<p>thats a nice story evitajr
I have struck up conversations with people that i never would have otherwise ( for example someone getting their sailboat ready for opening day) because D or I had her school sweatshirt on. Even though it is a regional school, just because it is so small I think, ( 1200 compared to the UW 40,000+) that , that in itself is a conversation starter</p>
<p>A lot of parents have stickers on their cars if their children go to private high schools here (i dont know if public schools even have stickers). However, my mother thought it looked pretentious so we never did it (i lived in a poorer area than where i went to school). As far as universities go its very rare for someone to have stickers.</p>
<p>Evitajr…actually when I have run into a young person who has a tee shirt on from my alma mater, I often say something too. It is cool for me to meet some kid who goes where I went and it is like a bit of a “kinship” and that is the fun part of a decal or sweatshirt. It’s like, “Hey, I went there too! Do you like it?” or if for some other school, “Do you go there? I know someone else who does, do you know him?”. It is a fun thing. Sorta an identity with your school or your place. Like a hometown. Or…as others made an analogy, a sports team you root for!</p>
<p>On that note, when someone from St. Olaf’s spies another Ollie, they are supposed to chant at each other. Sort of like a mating call, but not.</p>
<p>evitajr1, a slant-similar thing happened to us as we were coming home from shifting our son from Tulane to Cornell last fall. My husband was wearing a Cornell shirt (sooo grateful for what they had done for our baby!), and a woman asked whether we had a child there. She was terribly proud of her alma mater from decades gone by when we told her what they had done for him and many others. This happened more than once.</p>
<p>Good things happen when people relax and talk to each other. These little signs are one way to let that happen. (Though I DO like the stories about catcalls, chants etc!)</p>
<p>^None of which invalidates my previous post.
</p>
<p>parent2009~</p>
<p>There can actually be some very pragmatic reasons for parents to utilize bumper stickers. Our newest car is 13 years old. Our mechanic could attest to fact that our car is actually being HELD TOGETHER with the bumper stickers and decals. Unfortunately, we ran out of duct tape. 
~berurah</p>
<p>Gum Berurah, big fat wads of sticky pink baseball GUM.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>why is it that people feel the need to make apologies when they know that they are being disingenuious and are not truly sorry?</p>
<p>Personally I think for $43,810 (current cost of attendance at my D’s school), I think the college should give me a car and not just a bumper sticker, but that’s just me. </p>
<p>Hey I think you need to have something to show for your money. </p>
<p>At the end of the day like is about choice. You have made a choice based on your feelings, world view, frame of reference, etc that indicates you don’t like the concept of displaying a school’s bumper sticker, this does not work for you and you do not do it. </p>
<p>But by the same token, there are people who like to display stickers for what ever the reason so you live and let live.</p>
<p>Most people who display stickers do not define themselves by what it says on the sticker (and I don’t think their kids do either).</p>
<p>while I don’t have a bumper sticker on my car (maybe it is because I don’t have a car as I find it to be more of a pain than it is worth) my sister does have a bumper sticker of my daughter’s school on her car. </p>
<p>She also has one of her school (undergrad and grad) along with bumper stickers for my neices. </p>
<p>She would be the first to tell you but since I am posting I’ll say it because I feel the same way and have no problems unapologetically saying, unless you are either:</p>
<p>paying for my car</p>
<p>paying my kids tuition</p>
<p>then you are just going have to be nauseated. </p>
<p>Take a Tums, pepcide, a ginger ale (whatever makes you feel better) and keep it moving.</p>
<p>Actually I am the parent 
not the student- Reed is over $32,000 just for tuition, it would be a rare student who is paying for that without support from parents/relatives-</p>
<p>My D doesn’t have a car- so no bumbersticker- she does wear her border patrol shirt proudly, and we met an Reed alumni during our winter vacation who has gotten more involved with the alumni association, because he was wearing a Reed shirt, otherwise she might not have found out that they had a common bond, and wouldn’t have had such great conversations.</p>
<p>My husband doesn’t allow any stickers at all to “deface” his vehicle, but to me, it isn’t a shrine to American technology, it is something to get me where I need to go, and it is fun to use it to express myself- I already express something about myself, just by the model and color, and the stickers just take it a step farther.</p>
<p>I used to have a license plate denoting my support of our local baseball team-I have stickers indicating my political affliations, my musical tastes, so I don’t find any problem with indicating our educational affliations as well. While some may choose not to have any stickers- that is certainly their choice, but like others I think it is fun to see what connections the neighbors have- I love seeing Kalamazoo or Earlham stickers all the way over here on the left coast, but I also am fond of Evergreen College or Greener stickers, because for many years it was Ds first choice school. I still have an Evergreen sweatshirt we bought, when we thought it was where she was going to attend, I get lots of comments on it by alumni.</p>
