Cellar News Update Thread

[Elspode]

What the hell is OBX?

[lumberjim]

outer banks, NC. have you seen the little white oval stickers on the cars?

[wolf]

I thought it stood for "Obnoxious".

Most of the people I've seen with those stickers are.

I'll bet you have one, Jim.

:hugsandkisses:

[lumberjim]

i used to, but it came off. and i'm afraid i have to agree. i am obnoxious. i made my own sticker:

[glatt]

Those little OBX stickers have always amused me.

I first saw the little white stickers (not OBX ones) on cars in Europe. They were used to indicate the country of origin there, so when cars went from one country to another, officials could tell where they were from. Well, that's how it was explained to me anyway. Don't know if it's actually true. I just know that you could tell where a car was from by the sticker.

When Americans traveled to Europe, they would buy these stickers as souveniers and slap them on their cars when they got home. That in itself was kind of funny to me, because it misses the whole point of the sticker. There were always a lot of "D" stickers on Volkswagens, because sometimes people would order a volkswagen, fly to Germany to take delivery of it, travel around a bit in Europe with it, and then have Volkswagen ship the car to the US dealership near them. The "D" was applied in Germany, but usually never removed by the owner upon return to the US, because, hey, they went to Europe.

So I always imagined that people who put those stickers on their cars thought they had class or something, because they had been to Europe.

Fast forward to North Carolina several years later. Now, North Carolina is a perfectly fine state, but it's not one that I would associate with the idea of culture, class or sophistication. Although they do have cheap discount furniture. Some PR guy gets the idea that if they use one of these European style stickers, they can slap the OBX abbreviation on it and they will seem classy. Or somehow part of a secret club who's members know what OBX is. It's crazy.

Meanwhile, back in Europe, they don't use the stickers as much anymore, because with the advent of the EU, the license plate tells you where a car is from.

[Beestie]

Originally posted by glatt

Now, North Carolina is a perfectly fine state, but it's not one that I would associate with the idea of culture, class or sophistication.

Exactly. Its like putting a sticker on your car to let everyone know that you ate at Red Lobster yesterday.

[jinx]

Interesting perspective glatt, you seem a little bitter though. Were you excluded from classy, secret clubs as a child? Do you vacation somewhere where they have chintzy or self evident souveniers?



Here's our place. For the same price we could stay in a crappy hotel in AV or OC - but those stickers just aren't as cool.

[Beestie]

Both glatt and I live in the same neck of the woods (the Virginia suburbs of DC) and it seems that every third car has an OBX sticker on it. I lived here for several years before someone finally told me what the hell OBX meant. At first, I thought it was the airport abbreviation for an airport in the Outer Banks area but it isn't - its completely made up - a pretentious idea that glatt characterized perfectly - an imitation European sticker that some PR guy dreamt up to confer a sense of exclusivity.

I have to admit that ever since I learned what it meant, I roll my eyes whenever I see one. That's not a knock on North Carolina - I spend time there myself - its a knock on the sticker itself.

I'm not sure they have high-speed access there, tho

**ducks**

[elSicomoro]

There are also similar stickers that read OCM--Ocean City, Maryland. The first time I saw one, it threw me off b/c I happened to work for a company called OCM (On Campus Marketing) at the time.

Jinx, what's AV?

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by lumberjim
i used to, but it came off. and i'm afraid i have to agree. i am obnoxious. i made my own sticker:

Nice...you might also want to try a C, a T or an M.

[jinx]

Well, OBS doesn't have the same appeal, don't you think?
Those stickers are everywhere. Every beach town in NJ and MD (and probably elsewhere, but those are the ones I commonly see) have their own made up abbreviation sticker, I don't think the outer banks was the first.

I also remember seeing DUCK ones down there, but none of the other towns. Guess their names were too long or didn't have a good abbreviation.

[jinx]

Originally posted by sycamore
[B

Jinx, what's AV? [/b]

Avalon, NJ

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by glatt
Now, North Carolina is a perfectly fine state, but it's not one that I would associate with the idea of culture, class or sophistication.

Not yet anyway. After all, Northern Virginia is civilized and upscale.

[Beestie]

Originally posted by sycamore
Not yet anyway. After all, Northern Virginia is civilized and upscale.

Perhaps, but we don't print NVA stickers to make everyone think we're cool either. But while we're on the subject, those "Virginia is for Lovers" stickers are enough to make me want to set my hair on fire.

[glatt]

Originally posted by jinx
Interesting perspective glatt, you seem a little bitter though. Were you excluded from classy, secret clubs as a child? Do you vacation somewhere where they have chintzy or self evident souveniers?

Bitter? I may come across that way, but I'm not bitter. More amused at the sillyness behind the stickers. They have their origins as beaurocratic red tape, and people use them for souveniers.

I've got nothing against the Outer Banks. I've been there before and it was perfectly nice. I had a good time. It's just not a region that I would consider remarkable.

The souveniers I get are usually t-shirts. And they are t-shirts that have pretty/interesting pictures or designs. If you get close, you may see a word identifying the location, but for the most part, the t-shirts are nice to look at for people who aren't familiar with the location, and they also remind me of my trip to the location. So they are not self evident, but that doesn't matter, because they are nice to look at, so no-one is challenged by them.