FOR MANY WRITERS, OBSESSION IS THE ROAD TO INSPIRATION. For Portland, Ore., homemaker-turned-author Carol Gardner, the road was the inspiration. A former ad copywriter with an enduring love for one-liners, Gardner, 50, became hooked on the witty, irreverent and just plain offensive bumper stickers—for instance, I Love Cats, They Taste Just Like Chicken or My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student—she sees on the road. Determined to turn her curiosity into a book, Gardner logged 30,000 miles in a recent 18-month period, cruising parking lots and truck stops across the country, photographing and interviewing any fender philosopher with a back end that made her "think, laugh or wonder."
The result, Bumper Sticker Wisdom: America's Pulpit Above the Tailpipe, published last October by Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., reflects, among other things, the antagonisms inspired by the nation's First Family. "I could have done an entire book on anti-Clinton bumper stickers, Gardner says. (One example: First Hillary, Then Gennifer, Now Us.) She was also surprised at how cooperative people were—only two of the 200 she approached turned her down. Two Nudist Families Have More Fun advocates even stripped for a traffic-stopping photo session beside an Oregon highway. "I had so much fun doing this book, it's obscene, "says Gardner.
The author, whose husband, James, 52, is a developer, is already at work on Wisdom's sequel and is filled, as always, with envy of the inventiveness she spots on the highways. "Whenever I see a great one-liner," she says, "I wish I'd written it myself."
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