vanity plates

RJ-44 (courtesy of Christine Power)

my mom's brother tells the story
of his father
my grandfather
who had vanity plates

rj-44

his initials
plus the year
he regained his
drivers license
after having it
taken away
likely for
drunk driving

rj lived in manhattan
and the story goes
that one day
while stopped
at a red light
someone came up
to his window
and asked him
if he could buy
the rights
to rj-44

that someone
was reggie jackson
number 44
of the
new york yankees

he was refused

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I originally wrote the above poem (or whatever you'd like to call it) based on a prompt I saw on a website I frequently visit, then thought I'd post it here as well, along with a photo of the license plate which my brother Jim obtained after our grandfather, Roy Newton Jones, died in November of 1980. As noted above, we learned about the supposed encounter between Reggie Jackson and grandpa from my mom's brother, Skip, who I can only assume learned about it from grandpa. The story is the reason Jim came home from the funeral in New York with the plate.

A few years ago, I contacted a friend of mine in New York City who used to work for Major League Baseball to see if there might be a way to contact Reggie Jackson to check on whether or not the story was true, but all she could suggest was that I try his Instagram account, which I did, but I got no response.

True or not, it's a great story.

Edit to add: I found an email address on Jackson's Instagram bio website and have sent a query, so perhaps I'll update this soon.

*       *       *

Unless otherwise noted, all writings on this blog are copyright Patrick T. Power. All rights reserved.

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