Over the years we’ve been fortunate to have had a number of very nice collections of license plates offered to us…and recently a collection with real ‘local color’ was made available to GAP…the Johnston brothers, Philip and Henry, now living in Thomaston, GA contacted us to review about 50 plates that had hung in a shed here in Lakeland for many years. along with a 1939 Buick…the car had been bought new from the Rocker Motor Company by Ben Cole!…he was the grandfather of the guy who married their cousin, a native Lakelander!…Bill Porter, grandson of Ben, stored the car and eventually passed it to Henry Johnston, along with all of the tags ‘worn’ by the Buick in its ‘road days’…the car was eventually sold, but the brothers found it a little easier to keep the tags than the car, until they saw that GAP was headquartered in Lakeland…so, even though the three of us are in the late 70s and early 80s, we mastered the electronic communications afforded by the internet and arranged the sale!…we even used PayPal to handle the transaction!…it was so pleasant to work with the Johnstons and learn the history of the car and its plates, as well as the friends and families we both know in Lakeland…one of the joys of this hobby is imagining the trails and travels license plates have made in their past, and sometimes meeting their owners…we’ll play it forward Philip and Henry!
