Jerry Petraglia

I have had many cars and SUVs in my lifetime.   I am retired now, but during my career in clinical medical laboratory sales, I was calling on physicians, hospitals, clinics, etc. and as a result, did A LOT of driving--commuting from my home in northern NJ to my sales territory in Queens, NY and back every single day.  My company provided the sales force with company cars, and with all the driving I did, this afforded me the opportunity to get a new company car nearly every two years.  During my driving years, I had always thought vanity license plates (or “tags” as some call them) were kind of cool. 

At the bottom of this text are pictures of me past and present. The picture on top is me circa 1983 when my company car was a Chevy Cavalier.  Note the vanity plate of SKCL DM:  that stood for SmithKline Clinical Labs District Manager.  You see, I was a District Sales Manager, coaching and managing sales reps for my company, SmithKline Clinical Labs so I got a vanity plate to reflect my job title (in case I ever forgot what I did, LOL).

On the picture of me today, note the vanity plate of GITRIST.  Did you figure out what that means?  Yes, I play the guitar and that spelling was the closest I could get, as that spelling and other options for guitar player types were already accounted for. 

When I lived in Virginia from 1993 to 1997, I had a vanity plate of NJ ROOTS.  Yea, this Jersey boy missed all of the “JOISEY” things I grew up with – the pizza, the bagels, the bakeries, the butchers, the Jersey Shore, etc. Etc. ETC.   So showing off my “JOISEY” heritage with NJ Roots was something I was unabashedly proud of.   When we lived in PA for our first time from 1990 to 1993 (lots of career moves), I had JERRY 51 (my birth year) – call me crazy LOL!

Even my oldest son, Joseph, got in to the act.  When he got his Acura, model GS, he got “Joes GS.”

Call me weird, crazy, nuts, etc.  but I always thought having a vanity plate was a cool testament to who I am (again, in case I ever forget! LOL).