The New Mississippi License Plate

I am fascinated with license plates. I admit it. Since I was a little girl, my families—birth and present—have searched the license plates of our fellow travelers. There are questions I would like to ask: why are you here in this part of the country? Are you just passing through or have you recently moved here? I wonder HOW you arrived to this place (especially if the license plate is Hawaii—pretty rare, but my niece Janel did spot one in California one time!—or Alaska, since I understand traveling the Alaskan Highway can be quite the adventure) and I wonder if you are here for business or pleasure, for a celebration or due to a sorrowful situation. Clearly all these questions would indicate I am more interested in the people in the car than in the license plate itself!

As we drove in to Mississippi earlier this month, we noticed that the Mississippi license plate now displays a lighthouse in place of the magnolia blossom which has adorned the plate for many years. (Ten, I’ve just learned.) Well, it’s a nice design but not something that would quickly pop into my mind if I was doing one of those word-association tests. Maine, perhaps, but Mississippi? Not so much. Six hours later, we turned on to Beach Boulevard in Biloxi. Driving west, trying to figure out how to find Keesler Air Force Base—I had printed out some directions, but they were in a bag behind Willis’s seat in his car and I was riding in Nathan’s car with Hannah driving; sigh!—we drove past a lighthouse! Could it be THE lighthouse, the inspiration for the lighthouse on the new license plate? Could it be since the lighthouse weathered Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it was chosen as the new license plate symbol? As it turns out, the answer to both questions is in the affirmative. To quote Joe Blount, Commissioner of Revenue: “This tag design is intended to be a reminder to us of all those who lost so much from Katrina, to serve as a symbol of our citizens’ commitment to recovery as well as a symbol of our gratitude to all Americans for their prayers and generous support.” (http://www.mstc.state.ms.us/mvl/cartag.pdf)