It's the Win a Tag! Competition

Welcome to the very first Southern Tales Reader Competition! If you enter today, you stand the chance to win a used, but beautiful pink John Deere tag!

So what's the story behind this next harebrained idea? As some of you already know, the front of my little red car sports a lovely pink John Deere tag. Here in Georgia, cars don't have license plates on the front, so people can adorn the front tag bracket with whatever tickles their fancy. In all honesty, I had not planned on putting anything on the front of my car, let alone a John Deere tag, but because this tag is the result of such a ridiculous story, I couldn't resist.

A little over two years ago, when husband-dear and I had just returned from Germany, we visited my in-laws. Well, we actually moved in with them for about three weeks while we were waiting for our household goods to make it across the Atlantic. My in-laws love racing. No, not formula 500 (or as they call it Indycar) racing, or motorbike racing, but dirt-track racing. My father-in-law has been racing "modifieds" and "vintage" cars for most of his life, and so he and my mother-in-law spend almost every Saturday night in the summer at one of the many dirt tracks in their area. Now dirt track racing is not really our thing. But we're nice people, and so we accompany my in-laws whenever we visit them. We wear earplugs, eat way too many boiled peanuts and nachoes, cheer when "Big Dan" races, and scream and yell when there's a nasty crash. This specific Saturday night happened to also be my mother-in-law's birthday, and being surrounded by all men, I had the most difficult time convincing them to sing Happy Birthday to her. That is, until we arrived at the track.
Now you should probably know that the people who visit dirt tracks are the most patriotic and religious people in the country, maybe even on the entire planet. They sing the national anthem, pledge allegiance to the flag, and pray for the safety of the drivers, the troops, the president, and whoever else comes to mind. This time around, they were trying to recruit volunteers to sing the national anthem. My husbad immediately turned to me, and told me that was my call. Some incredibly quick thinking made me answer that I wouldn't do that until I became a citizen, which, surprisingly, my husband accepted as an acceptable compromise. In spite of my success that day, that move may not have been the smartest as my mother in law remembers me saying that, and now reminds me of that promise every time I see her. Anyway, no one else in the audience felt the urge to sing the national anthem, so the MC went on to find people who would sing "Happy Birthday" . Much to my surprise, the love of my life raised his hand, and got the MC's attention. Unfortunately, he then pointed at me, "She really wants to sing".
So there I was, everyone was looking at me, my family was telling me to sing to my mother in law, and the MC was calling for me to come down. And so down the stairs I went. And I sang Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law in front of probably a thousand people, died just as many deaths, and shot just as many dirty looks at husband-dear. But when I was finally done embarrasing myself, I got my reward; the MC handed me the pink John Deere tag that now adorns my car.

Now I'm not a country girl. Not really anyway. I can't tell one Nascar driver from another, guns tend to frighten me, and I would much rather face rush hour in an unknown subway system than have to take a fish off its hook. But I felt I had really earned the tag, so I put it on the front of my small, fuel-efficient, Japanese car. I saw the combination of the two as a sign of my rebellion against all things country.

But two years down the road, it's time to move on. However, I really do not want to drive around with an empty bracket on the front of my car, and taking it off is not an option. So I need a new tag. And this is where you, dear reader, come in. Suggest a new tag for me to put on my car, preferably with a link to where I could find it, and if I pick your suggestion, I will send you my old John Deere tag.

May the best reader win! :)