I live in Alberta, Canada.
It used to be like every other Canadian province and American state because it offered a new annual vehicle license plate that was a different color from the previous year.
Jim Sutherland
Alberta’s plates used to be issued by government-run monopolies, consequently efficiencies, and good service were not a huge priority with the bureaucrats who ran the registry department. Instead, thick managerial layers ensured only a handful of beleaguered frontline staff had to cope with long lines of unhappy customers while formerly productive staff whiled away the day in their completely unproductive happy places.
In 1975, the dawn of a new era occurred in Alberta with the debut of its yellow license plate because the new plate was intended to last for the next 9 years while accumulating a series of small renewal stickers that adorned the corners of the rear plate.
At the time, the other standard feature in Alberta was a plate on the front of the vehicle, although a small renewal sticker was only required for the rear plate. Eventually, front license plate requirements for Alberta vehicles were dropped in 1991, long after the province’s famous yellow plates were replaced by a red, white and blue format that is still the color choice for every non-personalized Alberta vehicle plate.
Specifically, this article is about a yellow Alberta plate with KHT 895 on it. The license plate was initially purchased in 1975 by my late father because I was riding his coattails to get cheap insurance due to my young age, so he needed to be the registered owner.
The insurance angle meant I needed to walk between the raindrops to avoid hefty insurance hikes under my dad’s policy, a task that was tested to the maximum because of my youthful stunt driving. Amazingly, I pulled it off and avoided traffic tickets-much more from good luck than good decisions in my case. The KHT 895 license plates were initially affixed to the front and rear end of my 1962 Volvo 544, one of my more memorable cars from my youth that could only be described as an early tuner car with a complete moron behind the wheel.
The little Volvo was fast, furious and worn-out by years of abuse at the hands of a series of a brash young test pilots like me who took it to the edge on an all-too-regular basis. The unfortunate car’s final indignity occurred when I attempted to drive the Volvo through a flooded underpass and stalled it in waist-deep water during the Summer of 1975.
The end was very near after that aquatic misadventure, so the little Volvo was traded in for a Datsun truck shortly after the Great Flood incident. Unfortunately, the KHT 895 plate was now attached to arguably the worst vehicle I have ever owned. The little Japanese pickup was blue, but it should have been yellow. Not to match the plate–but to reflect its true color as a complete lemon.
The Datsun truck was an expensive heartbreak and disaster on four wheels that occasionally ran but was more comfortable on the side of the road.
“The little pickup that couldn’t” would become a very expensive part of my life for the next two years until it was replaced by a 1971 Plymouth Duster that stayed with me rusting in retirement until a few years ago, mainly because I really liked the car and didn’t mind the rust.
Times were uncomplicated during the Seventies, so I was able to register the KHT 895 plate as my own after my father’s death in 1978. In fact, I kept it long after it was no longer a valid license plate until right now when it is simply a sentimental decoration on the front bumper of an old Dodge pickup truck that just happens to be a 1975 model.
It’s a perfect fit.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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