I mean, doesn't "in memory of..." imply that the object on which that is written is the object dedicated to that person? Like flowers... or a painting... or a statue. But why put this on a car?

And its not just one weirdo. These things are all over the place here. I'm going to make a generalization here, but judging by the, uh, type/quality of vehicles I see these things on, its mostly a trailer trash kind of a phenomenon. But still....

Am I the only one who finds this weird?

Edit: Here's a pic of what I mean...
     
meelk
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Mar 24, 2006, 09:35 PM
 
In the south its a black thing. I dont know about other areas, and yes, its wierd.
Then again, in the south black people used to ride around with:
1)pound puppies in the back windows of their cars for a long time (I guess it was a 'what up dog?' kind of thing)
2) those little crowns (before they found out the crowns were manufactured by a company owned in part by the KKK).
Thinking of it that way, "In Memory Of" is an upgrade.
     
wdlove
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Mar 24, 2006, 09:36 PM
 
I can't see that I have seen that here in Boston.

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Mar 24, 2006, 09:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by wdlove
I can't see that I have seen that here in Boston.
Its all over Philadelphia, Wilmington and Jersey.
     
Kevin
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Mar 24, 2006, 09:40 PM
 
Here either...
     
mdc
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Mar 24, 2006, 10:03 PM
 


But no, I've seen what you mean. I'm not sure why people do it, it's a bit too public for my taste, but if that is helping them through their loss, then good for them.
     
MaxPower2k3
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Mar 24, 2006, 10:06 PM
 
never seen it in Jersey or NYC

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Mar 24, 2006, 10:24 PM
 
Nope, here it's just that stupid Calvin looking sticker peeing on something.
     
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Mar 24, 2006, 10:43 PM
 
Lots of Calvin around here too. Along with various "racing" related stuff. My personal favorite is SCS Racing, which I have learned (after years of wondering what the SCS meant) stands for "Sierra Club Sucks."

I haven't seen the "In memory of..." phenomenon, but hey, this is Montana. We'll get this fad in about a year.

I have two stickers in the back windows of my truck: An Apple sticker and a sticker of the HeadRoom (headphone.com) - a client of mine.
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Mar 24, 2006, 10:49 PM
 
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Mar 24, 2006, 11:09 PM
 
all over my town. What the crap is all I can say. This town is SO redneck
     
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Mar 24, 2006, 11:15 PM
 
it was big in the street racing scene when i lived in hawaii. they were dropping like flies for a spell there.
     
macroy
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Mar 24, 2006, 11:58 PM
 
Not sure if this is how it got started.. but I've seen a few in the DC area (3 or 4?). And all of them had one thing in common - the tribute was to a 9/11 victim.
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Mar 24, 2006, 11:59 PM
 
In my South (South Texas), it's a Mexican thing.

And yes, I think it's totally ridiculous.
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Mar 25, 2006, 10:28 AM
 
They're all over in the redneck parts of FL. Usually on cars with some NASCAR-related item on them...
     
euchomai
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Mar 25, 2006, 10:52 AM
 
Originally Posted by macroy
Not sure if this is how it got started.. but I've seen a few in the DC area (3 or 4?). And all of them had one thing in common - the tribute was to a 9/11 victim.
In Oklahoma City it is a Mexican thing too. Although for a while here, I saw many cars that had "In Loving Memory of Matthew Shepard" I believe that was the gay guy that got beat and killed.
...
     
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Mar 25, 2006, 12:28 PM
 
This is the typical route some people take when they run out of room on their bodies for yet another tattoo.
     
Dark Helmet
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Mar 25, 2006, 12:30 PM
 
That is just incredibly tacky.

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Stradlater
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Mar 25, 2006, 12:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Dark Helmet
That is just incredibly tacky.
Is there anything people put on their cars, extra-wise, that isn't?

The only sticker I can remember to have given me a brief smile read:

"Nuke unborn gay baby whales for Jesus"

Then again, bullet-hole decals give me brief smiles, too, but for different reasons.
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Eug Wanker
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Mar 25, 2006, 12:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cadaver
Perhaps its an east coast thing, but over the last year or so I've been seeing tons of cars with "In memory of" (insert name of dead relative/friend and year born-died) or "In loving memory of..." written on them. They are usually stuck on the rear window in calligraphy-like vinyl stickers. Obviously carefully (or professionally) done.

What's with this trend?? Why on a car? And exactly what is in memory - the car? The car is dedicated to the memory of dead grandpa? Some dude dedicates his car to the memory of his dead grandpa?? I mean, doesn't "in memory of..." imply that the object on which that is written is the object dedicated to that person? Like flowers... or a painting... or a statue. But why put this on a car?

And its not just one weirdo. These things are all over the place here. I'm going to make a generalization here, but judging by the, uh, type/quality of vehicles I see these things on, its mostly a trailer trash kind of a phenomenon. But still....
It's the last person they've run over.
     
Goldfinger
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Mar 25, 2006, 01:29 PM
 
No way that I will EVER put a sticker on my car. The road tax thingy that you need to have on your front window in Switzerland is bad enough.

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baw
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Mar 25, 2006, 03:51 PM
 
Never seen that.
     
DigitalEl
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Mar 26, 2006, 12:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by RAILhead
In the south its a black thing. I dont know about other areas, and yes, its wierd.
Here in Phoenix, it's a Mexican thing. I just started noticing it within the last year or two. Mexicans are big with the roadside crosses where somebody died, too. Those always make my wife sad.

Outnumbering that kind of thing 10-to-1 though is the stickers with somebody's favorite NASCAR number or the previously mentioned Calvin peeing on <insert vehicle brand you don't like here>.

