I chuckled out loud when I pulled up behind this truck today… I’ve seen the usual crop of Garfield legs and such hanging out of trunk lids before, but this was the first time I’ve seen a Toy Story character hitching a ride. What’s the most interesting “item” you’ve seen hanging off a bumper or out of the trunk opening (‘bull nuts’ excepted)?
Years ago a friend had a dolls arm and leg sticking out of the grill of his old F150. He was a roofer and this was his work truck.
He had a twisted sense of humor.
I went and googled “things sitting on bumpers” and I didn’t come up with much.
I did find a similar picture that featured Buzz Lightyear holding onto Sheriff Woody to keep him from falling off the rear bumper of a Jeep.
I would have expected to see a set of encyclopedias sitting on one of those massive old bumpers from the 1970s. Those old bumpers would have been the perfect setting for installation sculpture art projects.
A few months ago I saw a mannequin’s foot (I assume it was from a mannequin, I was some sort of life sized plastic foot anyway) hanging from a piece of string tied to the rear bumper of a car. It was just low enough that the toes were touching the pavement so it bounced along the road while the car was in motion.
A guy I used to work with had a doll nailed to a piece of wood on the back of his Jeep. He also had one of the then-ubiquitous “Baby on board” signs in the window…
When I drove my Plymouth Voyager across the country I hung a pair of handcuffs off the rear bumper since I think those are cooler than truck nuts and a cowbell would be too noisy.
I bought a plastic foot attached to a blue jean leg from a Halloween superstore and hung it out the tailgate of my Caravan a few years ago.
Back in Ithaca somebody had a deer in the trunk of their Buick Century and the head was hanging out with the tied down trunk lid bouncing up and down on its neck.
I’ve seen a ford bronco with a goofy doll tied to the grille and a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a cow skull with red eyes that light up and a cowboy hat.
I haven’t seen a tiger tail hanging off of the decklid of a GTO lately. I miss those.
For reasons of foolish youth I had a red telephone handset attached by it’s coiled cord to the truck latch striker of my DD 1963 Chevy II, I’d let it out to bounce along the road behind the car as my then young bride screamed and complained about ‘stupid Americans !’ and folks passed me frantically signalling, I’d smile and wave, at the time I thought I was clever or some other foolish thing .
Some of the dolls I see on the front of refuse trucks look truly frightening .
-Nate