on a side note... the term "brake tag"...

I was raised to call them "safety stickers" or "inspection stickers" (or, 'go get your car inspected', but not 'go get your brake tag').

I assumed the generation prior to me (pre-70s), going back to the first license plates and tags, called them "brake tags" because in the 1930s to 1960s maybe that is all that was really looked at (can this thing stop, or is it a death machine?)

Anyway, just a curiosity where the terms, which all mean the same, diverge in our common vernacular.

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Posted by poochie

Houma, la

Member since Apr 2007

6442 posts

Posted on 2/11/17 at 8:09 am to JPinLondon

36 years old
South Louisiana
I call it brake tag

I also call it hot water heater and hose pipe.

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Posted by hobotiger

Asbury Park, NJ

Member since Nov 2007

5205 posts

Posted on 2/11/17 at 8:13 am to JPinLondon

52 and have always called it a brake tag. Used to bring my mom's car to the shell station on West Metairie and Elise. Pulled into the bay and they had you turn on the lights, hit the high beams (which was done with a push knob on the floorboard) hit the brakes and you were done.

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Posted by blueridgeTiger

Granbury, TX

Member since Jun 2004

20468 posts

Posted on 2/11/17 at 8:40 am to JPinLondon

quote:
I assumed the generation prior to me (pre-70s), going back to the first license plates and tags, called them "brake tags" because in the 1930s to 1960s maybe that is all that was really looked at (can this thing stop, or is it a death machine?)

Grew up in Bogalusa in the 40s and 50s and once a year everybody at about the same time had to drive to the city hall and got "brake tags" from the police. They made sure your car could stop, your horn worked and that your lights worked. They asked my dad to turn on his windshield wipers and I, in the passenger seat, reached under the dash and moved the wipers back and forth. We got our brake tag.

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Posted by ruzil