Nostalgia and Memories by Konnie Enos

“Bannock County.” I indicated the car in front of us.

My daughter and her roommate, both behind me in the vehicle, leaned forward to get a look at the car. My daughter asked, “How can you tell where it is from?”

“The license plate.”

Both girls were still rather confused. My daughter continued. “Okay, so how can you tell from the license plate?”

“Because it says on the license plate what county it was issued in.”

Both girls leaned forward. “It does?”

My husband and I had driven our daughter up to college and were now taking her and her roommate around shopping for needed supplies and groceries. Since the school she was attending was in Southeastern Idaho, where I was born and raised, well I was back home. I’d been away long enough, I didn’t know all of the areas we were going to that day, but most of it was familiar territory and I did for sure know how to read the license plates we saw that day.

I pointed to the letter number combination at the beginning of the license plate number then explained the meaning of the combination. In this case the “B” meant it was one of the counties starting with the letter “B” and the number meant where it fell in alphabetical order. Any self-respecting Idahoan who went through third grade can name the counties of Idaho in alphabetical order and therefore knows which county a vehicle is from just by looking at the license plate.

My daughter leaned back in her seat. “I always wondered how you could do that.”

Her roommate said, “Yeah, I’ve known other Idahoans that do that too but I could never figure it out.”

“Well now you know how we do it. It’s not a secret.”

This particular daughter didn’t forget the lesson of that day and when she was on her honeymoon, in a different state, I got a text from her asking me what county 2C was. I actually didn’t know for sure because it’s been so long since I memorized that list of counties I couldn’t remember how many C counties there were. I told her it was either Canyon or Caribou.

Then this text came. “There’s a Caribou County?”

“Yes.” Then I looked up which one it was. “It’s Canyon. Caribou is 3C.” I did ask her why she was asking.

“Oh, we were behind a car from Idaho and I wondered where it was from. It wasn’t a county I recognized.”

It saddens me to know that Idaho is doing away with the county identifications. Now when I go to visit my family I see license plates with a beginning letter number combination that have no significance. Living as I do so far from my home state that little bit of home is just a bit comforting.

The other day I was stuck in traffic on my way to pick up yet another daughter from her college classes and I happened to glance at the car in front of me. I waved. “Hi, Bannock County.”

I realized I had no way to let that driver know another Idahoan was behind them but I knew that someone from my neck of the woods, Southeastern Idaho, was just in front of me. Had they had the new style of plates I could not have known this person was from so close to home. So I find those plate, well, nostalgic. I’m kind of wishing they’d keep them around, bring them back.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.