THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406240217
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Frank Roberts
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Medium
THINK it's time for another column - based entirely on plates on cars in The Sun circulation area.
{REST} The last such effort appeared in April, and I received some correspondence and phone calls about some of the items therein.
I closed that column with S PEACE, thinking it was a beautiful thought about a peaceful world.
Nope - it's a family name. The car I saw belongs to Stuart Peace, and I am told by one of the Peace-niks that there are others: N PEACE belongs to his wife, Nancy. Their son David lives in BOX ELDER and has a plate with that name. Another son, Whitney, who lives in Virginia Beach, has a more esoteric plate - GO TO HVN.
Another family - good friends of mine - have some interesting plates.
Brian Pritchard of Suffolk sports OL PQLYR which, he assures me, has nothing to do with his personality.
``My favorite brand of beer is Peculier, from Yorkshire, England,'' he said.
Of course.
His lovely wife, Esther, has a plate reading RD DRGN, which, she assures me, has nothing to do with her vehicle.
``That's a symbol of Wales,'' she said.
Of course.
Their beautiful daughter, Laura, a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has a plate reading STDNT 4VR.
``Her mom says she's been going to school since she was 4,'' Brian said. ``She's now working on her second master's degree.''
Another plate I mentioned in the April column was AC SLAVE. I made a snide comment about being a slave to air conditioning.
Working in Suffolk, I should have known better.
Its owner works at Allied Colloids. His brother works for Union Camp, and his plate reads UC SLAVE.
``I don't even like air conditioning that much,'' said the caller, adding, ``I had several calls at work after the column came out.''
A Franklin woman who reads the column wrote to tell me about her plate: 66 THANKS.
``It means,'' she wrote, ``God, Jesus Christ, the Angels and people of other races help me through life. And, I thank them.''
The letter came from Zell E. Hudson who adds, ``For the record, I'm a caring civil service retired black.''
By the way, for those of you wondering about the Hudson plate - ask your pastor.
Still on a spiritual track, there is this plate: DIE 4 US.
That number, four, fares very well on vanity plates.
SIGN4ME probably belongs to someone using sign language; PAYN 4 IT sounds like the vehicle belongs to someone with three years of payments left on his car.
GIRLS X 4 is, most likely, a family thing like my 5 GRAND. Another plate I saw reads 4 PM. Is that when the owner gets off work?
4A CROOK belongs to the Smithfield lawyer with the ``for-the-book'' name, Woody Crook.
Another ``4'' driving around the area is STE4NIE, a clever way of getting that large name in a small space.
Still another four is - honest - 4U CIARA. Does Barbara Ciara drive a red pickup, or is this a member of her fan club?
IPAVE4U is probably someone concrete. JUST 4ED could be a dedicated teacher.
WE B4NOW sounds like a happy family; 7-KID4US sounds like a big family.
I would hate to think of this as a family: 2DWN 22 GO. A somewhat similar plate reads 2D NICE. And there is this lovely suggestion: GIT NYCE.
On the other hand there is the one who doesn't really care: BLAH INC.
My heavens - it's a corporation.
That's enough until next time. No more this week. I'm finished, done, kaput. IM ALL N.
by CNB