From The Past: September 30, 2004

The car magnet craze has hit Winchester! It’s been coming for a long time, but now it’s hard to spot a car without one of these magnets.

The first ones that I saw were of the sports balls. You might see a soccer ball with the name Billy printed on it or a basketball with Mark written on it. Now, there are paw prints that have school names and cheerleading horns that have the cheerleader’s name. There are many types of ribbons including the pink one for breast cancer awareness and the yellow one stating “support our troops”.

To me these are akin to the signs that people used to put in their car windows stating “baby on board” like this one and bumper stickers that have next to anything printed on them.

I’d say that bumper stickers will be around for the long haul just because they are so cheap. Then again, I think that the inventor of the car magnet is going to be a billionaire. What an idea! I truly think that these magnets will be around for eternity as long as people don’t start stealing them.

I have no idea how much it costs to personalize the magnets, but I’m sure that it takes time and thought. Since these are magnets there’s no reason why someone couldn’t just walk up to your car and take it. What would be simpler than going to an away game and taking all of your opponent’s magnets off of their cars? Kids and competitive parents will do this. If it hasn’t happened yet, it will and that will spoil the fun.

To date, Kevin and I do not have one of these magnets. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them; I just don’t want one. Then again, I’m one of those people who hate bumper stickers.