<p>( there is one sticker that I had to refrain from putting on- I had bought a rainbow strip sticker at a bookstore that was going out of business- but it had black bands between each color- I had to ask my daughter what they meant- after she told me it meant I was into “leather”, I decided that was perhaps more information than I wanted to have on my car)</p>
<p>Parent2009, I’ll stock up on some of those discreet airline bags to hand you if you ever venture into our part of the world…which I doubt you will, you wouldn’t make it two blocks without having to pull over and throw up. And I still think you totally need to chill. I’ve looked at your other posts and you’re just pickin’ fights right and left. Not a good way to spend your days.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In the big scheme of things I have no need to impress any one because at the end of the day it is not brag just fact.</p>
<p>If I were to brag…</p>
<p>Personally, I like the George Banks father of the bride approach because it is more direct- just tell everyone you meet how much you are paying for the shing dig you call college :D</p>
<p>Patient-</p>
<p>I noticed that yesterday and kept that in mind when reading the posts. Consider the source.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Others on this thread have stated that the reason they are proud of stating their connection to a certain community is because of the community it invokes- to initate converstations with alumni from years past- that is a wonderful thing .</p>
<p>I am reminded of my mother, who is very conscious of her nose, and quite critical of the look of other noses- she is hypersensitive because of her own preoccupation, with something that many people don’t even notice.</p>
<p>I suggest that someone who is hypersensitive about the presumed pretention of a parent/grandparent/aunt having a school sticker on their car, is perhaps too aware of “status symbols” themselves, otherwise why would it bother so much?</p>
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<p>That’s nothing, Patient, if Parent2009 moved to Alabama, s/he would need to wear blinders, because every pick-up truck in the state - and believe me, there are a lot of them - either says Alabama or Auburn. Heck, you can just get a vanity tag from your favorite school, skip the stickers altogether!
RooollllTide, war eagel</p>
<p>Sorry, even I stoop to blatant partisanship :D.</p>
<p>Parent2009…so, let me just ask…since you see sporting a college car decal as “bragging”…what are your thoughts if I put up my child’s college affiliation on my car and it is our local community college? Is that OK? I mean in many circles, that clearly is not a huge brag but just an affiliation, no? For me, it is no different and I’d be happy to put that on my car as school spirit for my kid’s school. What are your thoughts there?</p>
<p>Another question I have for you, is what do you do if you are at a social gathering, and someone in your community asks you, “so, where is Johnny going to college now?” Is it OK to tell? What if it is Harvard, (shudder)? Is it bragging to admit it?</p>
<p>And…I gather college tee shirts are a no no if worn by a parent, right? What if said parent goes to watch their daughter’s college soccer game. Is it nauseating if the parent sports a college tee shirt showing support and spirit for the team?? Just wonderin’.</p>
<p>"It’s the practice of PARENTS putting their kids’ prep school or college bumper stickers on their cars that I find nauseating. </p>
<p>My apologies for being unclear."</p>
<p>You’re not trying to pick a fight or be insulting?!</p>
<p>Thank God. And thanks so much for clarifying that it is WE who are nauseating you. I am somehow comforted at the thought that I nauseate you by advertising that </p>
<p>TULANE LIVES!!!</p>
<p>Parent2009, we cross posted but I am perplexed that you are asking why others are putting college decals on their cars? I know that I, along with many others, expressed in detail why we have and that our motivation had nothing to do with bragging rights. It had to do with getting the decal in the excitement of having finally decided where to go to college and having an allegiance to the school, displaying school spirit, and just a sense of belonging to one’s school, NO MATTER the school. You already stated that you live in a status conscious area and perhaps for some, this is a motivation but you keep assigning that motivation to others who have stated their true motivations. I’m thinking that it is YOU who VIEW such stickers as bragging…it is how you are taking the message, NOT how the message was intended by those who chose to have a decal or a school sweatshirt. Are you tuning into the names of the schools for comparative purposes? That’s YOUR issue, not the issue of someone who feels a sense of belonging to their beloved school who would have felt that no matter how selective the school was that his/her child attends.</p>
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<p>But most us already feel and communicate to our kids that they are so much more than the school that they attend. (or do you have selective reading because it has been mentioned a number of times).</p>
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<p>I would hope not because I wear either my college sweatshirt or my sveatshirt from my d’s school most mornings at 6 am when I am walking the dog. They are hanging in the closet at the door and it makes things so much easier as i also just throw the hood on my head and don’t worry about combing my hair.</p>
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<p>That was beautiful really. </p>
<p>I only wish more of us cared about other peoples worth as human beings and were willing to call us all out for what we really are, no matter how pathetic and wretched. </p>
<p>Thats courage no, thats sublime courage!</p>
<p>Salute! Salute! Salute!</p>