It's all tacky. I don't even have the Apple stickers on my car.
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ASIMO
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Mar 26, 2006, 01:10 PM
 
I am seeing more and more vehicles (but mostly on VWs) with stickers on them of some sort of apple-like fruit with a bite in it, most of them white, but occasionally faded-out gay/rainbow color schemes. I am like, "WTF?" Talk about tacky.

And here in the left coast it appears to be largely a white thing.
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Kevin
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Mar 26, 2006, 02:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by ASIMO
I am seeing more and more vehicles (but mostly on VWs) with stickers on them of some sort of apple-like fruit with a bite in it, most of them white, but occasionally faded-out gay/rainbow color schemes. I am like, "WTF?" Talk about tacky.

And here in the left coast it appears to be largely a white thing.
I never did use those rainbow stickers because of the tackiness.

They made the white ones, but they were just stickers.
     
Mark Larr
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Mar 26, 2006, 02:42 PM
 
My brother in law lost his 11 year old son on Thanksgiving day 2 years ago in a 4 wheeler accident.

He has one of those stickers on the back window of his truck.
     
the1sttransport
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Mar 26, 2006, 03:02 PM
 
Here in Central Florida it's a community. We've had 7 student deaths at the local high school in the past year and a half.

EVERYBODY seems to have these decals in Winter Garden.
     
scaught
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Mar 26, 2006, 06:39 PM
 
let people express their grief however they want. i have no issue with it. peoples cars are important to them. an expression of their faceless selves on the roads. this seems very logical to me in that way.
     
moonmonkey
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Mar 26, 2006, 06:51 PM
 
Pure class.
     
synthfiend
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Mar 27, 2006, 09:39 AM
 
2) those little crowns (before they found out the crowns were manufactured by a company owned in part by the KKK).

LOL!!!!
I remember those. I overheard someone explaining that the meaning was "In another land, we might have been kings and princes".

Snort.
     
iREZ
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Mar 27, 2006, 07:24 PM
 
these are all over the streets of LA too...infact a friend of mine has it, and i never sat and thought about why he has one. ill go ask and post the results.
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starman
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Mar 27, 2006, 11:03 PM
 
All over NJ. Really ridiculous. I mean, for 9/11 it was acceptable, but random obituaries? No.

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Partisan01
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Mar 27, 2006, 11:28 PM
 
I've seen TONS of them in Western PA, I think it spans all classes of people...
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Dakar
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Mar 28, 2006, 09:48 AM
 
Originally Posted by Partisan01
I've seen TONS of them in Western PA, I think it spans all classes of people...
I see a few in northeastern PA,. It seems to be limited to the memories of high schoolers who met untimely demises and soldiers who died for the war on terror.
     
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Mar 28, 2006, 01:00 PM
 
In Sacramento it's wannabe gangsters of any racial group. We have Philipinos, Mexicans, and African-Americans doing it. I'm guessing some Rap guy had it in a video.
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Todd Madson
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Mar 28, 2006, 04:26 PM
 
In Minneapolis I'm seeing it pretty much exclusively on latino vehicles.

I'm also seeing latino family names in large gothic letters across the
tops of windshields and back windows of cars.

As far as the crowns, I believed they were air fresheners and actually
saw them in an auto parts store as a fancy air freshener. But yes, it is
a fashion statement for the afro-american demographic.
     
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Mar 28, 2006, 04:50 PM
 
And I thought Apple Stickers were the cool thing these days.

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Mar 28, 2006, 05:31 PM
 
I don't have any sort of stickers on my car, but I will admit that when I see someone with an Apple sticker on theirs I usually give them extra room, let them pass or whatever. Generally I'm just a little nicer to those people.
     
CMYKid
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Mar 28, 2006, 05:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by meelk
2) those little crowns (before they found out the crowns were manufactured by a company owned in part by the KKK).
egh, not THAT ancient urban legend again....

Anyway, the obits in the window are hugely latino, and its a guarantee if it's in Old English lettering. Odd the crossover it's experienced into much of the hilljack demographic however. It became a lot more common after the whole Dale Earnhardt thing, I guess after you put an 'In Memoriam' in yoru back window for soem dead guy you've never met its just a natural extension to do it for somebody you DO know.
     
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Mar 28, 2006, 10:58 PM
 
I just drove from Chicago to NJ over the weekend and saw a few vehicles with this all in PA and NJ. My girlfriends family members all have stickers in their back windows in memory of a police officer that lived across the street from them and was killed recently.
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Mar 29, 2006, 12:32 PM
 
In Loving Memory of Cheap Oil Prices. ™
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runningdog
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Mar 29, 2006, 05:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by DigitalEl
[/b]Here in Phoenix, it's a Mexican thing. I just started noticing it within the last year or two. Mexicans are big with the roadside crosses where somebody died, too. Those always make my wife sad.
It may have originated with Mexican-Americans but seems like everyone does it now. If anything white people put far more than just a white cross up as a roadside memorial. i know of one such memorial on Pima and Indian School road (on the reservation side) that is fenced off, has solar walkway lights at its corners, a framed picture of the guy, and a white cross. Depending on the season it's decorated too.

i remember an accident years ago in Mesa where we drove by the scene where a van smashed into a light pole. Next day there a huge teddy bear, pictures, balloons tied to that very scarred pole.

Now you can even see it on the news after some 'tragic' auto or bike accident involving a high school student. They'll show the accident scene where fellow students have left posters and flowers or other items.

i haven't seen the 'In Memory of' stickers yet.
     
   
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