NOT A FULL PLATE

“... and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.”  (I Chronicles 21:2)

Six years ago today, I was picking up my father’s belongings from Charlwell House Nursing Home in Norwood and helping plan his funeral.  Eugene A. Baril died on June 9, 2000.  It was a Friday, just like yesterday;  thus June 10 was a Saturday, just like today.  The weather in 2000 was magnificent- unlike 2006.  There are so many things I could talk about regarding my father’s death, but I decided to talk about his passion:  license plates.  There is no way I could adequately do that in one column- it would take twenty-seven!  Dad was one of the most serious license plate collectors in New England, and one of the two or three foremost experts about license plates and “early motoring” in New England.  Today, I’m still driving his car which I inherited- a 1989 Volkswagen Golf- including the “low” Massachusetts plate that I inherited;  number 280.

There really is a political pecking order to license plates in Massachusetts.  To people who are serious about it, anybody with a number lower than 10,000 is of significance, and anyone with a two or three figure plate is sort-of a celebrity.  Now, plates that start with a “zero” do not count in that!  Yesterday, I saw a car with plate number 043.  That “zero” serious was created by former Governor Ed King.  It was a way to give his cronies and hacks low number plates instantly.  But “license plate nuts” know that, and are not impressed.  You see, to be one of those low number license plate celebrities, you DON’T want a “full plate” of numbers!

New York was the first state to register cars- in 1901.  The Empire State did NOT issue license plates, however. Rather, they issued brass discs.  Massachusetts was the very first state to issue license plates- in June of 1903.  Massachusetts may well have been the first entity to issue license plates in the world.  For many years, the Tudor family of Milton, MA had plate number “1”.  The story goes that a powerful Mr. Tudor in the Nineteenth Century kept Boston Harbor free of ice, and that this number was granted to him as a “thank you”.  (I know that story raises more questions than it answers.)  I don’t know if the Tudor family still has plate #”1” but they did into the early 1980s.  All early Massachusetts plates were made of porcelain.  The first series was dark blue with white numbers and letters.  The earliest plates did not list a year and read “Massachusetts Automobile Register”.  These plates were issued from 1903 through 1907.  In 1908, it was decided to issue new sets of plates, and to include the year “1908”.  The first 5000 numbers were kept “reserved”.  The 1908 plates were white with blue lettering.  Massachusetts issued porcelain plates through 1915.  The plates were manufactured under contract with private companies including Ingram-Richardson of Beavers Falls, PA.  In 1916, painted steel plates were issued instead of porcelain.  Many years later, the state switched to issuing plates every OTHER year and validating the “off” year with a windshield sticker.  The 1928 plates featured a cod fish logo.  People hated the cod fish logo and it was ultimately dropped.

Prior to the 1957 plates, Massachusetts plates came in many sizes.  A two-digit plate was little, a five-digit plate was medium-sized and a six-digit plate was large.  A federal law which took effect in 1956 mandated the standard dimensions of license plates around the country which we see today.  Beginning in 1967, MA plates were aluminum with reflectorized paint- white with blue, and later red, and later green lettering.  You probably know many of those “green” plates from the late 1970s and 1980s are stil in use today.  The state was VERY resistant to issuing any sort of “fancy” plates with slogans, but of course, all that changed with the “Spirit of America” series, the United We Stand plates and many others.  Today, much like a hundred years ago, plates are issued for many years and not just one or two.

I hope no one fell asleep reading this.  This stuff was my father’s passion.  I remember it proudly each time I look at #280 on my car.  Radio talk show host Howie Carr would love to have a prestigious plate- but as I’ve communicated to him, “Howie, you can’t have that one!”