# Bumper stickers/logos/decorations in your area folks "from away" may not understand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613 "2008-10-19T03:55:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/1 "2008-10-19T03:55:03Z")
May be more for IMHO, but… Mods can have a power play if they wish. I live in Alabama. I stopped for gas today at a large gas station in Opelika, a city about between Auburn and the Georgia line, and an elderly couple with Florida tags and northern accents getting gas across from me said “Maybe this young man” (?! been a while on that one) “knows… excuse me, we were just wondering… what’s with the cars that have the tiger tails hanging out the back of the trunk? We’ve seen two or three of them.” To an Alabamian this is as shocking as being asked “Who are these McCain and Palin people on the bumper stickers… some new rap group?” or “What does that blue sign with the white **H** over there where all the ambulances are mean?” So I cut 'em. ## Actually I answered them, because it occurred, “I guess it’s not common knowledge after all”. Auburn University has two mascots, most famously “War Eagle” (resident of the world’s largest birdcage for non-sports fans who like trivia) but also the tigers. The tiger is actually used more as the “visible” mascot than the eagle, though the cheer of course is “Warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Eagle!” (and so’s the fight song), and those tiger tails that you hang from the back of your trunk become ubiquitous the closer you get to Auburn (this was about 12 miles away). Usually they’re only out on home game football Saturdays. Auburn didn’t have a game today, home or away, but perhaps there’s something else going on, or these are just hardcore fans/students. What’s something you often see where you live that strangers may not know the significance of? I was trying to think of other things around here (“SEE ROCK CITY” birdhouses and barns maybe, but those are all over the southeast). ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/2 "2008-10-19T04:06:55Z")
Around here, a car with a blue “W” on a white flag is not a show of support for a failed president, but rather an indication that the bearer is a Cubs fan. Whenever the Cubs win at home, the W flag is raised above the scoreboard, and a blue flag with a white “L” is raised if they lose. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/3 "2008-10-19T05:54:14Z")
About once a day in normal commuting I’ll see a “Go 2 Mass” sticker on someone’s car. It’s not an exhortation for Catholics to go to church, but an advertising campaign for one of the arty/bohemian downtown districts in Indianapolis, Massachusetts Avenue. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/4 "2008-10-19T06:00:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Auburn University has two mascots, most famously “War Eagle” (resident of the world’s largest birdcage for non-sports fans who like trivia) but also the tigers. Nitpick: the world’s largest bird cage is at Monkey Eden in South Africa. It’s bigger than Jordan-Hare stadium itself. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/5 "2008-10-19T06:11:46Z")
“Say Ya to Da U.P. hey” - This is a bumper sticker I had on my car while I lived in Florida for a while. It refers to the upper peninsula of Michigan, of course. Anyway, while driving along one day another car frantically waved me down. Thinking something was drastically wrong, I pulled over. People in the other car asked what my bumper sticker meant. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/6 "2008-10-19T06:34:14Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Around here, a car with a blue “W” on a white flag is not a show of support for a failed president, but rather an indication that the bearer is a Cubs fan. Whenever the Cubs win at home, the W flag is raised above the scoreboard, and a blue flag with a white “L” is raised if they lose. What sports team other than the Cubs would raise a white flag in victory? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/7 "2008-10-19T14:18:26Z")
In VT there are still signs up on houses from quite a few years ago that say “Take Back Vermont.” This was the anti- civil union rallying cry in 1999, the year that our Civil Union legislation was being proposed/debated. Gotta take back Vermont from the gays, donchaknow. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/8 "2008-10-19T14:45:30Z")
A lot of cars here have stickers that say “Don’t Box The Neck”. Large white letters on a green background. I think it’s to support the banning of big box stores in the area. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/9 "2008-10-19T15:05:33Z")
[Opposite Day] A friend of mine is from Michigan (we’re in NY). He had a bumper sticker that said “There really is a Kalamazoo!”. [/OD] There’s a landmark in Downstate called the Roscoe Diner – it’s on the way to the mountains, so it gets a lot of traffic from surrounding hunters and city dwellers. They give out bumperstickers “see you at the famous Roscoe Diner.” I catch them all the time around here and it’s not unusual to see them in the surrounding states. I’ve caught site of them in Vegas, Florida and California, too. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/10 "2008-10-19T15:34:37Z")
