Did I really just say “kids these days?!?”

There was a time when you could walk into a toy store and purchase a spiffy little vanity plate for your bike. And maybe you still can, but the last time I saw anything like it, I had to wonder what self-respecting child would spend his allowance on something that had so obviously given up even trying to look like the real thing. Maybe kids these days just expect all their toys to be plastic and gaudy and generic, but the only license plate I ever wanted was actually pressed out of metal and painted a dull New Jersey beige.