I love bumper stickers. They are a welcome reprieve from another trip in the car driving to yet another errand or lesson. Sometimes they make me giggle or they are just as likely to get me seething; but they always get me thinking or remembering. Today for instance, I was leaving the gym as I do everyday and I look over at another car and see the bumper sticker of the day—”Powered by Frijoles.” Instantly I am reminded of the time my family and I trekked across the border of Laredo into Mexico. My stepdad is a very polite person and makes it a point to learn and use the local language of whatever country he is visiting. So while we were in Mexico he used his gracias, por favor, and perdon extensively. Except for one problem…when we overheard him saying, “perdon;” we heard “pedo.” When my mother asked him what he had said and he repeated,”pedo.” We died laughing and it took a while,before we could sputter an explanation of how the word pedo means fart in English. “Oh,” he replied, “No wonder they moved out of my way.” Hence his title as the “Pedo King.”
I loved my little Metro Geo and the sticker it sported…”Pagan and Proud.” I always expected a rock through the window for that one, but instead one day I came out to my car to find someone had planted another bumper sticker underneath my wiper that said, “Goddess Bless.” I had to smile and just shrugged when later on that day I lost that bumper sticker. It was enough for me to know that others shared my appreciation for, “My karma ran over your dogma.”
And another bumper sticker that got me giggling was the “Honk if you have seen La Llorona.” For those of you who don’t know who she is, let me just say she is up there with the chupacabra, the donkey lady, and the boogey man. Scary stuff, but funny all the same.
December 5, 2009 at 5:56 am |
My Dad had a crew of Mexican laborers and thought he’d try to learn some Spanish. One day he was trying to tell them to put the gate back on the truck and was dismayed when they started looking in the bushes and up the trees. What he was saying was, “el gato,” which means “the cat”.
December 5, 2009 at 11:28 pm |
I still like the “upcoming erections” story you told Grg about your Japanese class best.