Stickers vs. Postcards: A Chronicle of Travel Expressions

When I travel, I send postcards. It lets people know where I’ve been. When others travel, they affix stickers. It lets people know where they’re from. It is with this frame of reference that I speculated about the phenomenon of stickered objects. They seemed to be everywhere.  I noticed seemingly random objects in one part of the U.S. that have been stickered with decals from some other part of the country. 

There’s the sticker from the 19th Hole in Hyannis that turned up on a directional sign in Custer National Park. An antique pickup truck at a gift shop in Key West bore stickers like a coat of thick paint from far off places like the Pig & Parrot of Hoboken, New Jersey, Switchback Gear Exchange of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Super Sod of Atlanta, Georgia.

In the desert town of Amboy, California, a place so desolate even the tumbleweeds get lonely, Kings Cross Track Club of Sydney, Australia stickered a road sign indicating Joshua Tree National Park, because nothing says “down under” like a California desert. Fans supporting New Zealand and Radio DJ Taylor of WJOX 94.5-FM in Birmingham, Alabama shared space on that same sign.

I frequently mused about the compulsion behind stickering and what intrinsic value one receives by engaging in the activity. Is it driven by advertising or marketing motivations? Is there an educational or advocacy aspect to it? Could it be an existential need for recognition or a moment of fame, something akin to “Kilroy was Here?” Perhaps a rite of passage in a secret society? Who is that first person to sticker a particular object and why precisely that object? Who decides when the first sticker requires a second? Three is never a crowd in the stickering community as evidenced by some objects that become layered to the point where the first sticker is concealed like old wallpaper. Do these so-called stickermaniacs ever consider whether they’re defacing property?

There doesn’t seem to be any clear-cut answers to explain stickermania, that I can see. I guess some people just like to have a few stickers in their suitcase when they travel. I put shirts and socks in mine. And a sheet of postage stamps.