Streets of Fire

Some things written by Jeff Kelley, a man in Richmond, Va. He likes aircraft carriers but doesn't really know the intricacies of them (weight, length, etc.)
See this? See it? This is Fishers Island, New York, and this tiny-ass island off the coast of Connecticut on the edge of the Long Island Sound has been driving me insane for months. I just didn’t know it until today. For these months, I have been seeing a bumper sticker in this shape popping up on cars all over town. And this town is Richmond, Va., which Google Maps tells me is 469 miles south of this goddamn place. I’m sure this island is just abso-fucking-lutely beautiful and awesome, but these bumper stickers are so non-descript. No words; just a weird, alien-shape outline and a color. The cars I see the sticker on are typically high-end SUVs or luxury sedans or coupes. I’d been using this fact as a clue to figure out what the symbol could possibly mean. I finally settled on an island that is hard to access; but where could it be? I didn’t even know what to go Googling for. The answer came from a simple search: “island outline bumper sticker.” And there it was, a tiny Google image with this island on it. Fishers Island, accessible only by boat or small plane. Yacht club and golfing galore. I found you, Fishers Island, population 250 in the non-summer months. And to all you bumper sticker-makers out there who are about to hop on a trend and start making non-descript island-shaped bumper stickers, let it be known: I will find out what that place is eventually once I figure out what the hell to Google.

See this? See it? This is Fishers Island, New York, and this tiny-ass island off the coast of Connecticut on the edge of the Long Island Sound has been driving me insane for months. I just didn’t know it until today.

For these months, I have been seeing a bumper sticker in this shape popping up on cars all over town. And this town is Richmond, Va., which Google Maps tells me is 469 miles south of this goddamn place. I’m sure this island is just abso-fucking-lutely beautiful and awesome, but these bumper stickers are so non-descript. No words; just a weird, alien-shape outline and a color. The cars I see the sticker on are typically high-end SUVs or luxury sedans or coupes. I’d been using this fact as a clue to figure out what the symbol could possibly mean. I finally settled on an island that is hard to access; but where could it be? I didn’t even know what to go Googling for.

The answer came from a simple search: “island outline bumper sticker.” And there it was, a tiny Google image with this island on it. Fishers Island, accessible only by boat or small plane. Yacht club and golfing galore.

I found you, Fishers Island, population 250 in the non-summer months.

And to all you bumper sticker-makers out there who are about to hop on a trend and start making non-descript island-shaped bumper stickers, let it be known: I will find out what that place is eventually once I figure out what the hell to Google.

  1. jephkelley posted this