Driving Political Opinion

Today is Thanksgiving, a day where we pause to not just watch a big parade and eat a lot of turkey but to also give thanks to God for many blessings and to people in our life who have been kind and extended a helping hand. I need to thank some people that have helped me on this project.

Thanks to the guys at Carney's Auto Recycling at 1010 South Duff in Ames. I contacted several auto salvage places in the greater Des Moines metro area by email a few weeks ago to ask if any of them had a big old chrome bumper that wouldn't cost too much for a academic project. I identified myself as an ISU grad student. I got an email back from Carney's telling me to bring in a copy of the email and they would hook me up. And they did. They found me a huge Ford pick-up truck bumper. They said they liked to lend a hand to ISU students and I could have use of the bumper as long as I needed it.

I loaded it in my car and headed home to Des Moines. My son, Mark, said that it was great, but that I really needed two bumpers so I could create a true "Bumper-2-Bumper" public display. He was right, but I figured my odds of getting a second bumper were slim to none. I took the bumper I had to the Village Blacksmith on Fifth Street in Valley Junction, the old Main Street in historic West Des Moines. I asked him if he could help me get the bumper mounted for display purposes. To say the least, he was amused but intrigued.

He also told me that I might be able to come up with a second bumper at Acheson Auto Body West at 1103 SW 63rd in Des Moines. Within 15 minutes I was back at the blacksmith with a second Ford pick-up bumper, a front end to match the rear bumper. He created a brace to connect them and mounted them on a metal frame that would support the "sculpture."

Then I took many of my oldest and rarest bumper stickers to the folks at Beeline and Blue, a state-of-the-art multi-media scanning, printing, photolab, and blueprint resource at 2507 Ingersoll in Des Moines. They scanned several dozen of the vintage stickers, copied them onto laminated adhesive-backed paper and gave me a CD of the scans.

So to all the people that helped create the "Bumper-2-Bumper" display, I extend a heartfelt thanks on this day of giving thanks! I even found a "Thank You, Thank You Very Much" bumper sticker by the man who made those words a motto. It's not political bumper sticker, just kind of fun!

(no, I am not an Elivs fan!)