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Collecting Ontario licence plates for 40 years
THE
BACK
BUMPER
2CENTS ARCHIVES
First started as "My 2 Cents" in 1997, I have written posts numbering into the hundreds. New posts arrive continually. Find an article by clicking the tag cloud below, or selecting a category, doing a search (see magnifying glass below on the right), or just scroll down to see the articles in chronological order.
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Sep 14
The Movie Man and His Plates
I never thought I’d see the day when I’d make the trip all the way to Barrie, but then skip out. The Barrie Automotive Flea Market was a...
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Jan 19, 2023
Open For Business: A Plategate Unicorn Revealed
I was fortunate this month to acquire a unicorn-calibre Ontario plate for my collection: A blank Ontario plate, discarded from 3M, with...
294 views2 comments
May 23, 2022
Vermontariodyssey
I spent a day road-tripping during the May long weekend to tie up a couple of plate-related loose ends. I originally conceived the...
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Sep 1, 2021
Vineland and the Great Outdoors
The annual indoor October swap meet (heretofore known as “Grimsby”) won’t happen in 2021 because of the unpredictability of changes to...
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Jul 29, 2021
A Plethora of Plates
When collecting quantities of plates, it’s often about being first on the scene and acting quickly before the runner-up has a chance to...
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Mar 7, 2021
2002 Jubilee Jubilation
This story was originally told in three non-consecutive installments in this column, spanning April through November 2002. Those three...
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Nov 16, 2020
Normy's Wonder Case
For only the second time in the history of The Back Bumper, I’m handing the 2Cents pen over to a guest writer. Norm Ratcliffe has been...
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Aug 27, 2020
Forest Junkyard
I have a recurring dream where I’ve wandered into a clearing in a forest. There’s an old shack nearby that hasn’t been touched by anyone...
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Aug 7, 2020
Plates in the Killaloe sunrise
Some years are great for collecting plates. For me, 2018 was a bonanza. But other years can be a bust. Collecting plates isn't a...
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Sep 1, 2018
Harvest
August is my favourite month. It’s always been so, ever since I was a boy in Algoma District. The mosquitoes and blackflies finish their...
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Dec 7, 2017
Downtown garage
I received a phone call from an antique auto enthusiast last week. We hadn’t spoken in a few years, but previous to that, we had...
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Jan 23, 2017
Minus 26 on highway 60
Over the Christmas holidays, I received a message from a person in the Huntsville area. They had a batch of licence plates, given to them...
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Aug 12, 2015
Summer of '89
When I was a boy, my family had a cottage. To get there, we’d have to drive for about 40 minutes northeast of Sault Ste. Marie. We lived...
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Apr 6, 2014
Lightning striking again
A funny thing happened to me recently. But like any good yarn, the lead-up and delivery are everything, and I simply cannot pass up a...
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Feb 16, 2014
Bleak midwinter
I have trouble writing articles for this column during the winter months. License plate collecting seems to be a summer pastime, for the...
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Nov 23, 2013
Northern Ontario road trip August '97
In the years that I’ve been writing 2 Cents articles for probably no one but me, I’ve made a point of retelling the story of each swap...
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Dec 31, 2012
Five oh eight
One Saturday in early May, a gentleman from southwestern Ontario, whom I have never met, went to an estate auction. The man—a collector...
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Nov 12, 2012
Why I skipped Grimsby
By now, many of my faithful readers know that I wasn’t able to go to the fall Tinchasers’ swap meet in Grimsby. It was an unfortunate...
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Dec 25, 2011
Load runners
It was suggested by readers of this column that I write about an unfolding event in the lives of Ontario plate collectors. It actually...
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Aug 2, 2011
Bert's barn and bug
While I was vending at the Merrickville Cruise and Shop in July 2011, a man by the name of Bert dropped by my table to chat. Bert said he...
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