Crossing the U.S. every day

 

Arthur Levine admits he doesn't travel much, other than going to Florida once in a while, or to swap meets.

But one of his hobbies (you'll need both hands to count all of them), takes him across the U.S. without leaving his Manchester Township garage.  Between what's hanging on his garage walls and what he has stored away, Levine owns more than 400 license plates.

Not only does Levine collect license plates, but his complete collections include vanity plates from all 50 states. Dealer plates from all 50 states. Handicapped plates from all 50 states.  His next collection--he says his last-- is 'stacked' plates, or plates with numbers or letters vertically, as in Pennsylvania's college or fraternal plates.

Like most of us, he enjoys driving down the road and trying to decrypt a license plate on a car in front of him.  The trick, he says, is to understand that not all vanity plates have a logical explanation. Some are initials, nicknames.

Beyond license plates, Levine collects W.C. Fields memoribilia, Guiness Books of World Records, TV guides.

But on his business cards is "Collector of License Plates",  a member of the American License Plate Collectors Association, he's MRCANDEE on email, and a tip of the hat to his real job, a greeter at the West Manchester WalMart.