Year of manufacture plates

[427TJ]

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[/ QUOTE ] they look great on any car...pretty much a badge of honor out here but you would be amazed at the lengths people go to attempt to duplicate the look..

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My take on CA black plates being a badge of honor is that they make the statement "I have been here longer than you have." Having grown up in California (I was born in GA after my dad got recalled to the USAF during the 1961 Berlin Crisis) and watching it's demographics change dramatically, especially where I grew up, I think those who have lived there a long time (more than 30 years or so) use black plates as a badge of native pride. With so many immigrants to California (of all colors and economic levels) over the years, all trying to fit in and become 'old timers' too, black plates tell the car show crowd that you're more senior than everyone else. I still have an old bumpersticker from the early 1980s that says "Welcome to California, now go home." Black plates and yellow plates tell other car guys that you ARE home. "I was here before everybody else." That's a very Californian attitude given the constantly-changing face of the population. That's how I see YOM CA plates, anyway.

By the way Mark, that '62 is STUNNING.