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Mr. Luddite

On 12/15/2015 11:24 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 12/15/2015 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 10:26:28 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I was just thinking about a by-gone era. I lived in the small city of
Quincy, MA as a youngster in the 1950's. They had a program in which
kids under a certain age were required to get a "license plate" for
their bicycles. I remember getting one ... small, vertical plate that
you attached to the rear fender of the bicycle. The plates were issued
at the police station and they had a cop give a short driver's "course"
to the kids about safety, rules of the road for bicycles, etc., before
the license plate was issued.

The whole purpose of this program was to introduce youngsters to safety
issues. It was effective.

The closest thing I ever saw to that was a sticker the cops gave you
for a bike and it was only to get it back easier if it was stolen ...
or so the story went. I am not sure how many ever made it home.
The thief just scraped the sticker off and you were not required to
have a sticker.

Like I said, this was from a by-gone era when cops walked a beat
twirling a nightstick and wore uniforms like you see in the famous
Norman Rockwell paintings. The bicycle plate looked like this, except
it said "Quincy" instead of Concord:

http://platevault.com/uploads/86/ee/thumbs/6155832592bee86.jpg

Should have kept it. I see old bicycle plates like this are selling on
eBay for $45 and up. Probably cost 50 cents when issued in 1955.