There is a spate, A SPATE, I TELL YOU! of those little circular white stickers with just initials that used to stand for European countries. Nowadays everyone has taken them over from radios staions to God knows what. Here we have quite a lot of them that say “BI.” It stands for Block Island, a tourist spot off the Rhode Island coast, but you can understand where the confusion might set in. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/11 "2008-10-19T15:36:02Z")
I noticed, when I lived at home (shoutout to Queens), a great number of local cars with bumper stickers for “South of the Border”. I assumed it was an amusement park that my parents were too mean to take us to visit. Years later, when driving to Columbia, S.C., we say signs for “South of the Border” along I95. I insisted we stop.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South\_of\_the\_Border\_%28attraction%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_of_the_Border_%28attraction%29). Waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![Mitijea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Mitijea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mitijea)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/12 "2008-10-19T15:45:06Z")
Not too confusing, but I always thought it was funny how come so many people had Trees Of Mystery (California) bumper stickers/placards. Yeah, nice place, but not bumper worthy. That is until I visited there and came out to the parking lot to find that they automatically put them on all the cars that come in. In the beginning they’d actually wire a metal plate to your bumper. (Thankfully they don’t do any of this anymore). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/13 "2008-10-19T16:21:05Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > In VT there are still signs up on houses from quite a few years ago that say “Take Back Vermont.” > > This was the anti- civil union rallying cry in 1999, the year that our Civil Union legislation was being proposed/debated. > > Gotta take back Vermont from the gays, donchaknow. I think that was more like “take Vermont back from the libruls”, y’know. Of course, maybe they’re one and the same? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/14 "2008-10-19T16:55:01Z")
There used to be bumperstickers for sale in Fredericksburg, VA that said _Don’t Fairfax Fredericksburg_, meaning they were against making Fredericksburg another faceless DC suburb, complete with McMansions, big box stores, and yankee transplants. They didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/15 "2008-10-19T17:36:53Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I think that was more like “take Vermont back from the libruls”, y’know. > > Of course, maybe they’re one and the same? Yes, it’s the same concept. But it spawned the counter campaign (with accompanying flags and bumper stickers) of “Take Vermont Forward”. The two I see around here that are really local are the Euro Oval stickers with ACK for the Nantucket Airport, usually sported by people who spend time on the island. The other is the Cape Cod Canal Tunnel Resident permit stickers - a fine joke on tourists waiting in traffic before the bridges. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/16 "2008-10-19T17:56:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Monkey Eden Based on nothing more than the name, this is where I hope to go when I die. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/17 "2008-10-19T18:08:25Z")
A few years ago there was a rash of “Good Night Irene” bumper stickers, and some persist on cars here, long after the Niagara Falls mayor’s election which turned out Irene Elia. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/18 "2008-10-19T18:15:20Z")
In Baltimore and surrounding counties, there are a lot of the “Believe” bumper stickers, white writing on black background. We’re supposed to BELIEVE that Baltimore isn’t going to be a suckhole forever. This has spawned “Behave” and “Bedevil” and “Be Evil” and all sorts of others like it. In Canada, it’s common to see “I AM” stickers. They are from an old ad campaign by Molson Canadian beer, after the “I AM Canadian” ads (also known as Joe’s Rant). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/19 "2008-10-19T23:05:08Z")
> [@Mitijea](#): > > Not too confusing, but I always thought it was funny how come so many people had Trees Of Mystery (California) bumper stickers/placards. Yeah, nice place, but not bumper worthy. That is until I visited there and came out to the parking lot to find that they automatically put them on all the cars that come in. In the beginning they’d actually wire a metal plate to your bumper. (Thankfully they don’t do any of this anymore). you bumpersticker my car, you pay to get it removed and the finish restored. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613/20 "2008-10-19T23:21:57Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > “Say Ya to Da U.P. hey” - This is a bumper sticker I had on my car while I lived in Florida for a while. It refers to the upper peninsula of Michigan, of course. Anyway, while driving along one day another car frantically waved me down. Thinking something was drastically wrong, I pulled over. People in the other car asked what my bumper sticker meant. Close. It’s “Say Ya To da UP eh!”, a takeoff on a Michigan advertising slogan that goes “Say Yes to Michigan.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bumper-stickers-logos-decorations-in-your-area-folks-from-away-may-not-understand/468613.md?page=2)