I don’t really like vanity license plates. I know they don’t cost a HUGE amount of money or anything, but they usually just seem to be a waste to me. Every once in a while I see something clever or even thought provoking (TWR TWO on a truck emblazoned with scores of Firefighting emblems a couple weeks ago in Kingston), but usually, the little “statements” made with 8 characters strike me as, well, stupid. I mean, it sure is helpful to know that your busted-ass minivan going 35 in the left lane on the highway is “MomzRyd” but I’d prefer a cell number on your plate so I could buzz you and interrupt your phone call to let you know there are a half dozen motorists eager to get home in a timely fashion without resorting to an illegal right lane pass. By the way, you’re teaching your 14 year old daughter a terrific lesson about safe driving habits.

But I digress. The other day I saw a cute silver hatchback, a recent model looking to be in good condition, with one Grateful Dead dancing bear in center position on the back window and this license plate: MOONBEAR. I kind of chuckled and sped up a little to get a look at the driver, who, for some reason, I had stereotyped as a twenty-something hippie chick. Wrong.

Moonbear is somewhere in the middle-age range. He has thick glasses and a bushy but neatly trimmed beard. Short, curlyish hair, light brown, probably some gray in it. We were doing like 65 on a winding part of the Taconic, so I may not have it all right. It was a cute license plate, and Moonbear wasn’t what I expected. I kind of liked it.

Then, this morning. Much farther south on the Taconic, I saw him again. He appeared to be more casually dressed, but no less serious. I think he forgets about his license plate. Kind of like when you’re a little kid and you get your face painted at the fair. Then, a couple hours later you go into a deli for a soda and can’t figure out why everyone is giving you that weird smile.

Point is, Moonbear has turned me around a little. From this day forward I will be at least a little more tolerant of vanity plates. I’m not saying I’m going to run out and get one of my own, but I won’t be such a snob about it. Thanks Moonbear, wherever the road takes you.